Following the “March on Washington” and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech earlier in the day, President Kennedy met with civil rights leaders at the White House. The topics under discussion were the event itself, the details of civil rights legislation then moving through Congress, and strategies for empowering black Americans. The NAACP’s Roy Wilkins begins this segment, offering reasons for the march’s success.
Source: themillercenter.org
Date: Aug 28, 1963
Time: 17:00
Participants: John Kennedy, Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph, Floyd McKissock
It is truly tragic that the same conversation could be had today, almost fifty years later, with the current President of the United States. Notwithstanding the election of a Black President, Governors, Senators and Representatives, Blacks continue to represent a disproportionate number of the incarcerated individuals held in prison, of those unemployed, of those who cannot get access to a quality healthcare, housing or education. Notwithstanding the apparent success of Blacks in the arts, music and sport. Blacks are disproportionately represented as employee/players, rather than owners, actors rather than directors and producers, grips and camera men rather than studio heads. Last I checked, there are few black doctors per capita than ever before in American History. Blacks do not own hotels, banks or television networks (Oprah Winfrey excluded). We may well look back at that moment in 1963 and wonder how we lost the Race, literally and figuratively. We will always be able to sing and dance, run and catch, rap and play, and maybe win an election now and again. But all such achievements will be meaningless if more than a third of Blacks in these United States continue to live below the poverty line.