In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution prohibited Marian Anderson, one of the great singers of her era, from performing in Constitution Hall before an integrated audience. In response, Eleanor Roosevelt persuaded Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes—father of the Harold Ickes who's worked with Bill and Hillary Clinton—to allow Anderson to perform a concert on the steps of the memorial to the Great Emancipator, our original president from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln. Anderson opened the concert by singing My Country, 'tis of Thee
24 years later, Martin Luther King, on the same steps, the steps of a memorial dedicated to a President whose body made its final journey by train from Washington DC to Springfield, Illinois, invoked My Country 'tis of Thee in one of our nation's greatest speeches:
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
King had given an earlier version of that speech two months earlier, in Detroit, at a rally organized by the Reverend C. L. Franklin and the United Auto Workers, led by its president Walter Reuther.
The statute of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial looks out over the National Mall toward the Capitol. When Marian Anderson sang My Country, 'tis of Thee, and when Dr. King recited it, they looked toward the Capitol.
Tuesday, where the gaze of Lincoln is affixed, where Anderson and King looked to, Reverend Franklin's daughter Aretha sang My Country, 'tis of Thee to celebrate the inauguration of another President from Illinois. This new President from Illinois had just made the reverse journey of Lincoln, a train ride from Springfield, Illinois to Washington DC. This new President is the son of a black man and a white woman. He's the husband and father of the descendants of slaves. And he's our 44th President, Barack Obama.
Yesterday President Obama ended his speech thusly:
Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Our national journey will continue on long after we're gone, just as it has after the passings of Lincoln and Anderson, pf Reverends King and Franklin. But we are products--and sometimes, fulfillments--of those who are gone, those of previous generations who did the work and nurtured the dreams of peace and of freedom. Abraham Lincoln extended the promise of freedom to all Americans. Martin Luther King led the movement that helped secure freedom for all Americans. Had they been able to look across the Mall to see Aretha Franklin singing and Barack Obama being sworn in as President, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King would have seen their dreams fulfilled.