Since it's the 40th anniversary of MLK's assasination, let us all take a moment to pay tribute to...

[JVS]

LBJ, because Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a president to get it done.

THANKS LBJ!

[classof56]

1. Yes--a Democratic president who wasn't perfect.

Kinda gives one hope! Thanks for the reminder.

Tired Old Cynic

[MethuenProgressive]

2. LBJ's "We Shall Overcome" Speech was a turning point in Amercian History: video link, text:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/lbjweshallovercome.htm

Nationally broadcast address to a Joint Session of Congress on voter's rights.

Powerful stuff from the bully pulpit.

[MethuenProgressive]

3. Link to Dr King's "I have a dream" from the same site

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

[NDambi]

4. I pay tribute with my life and accomplishments to all those involved in the struggle..MLK, LBJ and

RFK, Medgar Evers, my mother, father, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and many of the other nameless and faceless champions that made my life and accomplishments possible.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. LBJ

was a great president with a tragic flaw--but history will look kindly on what he did with the Civil Rights Act--an act of political bravery that purged from our party the ugly stain of racism.

[MethuenProgressive]

6. From his "We Shall Overcome" address to the Nation on voter's rights:

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the Congress:

I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy. I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of this country, to join me in that cause.

At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. There, long-suffering men and women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans. Many were brutally assaulted. One good man, a man of God, was killed.

There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in our democracy in what is happening here tonight. For the cries of pain and the hymns and protests of oppressed people have summoned into convocation all the majesty of this great government -- the government of the greatest nation on earth. Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man.

More, much more at link: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/lbjweshallovercome.htm