Civil Rights and the Obama Presidency

Those of us who were very close advisers to Martin Luther King Jr. — I think it's reasonable to say that we didn't anticipate that there would be an African-American President elected in our lifetime. It says more about our country than it says about Barack.

This is not in any way to diminish the superb individual achievements and accomplishments of Barack Obama. When I think about Barack Obama and I think about Martin King, I think about that saying that Martin used in many different versions, the saying of Victor Hugo's, paraphrased, "More powerful than the march of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come." And one could say prophetically that Barack Obama is an American idea whose time has come. And that's the power of it.

See pictures of Martin Luther King Jr.