August 12, 2011
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Obama looks to King for inspiration
President Obama last night spoke about the historic figure he will no doubt be compared to in the decades ahead: Martin Luther King Jr.
Obama -- who will help dedicate the new King memorial in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28 -- told a group of New York donors that the civil rights leader's life provides lessons in perseverance.
"I think that we forget when he was alive there was nobody who was more vilified, nobody who was more controversial, nobody who was more despairing at times," Obama said.
The nation's first African-American president added on King's life:
"There was a decade that followed the great successes of Birmingham and Selma in which he was just struggling, fighting the good fight, and scorned, and many folks angry.
But what he understood, what kept him going, was that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.
But it doesn't bend on its own. It bends because all of us are putting our hand on the arc and we are bending it in that direction. And it takes time. And it's hard work. And there are frustrations.
And if everybody here is reminded of that fact, then I'm absolutely confident that America's arc is going to be bending in the direction of justice and prosperity and opportunity
Obama -- who will help dedicate the new King memorial in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28 -- told a group of New York donors that the civil rights leader's life provides lessons in perseverance.
"I think that we forget when he was alive there was nobody who was more vilified, nobody who was more controversial, nobody who was more despairing at times," Obama said.
The nation's first African-American president added on King's life:
"There was a decade that followed the great successes of Birmingham and Selma in which he was just struggling, fighting the good fight, and scorned, and many folks angry.
But what he understood, what kept him going, was that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.
But it doesn't bend on its own. It bends because all of us are putting our hand on the arc and we are bending it in that direction. And it takes time. And it's hard work. And there are frustrations.
And if everybody here is reminded of that fact, then I'm absolutely confident that America's arc is going to be bending in the direction of justice and prosperity and opportunity
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