A Journey to Equality...

Frederick Douglass was a firm believer in the equality of all people whether black, female, Native American or immigrant. He was fond of saying, "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong." Douglass was a powerful voice for human rights and is still revered today for his contributions against racial injustice. He was one of the foremost leaders of the abolitionist movement, which fought to end slavery within the United States in the decades prior to the Civil War. On the night Frederick arrived in New York City, September 4, 1838, he could not find the words to express his feelings of leaving behind his life in slavery. He later wrote, "A new world had opened upon me." "Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted, but gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil."

In the summer of 1866, the U. S. Congress passed two bills over the president's veto. One, the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, extended the powers of a government agency that had been established in 1865 for the purpose of providing medical, educational, and financial assistance for the millions of impoverished southern blacks. Congress also passed the Civil Rights Bill, which gave full citzenship to blacks, along with all the rights enjoyed by other Americans. President Johnson's supporters, mainly Democrats and conservative Republicans, organized in the summer of 1866 to stop the movement for further black rights. The radical Republicans also held a meeting in Philadelphia to vote on a resolution calling for black suffrage, and Douglass attended the convention as a delegate from New York. Unfortunately, he encountered much prejudice from some Republican politicians, who were unwilling to associate with blacks on an equal level.
Nonetheless, Douglass went to the convention and spoke out for black suffrage. The vote on the resolution was a close one, for some of the delegates were afraid that white voters would not support a party that allied itself too closely with blacks. http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/douglass/part5.html

I am reminded of the above scenario as Barack Obama praised the Civil Rights Pioneers, which were are akin to each other, just different centuries, different eras. He wants the same boldness in addressing the future of education. "Sometimes, when I reflect on that movement, I wonder where they found that courage," the Democrat told about 10,000 people at an NAACP fundraiser. "Fifty years from now, what kind of courage will our kids look back and see that came from us?" The civil rights group presented the first-term Illinois senator with its lifetime achievement award at the 50th anniversary Detroit NAACP Freedom Fund dinner. He thanked the group for the award but said he felt unworthy.

"I don't feel like I made history. I won an election, and there's much work to do," Obama said to huge applause. The son of a white mother from Kansas and black father from Kenya, Obama became the third black U.S. senator since Reconstruction after beating Republican Alan Keyes in a landslide in November. He reminded donors at the dinner of the "discipline and inner dignity" of protesters of segregation and racism in the 1950s and '60s, and said parents, teachers, students and community leaders must recapture that discipline to help children lead better lives. "Our grandparents used to tell us, if you were black you had to work twice as hard," he said. "Can we honestly say that our students are working twice as hard as students in China, in India, in South Korea? Can we say our teachers are?"

Obama also scolded the Bush administration for tax cuts and an education policy that has created new achievement requirements but not fully funded measures to meet the standards. He urged the crowd to keep working for a "health care program for all Americans" and a solvent social security system. http://obama.senate.gov/news/050502-obama_praises_us_civil_rights_/

Today as we stand for freedom and equality for all, we must remember to vote sensibly and to remember that it has been a long journey to where we are now, especially the African Americans in our country, and we are all still traveling on this journey to equality.