Thrust into the national spotlight in Birmingham, where he was arrested and jailed, Martin Luther King organized a massive march on Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he evoked the name of Lincoln in his "I Have a Dream" speech, which is credited with mobilizing supporters of desegregation and prompted the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The next year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
As fate may have it, on August 28th we will see destiny fulfilled once more as the Democratic party nominates either a woman or the first black candidate for president of the United States. Obviously the date would have a more surreal feel if that nominess were Barack Obama.
The date is the acutal grand finale of the Democratic National Convention.
The famous 1963 speech will be on the tip of every tongue during the convention, in which party leaders will decide if they really want to strip the nomination from a man who holds the lead among earned delegates. In the address, King dreams of a day when Americans will no longer be judged by "the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
In so many ways, Barack Obama is a realization of King"s dream.
If Democratic leaders choose to award the nomination to Obama, that speech will become a rallying cry for the party. But if they deny him the nomination because they fear that his brown skin could make it difficult to win white, working-class Democrats in key states, King"s speech will become a haunting reminder of what they have wrought. It will have been twisted by the very keepers of King"s dream into the Democrats" nightmare.
Destiny seems to be working against Hillary. And then today, we"ll see if Indiana and North Carolina have to say.