As happy as I am to see yet another part of Martin Luther King's dream fulfilled this week with Obama's ascent to the presidency, I am a bit fearful as to what could possibly happen in the coming weeks and months.
I've been watching Eyes on the Prize ["http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092999/"], a documentary series about the history of the Civil Rights Movement, as part of my civic engagement for AmeriCorps. So far I've only covered four of the twelve hours that I will watch over the next week, but I am quite amazed as to how much I didn't know. According to popular belief, King was the spearhead for the whole movement. In a way he is, but he only rose to the top of the proverbial pile after he gave his famous speech, which occurred well after uprisings across the Deep South were under way. In addition to Rosa Parks' famous moment sparking a bus boycott ["http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/montbus.html"] all over Montgomery, several cases included attempts to integrate a few bright African-American students into white schools and colleges, sit-ins at restaurants, and the Freedom Riders ["http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5149667"] trip through the heart of the South.
Although I was fortunate to learn that there was a decent chunk of southern whites who were alright with integration, I was reminded of the hateful acts of those who weren't: hoses, riots, bombs, lynchings. In the last five minutes of my watching tonight, I was shocked and saddened to discover that in Birmingham, AL a church--full of people, mind you--was bombed ["http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/randall/birmingham.htm"] less than a month after King's famous speech. Later that same year the US President ["http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/home.htm"] would be assassinated, likewise King himself ["http://history1900s.about.com/cs/martinlutherking/a/mlkassass.htm"] five years later.
I know a lot of people who are exceedingly happy with the election of our current president. But history has shown the inevitable backlash that has happened, and I worry that our society on the whole is not as progressive as I hoped so to allay my fears of said history repeating itself.
[On a lighter note, I'm going to make my prediction for the 2008-2009 NBA Champion: Cleveland Cavaliers. I see it being like the 1991 Bulls. You read it here first.]