Memorial Dedication Keynote Speech (B. Obama) - Oct. 16 - Summary story

Event was moved from the Anniversary of the "March on Washington (1963)" to later in the Autumn due to Hurricane Irene storm cancellations --

NY TIMES (posted online at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time) www.nytimes.com/

Speaking at the dedication of the monument to Dr. King on the National Mall, Mr. Obama, at times adopting the cadence of Dr. King, said Americans must celebrate all that the civil rights movement accomplished even as they understand that the work is not done. Standing under the new monument, the first on the mall to honor an African-American, Mr. Obama struck tones that veered from the church pulpit to the floors of the nearby Capitol.
“I know there are better days ahead,” Mr. Obama said, his voice rising. “I know this because of the man towering above me.”
At times, Mr. Obama appeared to be drawing a comparison between himself and Dr. King. Often when he spoke of Dr. King’s struggles, it was impossible not to think that he was speaking of himself.
“For every victory, there were setbacks,” Mr. Obama said. “Even after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King was vilified by many.”
He continued, “He was even attacked by his own people, by those who felt he was going too fast and by those who felt he was going too slow.”
Mr. Obama’s speech culminated a morning — beautifully sunny and bright on the Washington Mall — during which a lion’s gallery of civil rights and black leaders stood on the podium to hail that a preacher of no rank had joined Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Franklin D. Roosevelt to be memorialized into perpetuity in the National Mall area. Thousands of people crowded the mall for the festivities, which were rescheduled after Hurricane Irene canceled the initial plans.
The memorial — a four-acre tract along the Tidal Basin that is dotted with elm and cherry trees and anchored by an imposing granite statue of Dr. King — is the result of more than two decades of work. It was originally scheduled to be dedicated in August to coincide with the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which was delivered at the Lincoln Memorial.
The expansive three-hour ceremony included speeches by civil rights leaders like Representative John Lewis and the Rev. Jesse Jackson and songs by performers like Aretha Franklin.
People came from all over for the event. Yvonne Binis took an early morning train with her 4-year-old grandson from Linden, N.J. Ms. Binis’s mother had been part of the March on Washington, and she said she came in honor of that.
“I’m here to see what she came down for,” Ms. Binis said, carrying a large folding chair in a backpack.
Some in the crowd remembered their childhoods in the Jim Crow South. Carolyn Bledsoe, 70, recalled the shame of being turned away from a restaurant in Goldsboro, N.C., in the 1950s, because she was black. “We got very scared,” she said, sitting in a blue dress jacket and a white baseball cap, with an insignia of the memorial on it. “We thought we might be followed.”
Mr. Obama is facing stiff challenges in his bid for re-election next year, particularly as the country is grappling with a 9.1 percent unemployment rate and a global economy that is reeling.
He urged patience. “Change depends on persistence,” Mr. Obama said. “When met with hardship, when confronting disappointment, Dr. King refused to accept what he called the ‘is-ness’ of today,” Mr. Obama said. “He kept pushing towards the ‘oughtness’ of tomorrow.”
Mr. Obama said that “when we think of all the work that we must do,” including rebuilding the economy and fixing ailing schools, “we can’t be discouraged by what is; we’ve got to be pushing for what ought to be.”
The monument is not only the first to a black man on the mall and its adjoining parks but also the first to honor someone who was not a president, according to the foundation in charge of putting it up, something that has been an inspiration to many.
“I drive past the mall every day, and to see that Martin Luther King is now there with Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson and Roosevelt — that is powerful,” said Lonnie Bunch, a founding director of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture.
Dr. King’s stone figure faces the Jefferson Memorial across the water. Lincoln is at his back, and Roosevelt to his right.
The design gave form to a line from Dr. King’s “Dream” speech — “With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.” In the statue, he is emerging from a large piece of stone. Two towering granite mounds set behind him are the mountains of despair.
Mr. Bunch said that the dedication offered an opportunity to assess race relations in America.
“We are not in a post-racial America, but in an America that allows us to talk about race candidly in different ways,” he said. “Having a statue of Martin Luther King, without even saying it, lets people know that this is a different mall, this is a different America.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/us/memorial-of-martin-luther-king-jr-dedicated-in-washington.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all