Today is Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, a time to celebrate not only Dr. King’s life but the broader Civil Rights movement of which he was a leader. The Birmingham Bus Boycott, the Freedom Riders, the March on Washington, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Bloody Sunday at the Edmund Pettis Bridge, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, are just a few of the milestones we recognize and commemorate. Back … [Read more...]
It’s the look. You’re walking through the crowds at the American Economic Association meetings. When you pass someone they look at your bellybutton. Huh? Oh, right: That’s where your official nametag hangs on your official lanyard, and the person you went by is checking to see if you are someone. You catch the disappointment in their eyes when they read your tag. I want to stop and tell them, … [Read more...]
Lyndon Johnson addressing a joint session of Congress, November 27, 1963 (source) Robert Caro’s The Years of Lyndon Johnson is a true masterpiece of biography. I’ve recently been mulling one of my favorite passages from his latest volume, The Passage of Power. Here is the scene: President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963, and Lyndon Johnson is now president. On the … [Read more...]