January 20

January 20- On this day in 1955, students conducted an anti-segregation lunch counter sit-in in the flagship of Read’s drug store chain in downtown Baltimore. This was the most famous of several sit-ins and protests in 1955 against the store’s racial segregation policy. The combination of these efforts made up one of the first sustained direct action campaigns against segregation and involved some of the earliest lunch counter sit-ins of the civil rights movement and this campaign worked. Two days after the January 20th sit-in, Read’s owner ended the segregation policy at all 37 of its lunch counters which influenced several other Baltimore businesses to integrate too. This campaign inspired other sit-ins against segregation that helped to gradually integrate more businesses in other cities. The participants in these peaceful campaigns helped bring our country closer to the equality and liberty of the words in the preambles to the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. These same ideals were celebrated 26 years later to the day, when President Reagan stated in his first inaugural address on January 20, 1981, “we are a united people pledged to maintaining a political system which guarantees individual liberty to a greater degree than any other”…“Well, this administration's objective will be a healthy, vigorous, growing economy that provides equal opportunities for all Americans with no barriers born of bigotry or discrimination”… “We shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of your makeup. How can we love our country and not love our countrymen; and loving them, reach out a hand when they fall, heal them when they're sick, and provide opportunity to make them self-sufficient so they will be equal in fact and not just in theory?”…“Well, I believe we, the Americans of today, are ready to act worthy of ourselves, ready to do what must be done to ensure happiness and liberty for ourselves, our children, and our children's children. And as we renew ourselves here in our own land, we will be seen as having greater strength throughout the world. We will again be the exemplar of freedom and a beacon of hope for those who do not now have freedom.” Later, these same ideals were again celebrated on January 20, 2009, when President Obama gave his first inaugural address in which he stated: “The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”…"Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man -- a charter expanded by the blood of generations.  Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience sake."…”For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.  We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers.  We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.”..."This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed, why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall; and why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served in a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath." This last quote brings us back full circle to the Read’s drug store of January 20, 1955 who would not have served President Obama’s father because of his race. Yet by 2008 the nation had come so far as to elect the first African American president. To me this is representative of the great path America has been on towards realizing the words of the preambles to the Declaration of Independence and Constitution- words such as equality and liberty- the same words spoken by a Republican President in his first inaugural address on January 20, 1981 and then spoken by a Democratic President in his first inaugural address on January 20, 2009. Are we still walking forward on this path or are we now crawling backwards? https://images.app.goo.gl/EsXquobWnRj22yQ56
#ThisDayInHistory ; #OnThisDay; #onthisdayinhistory; #civilrights; #allmenarecreatedequal