March for Good Trouble

Review by Bill Doughty––

We remember Civil Rights icon John Lewis, whose life and legacy are being commemorated and celebrated this week.

"March: Book Three" is written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin with art by Nate Powell (Top Shelf Productions; 2016). It's a powerful "graphic novel" of nonfiction, and this is the best in the series.

The book opens with an explosion –– the bombing of the Sixteenth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, resulting in the murders of four young black girls: Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Denise McNair.

In the aftermath of the killings and in the midst of taunts of "2-4-6-8; we don't want to integrate," a group of white Eagle scouts, coming from a Ku Klux Klan rally, shot and killed 13-year-old Virgil Lamar Ware. Then, police shot 16-year-old Johnny Robinson.

It was 1963. John Lewis was only 23 years old and already a student leader in America's civil rights movement and an acolyte of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Like MLK, Lewis preached and practiced Gandhi-influenced nonviolence –– even in the face of deadly violence. Alabama Governor George Wallace had declared "segregation forever" and was quoted in a newspaper saying, "What this country needs is a few first-class funerals."

Lewis reflects on his grief over the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a man who had pledged greater civil rights. It took Kennedy's successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, to achieve JFK's goal. (Both presidents were Navy veterans.)

In "March 3" we are introduced to women of the movement and see the pivotal role they played in demonstrating, protesting and marching: Fannie Lou Hamer, Margaret Moore, Ella Baker, Amelia Boynton, Diane Nash, Annie Lee Cooper, and of course Rosa Parks. Another women, Viola Liuzzo, was shot dead while helping shuttle demonstrators.

Brave women and men, black and white, stood up to face heavily armed paramilitary police, some in an armored personnel carrier. Lewis was called an "outside agitator," even though he was as much an Alabama citizen, as was the sheriff. He and his fellow students, teachers and other demonstrators wanted free and equal access to the voting booth.

This book is a march through history, with stark images of violence and transcendent images and words of victory. Lewis's optimism, humility and grace shine through, as we see the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Summer of '64 in Mississippi, Bloody Sunday, March to Montgomery, and signing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

This book shows Lewis's steadfast resilience and commitment in the face of severe beatings, lengthy arrests and constant threats. His demands for federal assistance ––not reliance on individual states' justice systems –– eventually paid off. So did his steadfast belief in nonviolence, "making good trouble –– necessary trouble."

LBJ said, "It's all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome."

"March 3" poignantly includes memorable moments from January 20, 2009, the day Barack Obama became the first African American president. 

One of the illustrations is of United States Navy Band "Sea Chanters" chorus performing the national anthem.

Another is of Obama handing Lewis a thank you note, "Because of you, John" –– signed Barack Obama.

See Navy Reads posts related to or honoring John Lewis, namesake of USNS John Lewis.

An Armed Forces Body Bearer Team carries the flag draped casket of Rep. John Lewis, Dem.-Ga., at Joint Base Andrews, Md., July 27, 2020. DoD personnel are honoring the congressman by providing military funeral honors to his congressional funeral events. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Bridgitte Taylor)

An Armed Forces Body Bearer Team carries a flag-draped casket of Rep. John Lewis at the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C., July 27, 2020. The remains will lie in state on the East Front Steps of the Capitol for a public viewing. (U.S. Army photos by Spc. Zachery Perkins)

The Power of Hope … and Light

Review by Bill Doughty––

“Why do we struggle? Why must we, as members of the human family, immerse ourselves in the agency of turmoil and unrest to affect the evolution of humankind? Why participate in the work of justice at all?” With those words, the late U.S. Representative John Lewis frames the big picture of life. And he answers those questions in an illuminating way, filled with hope.

“I believe we are all a spark of the divine, and if that spark is nurtured it can become a burning flame, an eternal force of light,” Lewis explains in Reconciliation, the final chapter of his reflective “Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America” (Hachette Books; 2012, 2017).

“Thus, our purpose while we are here, in the most basic sense, is to be a light that shines –– to fully express our gifts so that others might see. When they witness our splendor, when we show them it is possible to shine radiantly even in the darkest night, they begin to remember that they are stars also, meant to light up the world. And if we are brilliant, like a Bobby Kennedy, a Martin Luther King Jr., a Jim Lawson, or a Fannie Lou Hamer, then the intensity of our flame can light the path of freedom for others.”

Lewis says we can "smolder with imagination, burn with creativity, reverberate with love, oneness, and peace. The infinite is possible, but this beauty can only manifest through us.”

Lewis calls for “forgiveness and compassion” in his message of hope, light, and unity. This is an inspiring autobiography of faith, patience, action and love –– which are just some of the chapter names. This book is a great companion to the graphic biography trilogy, “March,” and offers more than a dozen photos along Lewis’s enlightened life’s path.

There is a certain power in an autobiography that a third-person biography cannot achieve as easily. Nevertheless, master historian Jon Meacham comes close in “His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope” (Random House; 2020).

Meacham dedicates the book “for all who toil and fight and live and die to realize the true meaning of America’s creed.” Like Lewis in “Across That Bridge,” Meacham lauds heroes of the civil rights movement and contextualizes Lewis’s life in the promises of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, acknowledging the founders’ limitations in their space and time.

“If the framers were about limits, Lewis was about horizons. The men who wrote the Constitution believed that human appetites and ambitions were the controlling forces of history. Lewis believed hope shaped history –– the hope that Lincoln’s better angels could prevail if men and women heeded the still, small voice of conscience that suggested the country, and the world, would be better off if Jefferson’s assertion of human equality were truly universal.”

Meacham’s book opens in a terror-filled South of rape, beatings, lynchings, and other forms of dehumanizing African Americans, in a nation overcoming a depression and focused on a world war.

“Blood and death, pain and loss, sacrifice and the hope of redemption: Lewis was coming of age in the most intense of eras, an era the made this young black man in the South something of a child of wartime. George H.W. Bush –– who joined the U.S. Navy on his eighteenth birthday, married when he was twenty, and had his first child by the time he was twenty-two –– once explained the urgency of his generation of World War II veterans as a result of ‘heightened awareness, a sense that everything mattered, that life was to be lived, in Bush’s phrase, ‘on the edge.’ ‘It was a time of uncertainty,’ Bush recalled.”

Civil Rights icons and touchstones Rosa Parks and Emmitt Till

Veterans returning from the war demanded greater equality in society. Lewis was dramatically influenced by the horrible murder of Emmett Till. He was inspired by the heroism of Rosa Parks. He was appalled by the murder of “a kinsman of Lewis’s, Dr. Thomas Brewer,” a voting rights advocate who was shot to death while protesting police brutality. Lewis aligned with Martin Luther King against Strom Thurmond and Dixiecrats who suppressed votes and denied equality to black Americans.

As shown in this biography and in “March,” the highlight of Lewis’s life was attending the inauguration of Barack Obama and receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the first African American U.S. president.

Meacham does a thorough job of showing Lewis’s struggles and achievements. His epilogue, “Against the Rulers of the Darkness,” seems to be a nod to Lewis’s own call for people to find their own inner light. 

Meacham’s book is good, but the hope and light shine brightest in Lewis’s own words.

WASHINGTON (Jan. 6, 2016) Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Ray Mabus signs a graphic representation of the future fleet replenishment oiler USNS John Lewis (T-AO 205) after naming the ship in honor of U.S. Representative John Lewis, a civil rights movement hero. USNS John Lewis will be the first ship of the Navy's newest generation of fleet replenishment oilers. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Armando Gonzales/Released)

Navigating Now in 'Sea of Despair'

Review by Bill Doughty––

In these troubled times we can and should consider advice from good, principled leaders.

Then-Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Ray Mabus speaks with civil rights hero and U.S. Representative of the Fifth District of Georgia, John Lewis, Jan. 6, 2016, before the ship-naming ceremony for the future fleet replenishment oiler USNS John Lewis (T-AO 205). USNS John Lewis will be the first ship of the Navy's newest generation of fleet replenishment oilers. Photo by Mass Communication Specialist Second Class Armando Gonzales)

The most respected living civil rights leader, Representative John Lewis of Georgia, asked Americans today on the Morning Joe show to "not get lost in a sea of despair but to keep the faith" and be "true to the cause of love, peace and nonviolence." (Read another moving statement from Lewis at the end of this post.)

This week, after witnessing the horror of racially charged events –– including the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmad Aubrey –– I turned to a book by Melvin G. Williams Sr. and Melvin G. Williams Jr., "Navigating the Seven Seas: Leadership Lessons of the first African American Father and Son to Serve at the Top in the U.S. Navy" (Naval Institute Press, 2011).

The book has been a perennial recommendation on the Navy Professional Reading Program. It serves as a lighthouse of inspiration with advice on character, courage and commitment as well as other key qualities needed to be a good leader, citizen and sailor.

Williams Sr. is a retired Command Master Chief who was in charge of the SECNAV-CNO Flag Mess at the Pentagon and played a pivotal role in helping further integrate the Navy in the late 60s, including providing advice and inspiration to ADM Elmo Zumwalt Jr., then-Chief of Naval Operations.


All Hands Update "Legacy of Service" interview with Williamses about diversity in the Navy. Hosted by PO2 Patrick Gearhiser. (DVIDS)

ADM John C. Harvey Jr. publicly commended retired Master Chief Williams in 2010 saying, "You served your Navy and your nation with honor and distinction for over twenty-seven years, during a period of time when you loved your Navy far more than your Navy loved you. You never lost faith that someday, the Navy you loved so much and served so well would take the steps that had to be taken and allow a sailor's talent to be the sole measure of what a sailor can do." Williams Sr. served in the Navy for 27 years.

Vice Adm. Mel Williams Jr., commander of U.S. 2nd Fleet, salutes sideboys aboard the guided-missile frigate USS Halyburton (FFG 40) April 28, 2010 during a ship visit while Halyburton is in port for Fleet Week Port Everglades for a celebration of the maritime services. (Photo by Seaman Travis J. Kuykendall)

Williams Jr., served as a submarine officer and aboard surface ships and aircraft carriers for 32 years. He achieved the rank of vice admiral and commanded the U.S. Second Fleet, leading sailors and Marines. He coordinated closely with NATO, where he helped develop and publish the first maritime counter-piracy tactics and contributed to NATO maritime security operations.

Williams Jr. recounts his childhood briefly in "Navigating the Seven Seas":

"I arrived on this Earth in November 1955, about one month before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. As an African American male who grew up in the United States when equal opportunity for all people was beginning, I felt a personal imperative to have the integrity and determination to fulfill the obligation that I truly believed I had to realize the dreams of those courageous African Americans who had come before me. I was not alone in this belief, which many African Americans in my generation shared."

Father and son discuss their book, "Navigating the Seven Seas"

Williams Jr. said his family instilled respect for hard work and education as well as "traits including integrity, determination, a positive attitude, fairness, a personable disposition, humility, and the elements of servant leadership."

Like all military families, there were moves and new schools. In 1968 the family moved to Washington D.C., where thirteen-year-old Mel Jr. "absorbed pivotal events of that year": Vietnam War, Tet Offensive, assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, racial riots, and Mexico City Olympics.

This book is part double-autobiography, part guide to good leadership. The "Seven Seas" is a "nautical play on words," representing the maritime global commons to show how to navigate as a leader through Seven Cs:

• Character: The first and most essential of the Cs, trumping all others –– "the commitment to take right and timely action repeatedly toward realizing the vision are central to leadership."
• Competence: "A leader must be competent as he or she guides the organization."
• Courage: "Leaders should consider the facts, opinions of a diverse group, instincts and intuition, and be decisive at the right time."
• Commitment: Developing people to their full potential, trusting others, and delegating authority are essential to being a good leader.
• Caring: Serving others is caring for others, ensuring they have "needed resources."
• Communicating: "People want to be inspired by the leader" who must "develop forward-looking plans with the team, and take action while creating a sense of urgency."
• Community: "With better-prepared and developed individuals, the leader works to create a cohesive team, so that the whole is greater than the sum of the individuals."

Williams Sr.'s great-grandparents on both sides were born into slavery. The veteran of the Korean War, Vietnam War and Cold War Navy nurtured a culture of love, empathy and servant leadership in his family and within his circle of influence in the Navy.

The authors provide quotes from Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Booker T. Washington, Thomas Paine, Lao Tzu, Albert Einstein, and others.

Among those they name in their acknowledgements (as listed): Barry Danforth, James L. Holloway III, Hugh McCracken, Elmo Zumwalt Jr., Chuck Beers, Skip Bowman, James Cartwright, Kirk Donald, Jerry Ellis, Malcolm Fages, Ed Giambastiani, the Golden Thirteen, Samuel Gravely, Mike Mullen, B.J. Penn, Hyman G. Rickover, Gary Roughead and Carl Trost.

Current and past Chiefs of Naval Operations (CNO) came to the Pentagon for the unveiling of the CNO portraits, 26 June 1986. Left to right: Admiral James L. Holloway III, USN (Retired); Admiral Carlisle A.H. Trost, USN, CNO Designate; Admiral Robert B. Carney, USN (Retired); Admiral Thomas B. Hayward, USN (Retired); Admiral James D. Watkins, USN, then-CNO; Admiral George W. Anderson, USN (Retired), seated; Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., USN (Retired); Admiral David L. McDonald, USN (Retired); Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, USN (Retired); and Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, USN (Retired). (NHHC)

Along with the Seven Cs, the authors highlight the Navy's Core Values (including two of the Cs): Honor, Courage and Commitment. "Courage" comes up time and again in "Navigating the Seven Seas."

Williams Jr. writes, "Throughout history, the men and women who serve in the armed forces in defense of freedom, human rights, and the rule of law have been leaders who routinely demonstrate courage." He adds, "We, the beneficiaries of freedom, should be grateful to these courageous leaders. I am."

In 2020, do we have the courage to confront inequality, achieve fundamental systemic police reform as well as protect the community by demanding nonviolence? In protesting injustice, anger is justified; violence is not.

John Lewis is a courageous leader in civil rights. He calls for peace and nonviolence in the face of riots happening in 2020 so we are not "lost in a sea of despair."

Rep. John Lewis (D Ga.) dons protective gear as he prepares to weld his initials into the keel plate of his namesake ship during the keel laying ceremony of USNS John Lewis at the General Dynamics Shipyard in San Diego, May 13, 2019. (Photo by Sarah Burford)

Statement by Rep. John Lewis, Congressman from Georgia's 5th District:

"Sixty-five years have passed, and I still remember the face of young  Emmett Till. It was 1955. I was 15 years old — just a year older than him. What happened that summer in Money, Mississippi, and the months that followed — the recanted accusation, the sham trial, the dreaded verdict — shocked the country to its core. And it helped spur a series of non-violent events by everyday people who demanded better from our country.

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial (NPS)

“Despite real progress, I can't help but think of young Emmett today as I watch video after video after video of unarmed Black Americans being killed, and falsely accused. My heart breaks for these men and women, their families, and the country that let them down — again. My fellow Americans, this is a special moment in our history. Just as people of all faiths and no faiths, and all backgrounds, creeds, and colors banded together decades ago to fight for equality and justice in a peaceful, orderly, non-violent fashion, we must do so again.

“To the rioters here in Atlanta and across the country: I see you, and I hear you. I know your pain, your rage, your sense of despair and hopelessness. Justice has, indeed, been denied for far too long. Rioting, looting, and burning is not the way. Organize. Demonstrate. Sit-in. Stand-up. Vote. Be constructive, not destructive. History has proven time and again that non-violent, peaceful protest is the way to achieve the justice and equality that we all deserve.

“Our work won't be easy — nothing worth having ever is — but I strongly believe, as Dr. King once said, that while the arc of the moral universe is long, it bends toward justice.” –– May 30, 2020

Selma March II; 'Our Military at its Best'

by Bill Doughty

John Lewis in 1965

President Lyndon B. Johnson, a World War II Navy veteran and Navy reservist, called for Navy divers to help search for missing victims of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Fifty years ago, after activists were gassed and beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on "Bloody Sunday," LBJ called in military resources to protect demonstrators.

The bridge was named for a Confederate general, Alabama Senator and KKK leader. It became a battlefield defended by Alabama state police against people who wanted equality and the right to vote. 
LBJ directed the military to protect the demonstrators who refused to give up their march for democratic ideals.

The second attempt to march across the bridge was a success and, according to Congressman John Lewis, a turning point in what he calls a revolution of values and ideas.

Two weeks earlier, Lewis was among those who were clubbed, gassed and trampled by horses. Recently, he told Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation that he thought he would die. But Lewis expressed his gratitude for the military's protection of the march from Selma to Montgomery. He also told Schieffer how extraordinary it was to hear FBI Director Comey voice his support for transparency and accountability of law enforcement.

LBJ's military was there "all along the way. People inspecting the bridges along the way. Guarding the camps at night. It was our military. It was our military at its best," Lewis said.

Demonstrators, white and black, marched peacefully for equality and against discrimination in the voting process, where African Americans were singled out for tests on literacy, knowledge or character in order to restrict their ability to register to vote.  They were forced to try to answer ridiculous questions like, "How many bubbles are in a bar of soap?" When they attempted to vote regardless, they were blocked or beaten.
In LBJ's speech before Congress on Voting Rights delivered March 15, 1965 he made several references to the military:

"At times, history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. 
"... As we meet here in this peaceful historic chamber tonight, men from the South, some of whom were at Iwo Jima, men from the North who have carried Old Glory to the far corners of the world and who brought it back without a stain on it, men from the east and from the west are all fighting together without regard to religion or color or region in Vietnam."

Congressman Lewis, who led the original march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge 50 years ago, and who is marching with Commander in Chief President Barack Obama this week, recounts his experience for young people in a graphic novel series called "March."
Book 1 starts with Lewis as a boy growing up in rural Alabama and takes us through his meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the death of Emmett Till, the activism of Rosa Parks, and interracial lunch counter demonstrations to achieve equality and integration.  Book 2 of "March" was recently published, and Book 3 is on its way.
In 2012, Lewis published "Across that Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change."

Douglas Brinkley, who wrote "Across that Bridge's" introduction, calls Lewis an "apostle of quiet strength." He says, "Every young person should read this homily of civility, a welcome antidote to the noisy chatter of self indulgence exemplified by the surge of me-me-me social media in our lives."

Lewis, himself, lives in the light of Dr. King. He writes with poetic flair:

"Lean toward the whisper of your own heart, discover the universal truth, and follow its dictates. Know the truth always leads to love and the perpetuation of peace. Its products are never bitterness and strife."

Navy veteran President Johnson shakes hands with Dr. King after signing Voting Rights Act.

Johnson seemed to listen to what Lincoln described as "the better angels of our nature" in LBJ's speech 50 years ago. He echoed the nonviolence themes of "we shall overcome," and he called for all Americans to live up to the ideals of the Constitution as he obviously considered his own place in history:

"We must preserve the right to free assembly ... We do have a right to protest. And a right to march under conditions that do not infringe the Constitutional rights of our neighbors. And I intend to protect all those rights as long as I am permitted to serve in this office.
"We will guard against violence, knowing it strikes from our hands the very weapons which we seek – progress, obedience to law, and belief in American values. In Selma, as elsewhere, we seek and pray for peace. We seek order, we seek unity, but we will not accept the peace of stifled rights or the order imposed by fear, or the unity that stifles protest – for peace cannot be purchased at the cost of liberty.
"I want to be the president who educated young children to the wonders of their world. I want to be the President who helped to feed the hungry and to prepare them to be taxpayers instead of tax eaters. I want to be the President who helped the poor to find their own way and who protected the right of every citizen to vote in every election. I want to be the President who helped to end hatred among his fellow men and who promoted love among the people of all races, all regions and all parties. I want to be the President who helped to end war among the brothers of this earth."

United States Congressman John Lewis was 23 years old, about the average age of a shipboard Sailor today, when he helped lead the march in Selma. 

The graphic novel "March" fittingly portrays him speaking to young people and explaining how he came to appreciate life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

His perspective on where we were, how far we've come and the role of the military in the defense of freedom is invaluable.

Deeply Rooted in the American Dream

Review by Bill Doughty

Peace, justice and equality can be born from tension and conflict.  Love, compassion and understanding can prevail in the face of hatred and violence.  

Taylor Branch’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Parting the Waters - America in the King Years 1954-63 - shows how Constitutional ideals were embodied and emboldened by the civil rights movement, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Today marks the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The march culminated with King’s I Have a Dream speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  

Branch leads us to that watershed moment in history, one that informed a nation and showcased the movement’s strength and determination, much like the expression on the face of the new Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial.  Organizers and sponsors note that the King Memorial is aligned visually with the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials on the National Mall and in sight of the Washington Monument.

The Memorial, an expression of determination.

In his life, King aligned with the ideals of Freedom.  Like Thomas Jefferson (and, contemporaneously, like John F. Kennedy, Jr.) he didn’t always live up to the professed moral ideals in his personal life, as Branch shows.  

Like Abraham Lincoln, King championed the Constitution and used reason, diplomacy, courage and compassion to achieve his goals, always trying to understand and make peace with others, especially his rivals.

In his preface, Branch writes: “My purpose is to write a history of the civil rights movement out of the conviction from which it was made, namely that truth requires a maximum effort to see through the eyes of strangers, foreigners and enemies.”

Parting the Waters actually begins at the end of the 19th Century and gives us a fascinating look at the role of black churches and colleges and the effects of a then-new enlightened way of thinking -- a non-fundamentalist, unorthodox liberal theology.

At Crozier Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania King discovered:

There are moral laws of the universe that man can no more violate with impunity than he can violate its physical laws. -- MLK

Branch writes, “At Crozier King expressed the belief that love and reason could bring out in all people a basic goodness that was deeper than racial hatreds or personal animosities.”

Branch shows us the books and authors that inspired Dr. King.  He was influenced by thinkers like Frederick Douglass, Mahatma Gandhi, Reinhold Niebuhr, Baruch Spinoza and W. E. B. DuBois.  Books by DuBois were passed around by Sailors during WWII, according to Branch.

W. E. B. DuBois

Books helped shape his world view as a self-aware young man struggling under a strong patriarch, armed with a good classical education and dealing with discrimination and segregation in a mid-20th Century south.

Out of conflict between competing ideas came compromise and creativity and a universal world view.

Branch delves into many of the personalities of the civil rights movement.  We see Harry Belafonte’s sustained involvement, Rosa Parks’s principled inspiration and John Lewis’s key influence.

Lewis made it clear that the movement would continue until freedom for all citizens was achieved, “until the revolution of 1776 is complete.”

We also see the intransigence and meanness of characters like Bull Connor, Gov. Barnett and Gov. George Wallace.  He writes about the murders of Emmett Till and Medgar Evers and unlikely martyrdom of independent marcher William Moore, murdered in Alabama.

Nonviolent protests met with violence in Birmingham, 1963.

Branch writes about the painful anger, hatred and violence in Birmingham, Montgomery, Albany and elsewhere that seethed in 1963.  In the rising heat of that summer King stood for cool, nonviolent determination despite political in-fighting by other church leaders and a separatist movement by the Black Muslims and others.

Branch shows that the march on Washington was originally planned 70 years ago this year.  In 1941 A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, threatened publicly to lead a massive march to D.C. unless President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an order banning racial discrimination in defense industries.  

Randolph was a key planner and leader for the 1963 march, like King, committed to nonviolence.

With his unscripted and inspired "I Have a Dream...rooted in the American dream" remarks, King rose to become “a national spokesman for a significant minority of whites as well as a vast majority of Negroes,” writes Branch.  King speaks to the inalienable human rights outlined in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States.

In Parting the Waters, the author continually shows the tension and conflict that forged the nonviolent fight for civil rights. 

King persevered in the face of home and church bombings and the jailing or imprisonment of students and civil rights leaders, including himself.  He was stabbed in the chest by a would-be assassin.  

King fought on, despite wiretapping investigations and communist-sympathizer allegations by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI.  Because of scandals, fear and Machiavellian palace intrigue, Hoover was only temporarily successful in slowing the civil rights movement through his innuendoes and allegations.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 1963: "I have a dream."

According to Branch, “Most unforgivable was that a nation founded on Madisonian principles allowed secret police powers to accrue over forty years, until real and imagined heresies alike could be punished by methods less open to correction than the Salem witch trials.”

Conflict and tension between Dr. King and President Kennedy, called a “mysterious duel” by Branch, is a centerpiece of the latter part of Parting the Waters.

“Where the interpretations of freedom overlapped, they inspired the clear hope of the decade,” Branch writes. “Where incompatible, they produced conflict as gaping as the Vietnam War.”

Parting the Waters concludes shortly after Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and foretells the tragedy that would befall King in 1968.  In the intervening years he would become a “Pillar of Fire,” the last words of Branch’s epic study, and the title of the second book in his trilogy, Pillar of Fire, America in the King Years 1963-65. The trilogy concludes with At Canaan’s Edge, America in the King Years 1965-68.

This book was recommended by the Navy Professional Reading Program in 2011.

USNS John Lewis

By Bill Doughty

Last week the United States Navy honored late Congressman John Lewis with the christening of USNS John Lewis (T-AO 205), the Military Sealift Command’s newest fleet replenishment oiler. Former Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus was among the dignitaries present. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi was the keynote speaker. “John was a man of great courage and a fighter. He was always about nonviolence,” Pelosi said. “Non-violence and insistence on the truth. John always insisted on the truth.” In her remarks Pelosi recalled that one year ago Lewis, a hero of the civil rights movement, lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda on the same catafalque built for Abraham Lincoln, Lewis’s hero. A new book of John Lewis wisdom by his former chief of staff, Michael Collins, is out now: “Carry On: Reflections for a New Generation.” Chapters include "On Courage" and "On Voting." in an interview on Good Morning America, Collins notes that Lewis fought against racism and hatred, and he stood for optimism, joy, and a new generation of hope.

A Groundbreaking 'Double Victory' – NMAAHC

Review by Bill Doughty

U.S. Navy Capt. Brian O. Walden, right, directs the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Band as they play "Hail to the Chief" during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Smithsonian NMAAHC in Washington, D.C., Feb. 22, 2012. (Photo by Chief Musician's Mate Stephen Hassay)

The U.S. Navy Ceremonial Band played "Hail to the Chief" as President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrive on stage for the historic groundbreaking ceremony for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture during Black History Month, Feb. 22, 2012.

Among the museum's exhibitions, collections, photos and other treasures are tributes to – among others – Medal of Honor recipients, the Tuskegee Airmen, Mess Attendant Doris "Dorie" Miller, and the overall "African American Military Experience."

Visitors view an exhibit about the legacy of Mess Attendant Doris “Dorie” Miller at the Smithsonian NMAAHC, Nov. 1, 2016. Adm. Nimitz presented Miller with the Navy Cross for his extraordinary courage during the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. (U.S. Navy photo by Arif Patani)

The museum's "Official Guide" (Smithsonian Institution, 2017) shows various galleries and collections – floor-by-floor – and provides context within a history of overcoming slavery and the struggle to achieve civil rights and equality. "The United States was created in this context, forged by slavery as well as a radical new concept, freedom."

The museum represents the triumph of that concept promised in the Declaration of Independence and guaranteed in the Constitution – a democratic republic under the rule of law, not under a dictator or monarch. E pluribus unum: out of many, one.

First envisioned in 1915 after World War I, the creation of the museum was a nearly century-long struggle with lots of fits and starts. Congress finally authorized legislation in 2001, signed by President George W. Bush, to create a presidential commission that came back with a strong recommendation backed by Representatives John Lewis and J.C.Watts as well as Senators Sam Brownback and Max Cleland leading to enactment of a public law to bring the museum to life.

The guidebook takes visitors floor by floor to expansive open areas of discovery, art and education.

On the third floor of the museum, "Double Victory: The African American Military Experience" starts with the American Revolution and the War of 1812, into the Civil War and other conflicts, and through both world wars and the Cold War. Wartime military service has proven to be a catalyst for progressive social change throughout U.S. history.

"During the Revolutionary War, thousands of African Americans served as soldiers in the American colonial armies, including Jack Little, whose 1782 pay certificate for his service in the 4th Connecticut is on display here ... The War of 1812, sometimes referred to as the Second War of Independence, opened the ranks of the U.S. Navy to skilled African American seamen ... The Civil War was one of the most pivotal events in American history, and the Union victory that established the possibility of freedom for all depended on the service and sacrifice of tens of thousands of black soldiers, many formerly enslaved."

Museum artifacts include those of the "Buffalo Soldiers," Harlem Hellfighters of WWI, Tuskegee Airmen of WWII, U.S. Marine drill instructor Sgt. Maj. Edgar P. Huff of the Korean War, Air Force General Lloyd "Fig" Newton of the Vietnam War, as well as Vietnam Veteran Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden, a Marine Corps aviator who became an astronaut and the first black administrator of NASA.

Portrait photo of retired U.S. Marine Corps Maj Gen Charles Frank Bolden Jr. hours before his induction into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Ft. Worth, Texas, Oct. 27, 2017. Bolden was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the 12th Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 2009 to advance the missions and goals of the U.S. space program. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Cristian Bestul)

Other modern leaders of note featured in the "Double Victory" displays include Gen. Colin Powell, Gen. Hazel Johnson-Brown, and Adm. Michelle Howard.

The official guide is a good read prior to a visit to the museum, and is an invaluable companion for a self-guided tour. With cutaway floor maps and clear color-coded guides, this book offers behind-the-scenes stories about the exhibitions and collections. Of course there's also a downloadable mobile app for Apple IOS and Android to navigate the museum. Visitors can go to the Rosa Parks display, Martin Luther King Jr. tribute, Michael Jordan section, or George Clinton's actual P-Funk Mothership.

A highlight is the exhibition of artifacts recovered by maritime and archeology teams from the Slave Wrecks Project, including from the wreck of Portugese slave ship São José-Paquete de Africa, which sank in a storm off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa Dec. 27, 1794.

The recovery of artifacts from the wreck and collaboration with international teams features prominently in the biography of the NMAAHC founding director Lonnie Bunch III, "A Fool's Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump" (Smithsonian Books, 2019).

Bunch describes the trials and tribulations of creating the museum and speaks most poignantly of retrieving artifacts related to the São José project in a visit to Africa:

"Finding relics from the São José was the goal of my journey, but I discovered so much more about Mozambique, about slavery in South Africa, about maritime archeology, and about myself. I knew that relics from the ship such as wood from the hold that we would eventually display was not an inanimate object, but a touchstone to give meaning and humanity to the subject of slavery. It would serve as a totem that would prod Americans to replace the silences that we find so comforting with conversations, though difficult, that could lead to reconciliation and healing."

In his description of the groundbreaking ceremony in 2012, Bunch notes, "The United States Navy Band ... delighted the audience and provided a wonderful musical counterbalance to the array of speakers that included senior Smithsonian colleagues, [former first lady] Laura Bush, then Governor of Kansas Sam Brownback, Reverend Calvin O. Butts III, and Congressman John Lewis."

He has an interesting encounter with President Trump during a tour of the museum which is insightful and worth reading.

Bunch concludes with pride about the museum's relevance globally. Yet, he conveys humility about what the museum can mean for all Americans.

"Museums alone cannot ease the tensions that come from the debates surrounding the fluidity of national identity in the twenty-first century," he writes. 
"... But museums can contribute to understanding by creating spaces where debates are spirited but reasoned. Where contemporary challenges are addressed through contextualization and education. Since its opening, NMAAHC has become a site where rational healing and reconciliation are possible."

Author, historian and educator Bunch became Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, June 16, 2019. According to his published biography he oversees 19 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, numerous research centers, and several education units and centers.

Visitors tour exhibits at the Smithsonian NMAACH focusing on the African American military experience. (U.S. Navy Photo by Arif Patani)

Veterans Day Profiles in Courage

by Bill Doughty

JFK in WWII.

Like a lot of people in my generation I was fascinated by JFK’s heroism in World War II aboard PT-109.  (A Navy Reads review of Kennedy's "Profiles in Courage" is coming soon.) Kennedy was a naval officer who fought in the Second World War, just like former presidents and veterans George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford.  Each of them would have an aircraft carrier namesake.  Ford’s ultra-modern, ultra-efficient CVN-78 was christened this weekend. The next Kennedy carrier, CVN-79, is being built over the next 8 years.

The Kennedy family’s Profile in Courage Award, established in 1989, is presented annually to “the nation’s public servants who have withstood strong opposition to follow what they believe to be the right course of action.”  The award has gone to people like state representative Dan Ponder Jr. (R-GA), U.S. Congressman John P. Murtha (D-PA), U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), former U.S. Congressman Carl Elliot (D-AL), and most recently to former Arizona state representative and senator Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords of Americans for Responsible Solutions, formed with her husband former Navy Captain and astronaut Mark Kelly.  

In 2001, less than four months before 9/11, the Profile in Courage Award was presented to two statesmen: former President Gerald Ford and U.S. Representative John Lewis (D-GA), who went into harm’s way (and was severely injured) in a different kind of war -- for civil rights.  In the past week, “March: Book One,” a graphic nonfiction book about Lewis’s struggle, along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was published and went to number one on a New York Times bestseller list.

The Kennedy award was presented to Ford for his courage in pardoning former President Richard Nixon after Nixon’s resignation in the face of the Watergate scandal.  Ford was known for his unimpeachable integrity.

In “Halsey’s Typhoon,” authors Drury and Clavin show how President Ford considered his wartime Navy experience in making the right decision for the good of the “ship of state.”

Veterans Day began as Armistice Day to mark the end of World War I. Fighting ended in that war Nov. 11, 1918, one year after JFK was born and three years after Gerald Ford was born.  President Woodrow Wilson called for Nov. 11 to be set aside: 

"To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice...”

In 1961 President Kennedy signed the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Commission bill, with former first lady Mrs. Wilson at his side.

At the signing Kennedy said, “I hope the Commission will plan a memorial that expresses the faith in democracy and President Wilson's vision of peace and a dedication to international understanding that President Wilson himself did so much to advance.  He called for a New Freedom at home, and a world of unity and peace, and we are still striving to achieve these objectives.”

The Profile in Courage Award is made of sterling silver and is designed by Edwin Schlossberg, crafted by Tiffany & Co., and inspired by the lantern on USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned ship in the U.S. Navy.  Read more about the award at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum site.