Thirteen years before Rosa Parks, Bayard Rustin refused to change seats on a bus . . . and helped shape a movement.

One of the many letters Abraham Lincoln received after being elected president in November 1860 was from Alexander Stephens, a former congressional colleague of Lincoln and the future Vice-President of the Confederacy. He urged Lincoln to make a public statement regarding his intentions as president.

In May of 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education, finding segregated schools “inherently unequal.” One year later, the Court issued its “Ruling on Relief,”  mandating that desegregation proceed “with all deliberate speed.” Given the deliberate vagueness of the instruction, Southern school authorities delayed compliance.

On this day, we are pleased to post this essay by Lucas Morel, Class of 1960 Professor of Ethics and Politics at Washington and Lee University and long time former faculty member at Teaching American History, who considers the lasting legacy of King's great speech: