President Obama considers Martin Luther King as his personal hero, and believes that without his efforts, being the current occupant of the Oval Office would have not been made possible.
In a recent radio interview, Obama said, “When you are talking about Dr. King’s speech at the March on Washington, you’re talking about one of the maybe five greatest speeches in American history. And the words that he spoke at that particular moment, with so much at stake, and the way in which he captured the hopes and dreams of an entire generation I think is unmatched.”
Obama was only 2 years old when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his speech on the steps of Lincoln Memorial despite battling with constant bomb threats and blasts as well as repeated imprisonments.
Although Martin Luther King died five years later, his dream of African-Americans not just visiting the White House but considering it home became a reality when Obama was elected.
It is the reason why Obama keeps a bust of the King and a framed copy of the program on that day when King made his “I have a dream” speech and 250000 people gathered for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
And now, exactly 50 years later, the President, being the most prominent example of the racial progress that King dreamed of, will deliver remarks at a national commemoration of the 1963 peaceful demonstration held on August 28, 2013 for jobs, racial equality and economic justice.
From a personal standpoint, the President believes that the ‘march’ was an important event and believes that now, half a century later, is a good time to think about how far we have come and how far it has to go, especially with the Trayvon shooting trial being in the news.