On Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, watch his "I Have a Dream" speech

I was there in August 1963, which actually doesn't seem like all that long ago. Dr. King was an extraordinary leader, murdered in his prime. But there were many others, now all gone, without whom the vast changes in American society since that day might not have happened.

The 1963 March on Washington, which is often referred to these days as "Dr. King's march on Washington," was actually the brainchild of A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin.

Randolph was the grand old man of the civil rights leadership at the time. President of the all-Black railroad Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (wow, how archaic does that seem!) and a Vice President of the AFL-CIO, Randolph was arguably the only person who could have forged the alliance of all the major civil rights groups, key labor unions and white liberal organizations that made the March happen.

Bayard Rustin, a veteran of decades of pacifist, socialist and civil rights causes and an advocate of Ghandian non-violent resistance, might well be regarded as the most important organizational and political thinker and organizer behind the civil rights protests that emerged in 1950s and 1960s. Rustin was a prime mover behind the creation of the activist Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). His was the strategic brain behind the 1956 Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott that catapulted King into the movement's leadership. He and King organized the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) the next year. SCLC, its youth arm, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and CORE were the groups that propelled the movement through a decade of turmoil and advances. And it was Rustin's organizational genius that made the 1963 March a resounding success. (Rustin always took a back seat publicly because his brief youthful flirtation with the Communist Party and his homosexuality made him an easy target.)

All that said, of course, Dr. King gave the movement its crucial inspirational leadership. At no moment was that more obvious than on August 28, 1963 when his stirring speech at the Lincoln Memorial made history.

Any thoughts on this day? Post a comment.

Go for it, Harold! (Harold Ford, Jr. should run for Senate against Kirsten Gillibrand)

Former Rep. Harold F. Ford, Jr.

Harold F. Brown, Jr., who served five terms in the House of Representatives and narrowly lost a race for the Senate in his native Tennessee, now lives in New York and is seriously thinking about running for the Senate again -- this time in a New York Democratic Primary against the current appointed cypher, Kirsten Gillibrand.

As a New Yorker with a vote in that primary, I say, go for it, Harold!

Ford is a smart, tough, dynamic, young (39) guy with deep experience in politics and government and mainstream liberal Democratic views on most issues, anchored by his southern background and chairmanship of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. Ford says that if he runs, he would campaign as a strong independent in the mold of the late Daniel Patrick Moyhihan who would fight for New York and take no guff from his own party's leaders, including Harry Reid and New York's senior Senator, Chuck Schumer.

This would be in marked contrast to Gillibrand who, after being appointed a year ago by accidental Governor David Patterson at the end of an embarrassing process, seems to have disappeared except to phone in her vote for whatever Harry and Chuck want. Her juvenile deference to the preening Schumer is especially annoying to New Yorkers, since she's got the seat that was held by a series of tough cookies from Robert F. Kennedy to Moynihan to Hillary Clinton. Shouldn't a Senator from the Empire State at least be noticed for something in the course of a whole year? Not Gillibrand.

The knives are already out for Ford. It's said that he's not a New Yorker, which is true except for the last few years. But Bob Kennedy and Hillary Clinton had even less time in New York. For my money, Ford's experience and qualifications trump Gillibrand's, even if the latter's ancestors founded New Amsterdam.

Ford's moderate record in Congress in Tennessee is already being used against him by New York City liberals who have pledged their troth to Gillibrand. It's really laughable, since until last January, Gillibrand, as a member of the House from an upstate district, belonged to the Blue Dog Coalition, supported the NRA and held a host of conservative positions. She's flip-flopped on all that to head off a primary challenge from one of several downstate liberals who hoped to capitalize on her ideological deviationism. So it's hard for her to point the finger at Ford for making the same "adjustments" to some of his positions.

When push comes to shove -- and I think it has already come, with the recession, the terrorist threat and multiple wars, and all the other pressing problems we face as a nation -- I'd rather have a guy like Ford who's willing to step up to a fight as my Senator than an opportunistic tool like Gillibrand.

What's your take on Ford? Post a comment.