The march was a watershed event. It was on that day that the tide turned in the battle for civil rights. Everyday people who had only read about the unrest in the south saw for the first time the over reaction of the law enforcement community towards peaceful marchers. Public opinion changed because of this. The passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1964 was only the beginning. You can't make a democracy do anything until the people decide to do it. This is the nature of a democratic or representative people. What was law in 1964 became the will of the people in 1965. What has been forgotten by so many is that many white people including Jewish people also marched that day. Somehow this has become about being black and not about wanting the same freedoms for everyone. Usurpers of this legacy have come along like the Nation of Islam who had no part, clowns like Al Sharpton who have done more to enrich themselves than to help racial relations, and charlatans like Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama who advance themselves based solely on race through intimidation and guilt.
When it comes to a military victory we celebrate the actual survivors of that conflict, we give honor to their children for the sacrifice of their fathers, but we don't give honor to people who were born later or where not involved except to hear about it at a later date. So why so we give any credence to the johnny come latelys in the civil rights movement? We have real survivors and only they deserve the honor of changing America's heart on that day.
