Hawaii | Page 236 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 22, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Friday

“This is the city, Los Angeles, California. I work here. My name’s Friday. I carry a badge. …” Dragnet, on radio (1949–1956) and television (1951–1959 & 1967–1970,) broadcast the adventures of Sergeant, later Lieutenant (then, back to Sergeant,) Joe Friday (portrayed by Jack Webb,) who carried badge 714.

Wait … although this is “Just the facts, Ma’am,” this story is not about that Joe Friday.

This is about a Hawaiian, Joe Pōʻalima (his last name translates to ‘fifth day, Friday,’) who was better known as Joe Friday.

Ok, let’s step back in time and move up the coast from our first Friday’s Pacific coast beat to a place just below the 49th parallel.

San Juan County in northwestern Washington is an archipelago of hundreds of islands, reefs and rocks between mainland Washington and Vancouver Island (accessible only by water or air.) Around 20 islands are inhabited. The largest three – San Juan, Orcas and Lopez – contain most of the land area and nearly all the population.

San Juan Island is the second-largest and most populous of the San Juan Islands. The name “San Juan” originates from the 1791 expedition of Francisco de Eliza, who named the archipelago Isla y Archiepelago de San Juan to honor his patron sponsor, Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo.

This is not to be confused with the Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) (named in 1787 by the maritime fur trader Charles William Barkley, captain of the Imperial Eagle, for Juan de Fuca, the Greek navigator who sailed in a Spanish expedition in 1592 to seek the fabled Strait of Anián.)

Strait of Juan de Fuca is about 95 miles long and is the Salish Sea outlet to the Pacific Ocean (going past San Juan Island.) The international boundary between Canada and the US runs down the center of the Strait (the rest of the US/Canadian border follows the 49th parallel.)

This area was the ancient home to the Northern Straits Salish, including the Lummi, Samish, Saanich and Songhees, who settled this place around 10,000-years ago.

The intersection of three waterways and sheltered harbors, prairie and woodlands with abundant food sources provided a seasonal home to its early occupants in winter villages of large cedar plank longhouses, who dispersed in the warmer months to fish, hunt and maintain and harvest shellfish beds and upland gardens.

Fast forward a bit … Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was a fur trading company that started in Canada in 1670; its first century of operation found HBC firmly-focused in a few forts and posts around the shores of James and Hudson Bays, Central Canada.

Fast forward 150-years more to 1821 … HBC merged with North West Company, its competitor; the resulting enterprise now spanned the continent – all the way to the Pacific Northwest (modern-day Washington, Oregon and British Columbia) and the North (Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.)

The maritime fur trade focused on acquiring furs of sea otters, seals and other animals from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the United States.

Needing supplies on their journey, the traders soon realized they could economically barter for provisions in Hawai‘i; for instance any type of iron, a common nail, chisel or knife, could fetch far more fresh fruit meat and water than a large sum of money would in other ports.

On January 21, 1829 the Hudson’s Bay Company schooner ‘Cadboro’ arrived at Honolulu from Fort Vancouver with a small shipment of poles and sawn lumber. The Company was attracted to Hawaiʻi not for furs but as a potential market for the products of the Company’s posts in the Pacific Northwest.

That first trip was intended to test the market for HBC’s primary products, salmon and lumber. Another goal of the trip was to recruit Hawaiians for HBC operations on the Northwest Coast. As early as 1811, HBC had already hired twelve Hawaiians on three year contracts to work for them in the Pacific Northwest.

A triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China and the Hawaiian Islands to Britain and the United States (especially New England.)

The Hudson’s Bay Company claimed San Juan Island in 1845, building a salmon curing station there in 1850. Several years later, the company started a sheep farm.

“… (there) were Hawaiian people brought (to San Juan) by the Hudson Bay Company in the earlier days, when the Island was supposed to belong to Great Britain. That company came across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, many years before, from Victoria, and stocked the Islands with sheep, and did trapping, fishing and hunting …” (Early Life on San Juan (1865-1881,) Firth)

That brings us to the second Joe Friday, mentioned above.

Joe Pōʻalima (his name was commonly spelled ‘Poalie’ on the continent) was born around 1830, on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. At about the age of twelve, he ventured to the Pacific Northwest and was employed by the HBC (company records show he started working there in 1841.)

He was stationed at the company’s Cowlitz Farm, located on the Cowlitz River about halfway between the Columbia River and Puget Sound. He was a laborer and ‘middleman’ (the paddler in the middle of a canoe – a position tasked to those with strong arms and broad shoulders.)

He later transferred to other HBC posts: Fort Victoria, Columbia Charges and Fort Rupert (in between, he ventured back to Hawaiʻi a couple of times.)

In 1870, Friday married Mary Saaptenar of the Songhees tribe from Canada; to marry Mary, he converted to Catholicism, at which time he took the name “Peter” (Pierre.)

Later census records note Peter Friday living in San Juan County, Washington Territory. The 1880 census shows a Peter Friday, age 50, with five children, the eldest of whom was called Joseph Friday, born around 1844.

Oh, one more thing about Friday … following a conflict and boundary dispute between the US and British/Canadians (the Pig War,) the Hudson Bay Company moved its operation.

“The Kanakas were all dismissed, some of them (settled) on the Island, but most of them went back to the British side of the Island called Saltspring Island. The few that stayed on San Juan were those that had married Indian women, and had families.

“One in particular I remember quite well was old man Friday & his family, he had (settled) away out on the Island somewhere in early days perhaps at what is now called Friday Harbor, & later moved back in the Island. Anyway, I have always heard that Friday Harbor was named after the old Kanaka …” (Early Life on San Juan (1865-1881,) Firth)

Joe (Peter) Friday died April 11, 1894. Friday’s legacy lives on. What was once known as “Friday’s Harbor,” today, the Port of Friday Harbor is the main commercial center for the San Juan Islands, and it is the county seat. (Much of the information here is from reporting by Brenda Pratt.)

January 21, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Ah! What delicious-looking crabs you have here!”

So said the visitor to Ke Awa Lau o Puʻuloa – but he wasn’t speaking of crustaceans, he was speaking of the fishermen he saw as “fat crabs”, that is, a dainty morsel.

He was Mikololou, a man-eating shark from the Kaʻū district on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

He was part of a large company of sharks who came to visit from Hawaiʻi, Maui and Molokaʻi. Most of these had human relatives and were not desirous of eating human flesh, but among them were some who disregarded the relationship, and learned to like them.

The sharks had planned to make a circuit of the islands and perhaps later to visit Kahiki. They stopped at Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor.)

Kaʻahupahau, hearing those words, knew at once that some of the strangers were man-eaters. Guardians of the area, she and her brother Kahiʻuka went into action to protect the fishermen.

But Kaʻahupahau could not distinguish between the good and the bad sharks; she then she changed into the form of a great net and hemmed in her visitors while the fishermen who answered her signal came to destroy them.

Her brother Kahiʻuka struck at intruders with his tail, one side of which was larger than the other; the fishermen hauled in the nets to shore and Mikololou was cast upon the shore with the evil doers, where they were left to die of the intense heat.

All but Mikololou were soon dead; though his body died his head lived on and as the fishermen passed to and from their work, his eyes followed them and tears rolled down his face. At last his tongue fell out. Some children playing nearby found it. They picked it up and cast it into the sea.

Now Mikololou’s spirit had passed out of his head into his tongue and as soon as he felt the water again he became a whole shark. With a triumphant flop of his tail, he headed for home to join his friends again. When Kaʻahupahau saw him, it was too late to prevent his departure.

“Mikololou lived through his tongue,” or, as the Hawaiians say, “I ola o Mikololou i ka alelo.” This saying implies that however much trouble one may have, there is always a way of escape.

Kaʻahupahau lived in an underwater cave in Honouliuli lagoon (West Loch.) Kahiʻuka lived in an underwater cave off Mokuʻumeʻume (Ford Island) near Keanapuaʻa Point at the entrance of East Loch

Kaʻahupahau may mean “Well-cared for Feather Cloak” (the feather cloak was a symbol of royalty). Kahiʻuka means “Smiting Tail”; his shark tail was used to strike at enemy sharks; he also used his tail to strike fishermen as a warning that unfriendly sharks had entered Puʻuloa.

Such guardian sharks, which inhabited the coastlines of all the islands, were benevolent gods who were cared for and worshiped by the people and who aided fishermen, protected the life of the seas, and drove off man-eating sharks.

Pukui notes Kaʻahupahau in ʻŌlelo Noʻeau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings, No. 105: “Alahula o Puʻuloa, he alahele na Kaʻahupahau”: “Everywhere in Puʻuloa is the trail of Kaʻahupahau.”

“Said of a person who goes everywhere, looking, peering, seeing all, or of a person familiar with every nook and corner of a place.” Kaʻahupahau was noted for traveling about, vigilantly guarding her domain against man-eating invaders.

Puʻuloa also was home to Komoawa, (or Kamoawa,) a large shark who was Kaʻahupahau’s watcher. His cave, called Keaaliʻi, was at the entrance of Puʻuloa. (Thrum, Hawaii-edu) Kualiʻi guards the entrance to Pearl Harbor, while the home of Kaʻahupahau is deeper into Honouliuli lagoon.

Years later, the US Navy, having acquired Pearl Harbor, was working to expand the facilities. This included dredging the channel, adding a coal station and construction of a drydock.

“The dredging of the Pearl Harbor channel was begun long before the drydock was more than desultorily talked of – in 1900. It took many years to deepen, straighten and widen the channel into the lochs sufficiently for a man of war to enter.”

“But the work progressed steadily if slowly, and on December 14, 1911, the cruiser California steamed from Honolulu to the entrance to Pearl Harbor, and then, turning her gray nose inward, proceeded majestically through the still tortuous channel and dropped her anchor off the dry dock site.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

The drydock was to be the “Largest In (the) World – Less than a decade will have elapsed between the beginning of the great work and its completion.”

“And when the Pearl Harbor drydock is finished it will be the largest and the finest in the world, capable of accommodating any vessel now built or building, or that probably ever will be built by the United States.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

But, during construction, disaster occurred. “Much progress had at that time been made on the construction of the drydock, and success seemed assured. But the contractors had been having trouble with the bed of the drydock … it suddenly blew up with a tremendous explosion. No lives were lost, although there were several narrow escapes.”

“But the work of years had been wrecked … pressure had forced the bottom of the drydock up until it literally burst (on February 17, 1913.”) (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

“For a time it was feared that the entire project might have to be abandoned. But Uncle Sam’s engineers refused to be defeated by natural forces, and finally, after long experiment, mean were found for anchoring the bottom of the drydock.”

“Admiral Harris was one of the board that came to Hawaii to investigate the causes for the explosion and try to find a way of preventing future disasters of similar nature.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

They cannot say they were not forewarned. “While at work three Hawaiian fishermen come to where we were working, one of whom was aged, who asked me what we were doing there.

‘Digging a hole 50 feet deep’ was the reply. He then told me to move away from there; and when asked why, he said, ‘These places are tabu; they belong to shark god, name Kaʻahupahau.’” (Richards (a worker on the drydock project,) Navy-mil)

“The old man was watching my men working, and talking to them. Again he came over to me with tears in his eyes and asked me to quit digging ‘til my boss came. “I told him, I can’t do that.” They stayed there several hours, then he said to me that, ‘You people will be punished severely.’” (Richards, Navy-mil)

“Several years ago, some will remember, when work started on the Pearl Harbor naval dry dock, some of the Hawaiians said the location chosen would disturb a “shark god” who would be affronted and they prophesied dire disasters.”

“The work was started and there came a collapse. The forecasters of trouble were prophets. Changes were made in plans and locations.” (Maui News, June 9, 1922)

Merely a coincidence? Some think not.

One of the workers on the project noted, “As we went along pumping the water out of the dock, we pumped out five feet and cleaned the side and plastered and corked all the leak, 15 to 20 days and then pumped till we got to the bottom which was full of mud and in the middle of the dock where I went through a cave of nine feet diameter.”

“Mr. Hartman, assistant boss, found a backbone of a big shark, 14′ 4″ long. I came by where they were working when Mr. Hartman said to me, ‘You certainly got the shark. Here it is.’” (Richards, Navy-mil) (The Story of Mikololou is from Wiggins, Beckwith)

January 20, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Laniākea

The YWCA of Oʻahu is the oldest continuous service organization devoted to women and children in Hawaiʻi; in 1900, a small group of women met at Mrs. BF Dillingham’s home at Arcadia on Punahou Street to organize the YWCA.

From the beginning, the YWCA was organized to provide the working women of Honolulu a safe place to build friendships, develop or maintain solid values and learn skills to become more productive members of the community; but over the years, the vehicles for accomplishing those goals have changed in response to the times.

In 1904, the headquarters was housed in the Boston Building on Fort Street. YWCA girls’ basketball team competed with teams from Oʻahu College (Punahou Schools) and Kamehameha. Engleside (the first boarding home located at 251 Vineyard) opened and was jointly operated with the YMCA.

By 1906, when it joined the YWCA of the USA, recreational and athletic programs including tennis and swimming classes had been added. The first YWCA residence for young working women, The Homestead (the former Castle Estate on King Street,) was opened and addressed community concerns over the lack of safe and affordable housing accommodations in Hawaiʻi.

“The YWCA of Honolulu has its rooms in the Boston building, on Fort street, and while not as aggressive as their bretheren, are nevertheless filling a much-needed niche in the community for the comradeship and comfort of an increasing body of young women coming as strangers in a strange land. In connection with its work a home is maintained on King street, of the Castle Estate, designated the Homestead, for the benefit of members and other bachelor maids.” (Thrum, 1914)

In 1914, the first Business Women’s Club was established. By 1917, even the Queen was a member of the YWCA. The Red Cross had moved into the YWCA and a worker had been hired to help Japanese picture brides.

In 1921, the Atherton family gifted their near-downtown residence, Fernhurst, to the YWCA in memory of their daughter, Kate, and in tribute to her deep interest in the welfare of girls. The original Fernhurst served as a temporary home for as many as 10,000 young working women.

As membership and programs grew, a headquarters was needed. Several downtown locations were considered. They settled on a site on Richards Street across from the ʻIolani Palace grounds.

Noted architect, Julia Morgan (best known as the architect of Hearst Castle in California,) was hired and the new headquarters, Laniākea, “was designed and erected from two thousand miles away.”

Laniākea was the first building of architectural significance in Hawaiʻi to be designed by a woman. Constructed in 1927, it was developed and designed by women at a time in history when there were few opportunities for females to excel in male dominated professions.

Ms. Morgan designed over 700-buildings during her 47-year career and ranked the Honolulu YWCA as one of her top ten favorite projects. It immediately became a Honolulu landmark.

The building’s construction was a crowning achievement for the YWCA of Honolulu, inspiring successive generations of women to rededicate themselves to the cause of community service.

The building features the tile floors, roofs, courtyards, and arches characteristic of the Mediterranean style, which the architect chose to adapt to the climate, conditions and materials of Hawaiʻi.

Morgan regarded the structure as architecturally “frank and sincere.” She was not given to meaningless ornamentation, yet there is considerable attention to detail, such as the metal ironwork in the balconies overlooking the courtyard and the pool.

Sara Boutelle (an architectural historian) judged the Laniākea swimming pool “the most effective of all her YWCA pools,” attributing its success to the architect’s understanding of the contribution of public recreational space to the civic culture and busy lives of women.

The “Richards Street Y,” as it is affectionately known, was a meeting place for women of all generations. Popular activities were sewing and lace-making lessons, Chinese cooking classes, girls basketball and ballet.

From a place to make tea, eat safely and quietly in the city, and take naps, to a place to make the teapot, close a deal over lunch and swim laps, the YWCA of Oʻahu has been the place for women in Hawaiʻi to find support and encouragement for over 100-years.

Today, the YWCA of Oʻahu is still guided by the core concepts of the YWCA’s mission. Those concepts are to create opportunities for growth, leadership and power for women and girls, and to work for peace, justice, dignity, respect and the elimination of racism for all people. (Lots of information and images here came from the YWCA website.)

January 19, 2022 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Frederick C Ohrt

Honolulu’s public water system is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, under the American flag west of the Mississippi River. The first unit, installed, paid for and operated by the government, was in service on March 31, 1848. (Nellist)

At that time, whale products were in high demand; whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips. Rich whaling waters were discovered near Japan and soon hundreds of ships headed for the area.

The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between America and Japan brought many whaling ships to the Islands. Whalers needed food and the islands supplied this need from its fertile lands. Another thing the early whalers wanted was water.

The first ships to visit Honolulu obtained their fresh water by sending small boats with casks up Nuʻuanu stream above the salt water tidal area.

With the threat of competition from California and Mexico, it is quite clear that it was a desire to serve and hold the trade of the whaling ships that caused Honolulu to initiate its water system. (Nellist)

Then, in 1848, in his annual report to King Kamehameha III and the Legislature of Hawaii, Keoni Ana (John Young), Minister of the Interior, made this notation:

“A water tank, for the convenience of the shipping (New England whaling ships,) is placed in the basement story of the new Master and Pilots’ Office, near the wharf (Nuʻuanu Street.) And it was supplied through a leaden pipe from a reservoir at ‘Pelekane’ …” (Schmitt)

After the completion of the Bates Street reservoir in 1851, nearby businesses and homes were connected with the main. The system was further expanded in 1860-1861, eventually covering most of the city. (Schmitt)

Over the years, the fledgling water system expanded. Then, on April 29, 1925, Governor Wallace Rider Farrington formed and appointed members to the original Honolulu Sewer and Water Commission.

Their first meeting was held May 14, 1925 and the organization was completed on July 1 with the appointment of Frederick C Ohrt as Chief Engineer (Ohrt resigned from Libby, McNeill & Libby to take the position.) (Nellist)

In his report to the Commission, Chief Engineer Ohrt added this observation: “… the first duty of whomever may be held responsible for correct solution of the water problem is to insist upon an aggressive policy of conservation and reasonable use of Honolulu’s most valuable resource. Most valuable, because the measure of value is necessity; and the growth of every city is rigidly conditioned by its water supply.”

Then, on July 1, 1929, Governor Farrington appointed members to the first Board of Water Supply (BWS;) they immediately appointed Ohrt Manager and Chief Engineer.

Ohrt established the principle that the construction necessary to support a utility need not spoil the landscape. Many examples of this can still be found around Oahu such as the pumping stations, which were designed by the respected architect CW Dickey. (Engineers & Architects of Hawaiʻi)

The semi-autonomous Board of Water Supply (BWS,) under the administration of Frederick Ohrt, had been established in 1930 to replace the mismanaged and scandal-ridden City Waterworks Department, which had brought the city to the verge of a water shortage.

Flush with federal funds flowing from the Works Projects Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression, the Board assigned four projects to architect Hart Wood during the period 1933-1936. (Historic Hawaiʻi)

Some of these lasting legacies under Ohrt’s leadership include the Pacific Heights Reservoir (1933,) the Makiki–Mānoa Pumping Station (1935,) the Kalihi Uka Pumping Station (1935) and the Nuʻuanu Aerator (1936, its purpose was to purify surface waters drawn from Nuʻuanu stream.)

Perhaps the crowning achievement of Board of Water Supply designs is the Administration Building fronting Beretania Street. Wood began the design of this project in 1947 and completed the design by about 1951, but the building was not completed until after 1952 (the year Frederick Ohrt retired from the Board of Water Supply.) (Historic Hawaiʻi)

One of the early facilities of the fledgling Water Department (before Ohrt’s involvement there) was the Kalihi Pumping Station, on the corner of Waiakamilo and North King Street.

The initial building was constructed in 1899 (it has since been replaced.) The pump in the plant was an EP Allis Vertical Triple Expansion Triplex Single Acting Pump.

There are three wells at Kalihi Pumping Station. Two of these wells were bored in 1899 and the third in 1900. The wells are cased with steel casing 3/8” thick. These wells are of 12” bore. (Hawaiʻi Dept. of Public Works, 1913)

It is now home to the Water Department’s Fred Ohrt Water Museum, named in honor of BWS’s first Manager and Chief Engineer. The museum is located at the Kalihi Pumping Station, 1381 North King Street.

Tours their include an introduction to our island’s water cycle, discussion on water conservation, and walking tour of the museum showcasing “The Old Man of Kalihi”, the original 1899 steam pump, and history of the BWS.

The Honolulu BWS is the largest municipal water utility in the state, serving one-million customers on O‘ahu with 55-billion gallons of water every year, which includes 95-active drinking water facilities, 166-storage tanks and more than 2,000-miles of pipeline servicing nearly every community on O‘ahu.

Another Wood design was Fred Ohrt’s residence on Pali Highway. In 1987, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as representative of the Tudor–French Norman Cottages Thematic Group of homes in Honolulu (between Hānaiakamālama (Queen Emma Summer Palace) and Oʻahu Country Club; on the golf course side of the highway.)

January 16, 2022 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hawaiʻi And The Selma Voting Rights March

“They oughta be comin’ pretty soon now,” somebody said, looking west and into the sun where the two-lane highway curves to the right. “They oughta be here any time.” (Saturday Evening Post)

Folks lined the 54-miles of roadway between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama. Thousands of others joined the march.

There were actually three marches, collectively called the Voting Rights March from Selma to Montgomery. A catalyst was the killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who, while attempting to protect his mother from the troopers’ billy clubs while attending a voting rights rally, was shot point blank by two of the troopers. Seven days later, on February 25, 1965, Jackson died from his gunshot wounds.

The first march (March 7) was known as “Bloody Sunday,” as a result of the beatings upon marchers by state troopers and the local posse on horseback. The second march, the following Tuesday, resulted in 2,500 protesters being turned back after attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge (“Turnaround Tuesday.”)

The third march started after receiving a court order granting them the right to protest without police interference, and with protection from federalized National Guard troops.

The marchers arrived in Montgomery on March 24; that night, a “Stars for Freedom” rally was held. Singers Harry Belafonte; Peter, Paul and Mary; Tony Bennett; and comedian Sammy Davis Jr. entertained the marchers.

At the final leg of the march, 25,000 people gathered at the steps of the Alabama State Capitol Building, on Thursday, March 25, 1965.

The marchers were protesting the hostile conditions, discrimination, and unequal rights to vote, adequate housing and education. One of the leaders said this was not a show, but a war against the social structure of America.

They came from everywhere. Charles Campbell, a Negro high-school teacher, came from Hawaiʻi where, he said, there is proof that the races can live together. (Saturday Evening Post)

Campbell and other Hawaiʻi marchers were not this event’s only ties to Hawaiʻi.

Lead marcher in the third march was Dr Martin Luther King. A photo and caption of the event noted, “During part of the famous Selma to Montgomery Freedom March in 1965, Martin Luther King and fellow civil rights leaders wore the Hawaiian necklace of flowers – the lei – to symbolize their peaceful intentions.” (AkakaFoundation)

The lei were gifts from Rev Abraham Akaka as noted in this excerpt from Jet Magazine, “… Pastor emeritus of a Honolulu Church (Kawaiahaʻo,) Rev Abraham Akaka, 74, gained worldwide attention when he sent flower leis used by Dr Martin Luther King in the Selma march …” (Jet, June 3, 1991)

This wasn’t King’s only tie to Hawaiʻi.

King came to Hawaiʻi a month after statehood and on Thursday, September 17, 1959 delivered a speech to the Hawaiʻi House of Representatives at its 1959 First Special Session. His remarks included the following.

“As I think of the struggle that we are engaged in in the South land, we look to you for inspiration and as a noble example, where you have already accomplished in the area of racial harmony and racial justice, what we are struggling to accomplish in other sections of the country …”

“… and you can never know what it means to those of us caught for the moment in the tragic and often dark midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, to come to a place where we see the glowing daybreak of freedom and dignity and racial justice.”

“And these are the things that we must be concerned about – we must be concerned about because we love America and we are out to free not only the Negro. This is not our struggle today to free 17,000,000 Negroes. It’s bigger than that. We are seeking to free the soul of America. Segregation debilitates the white man as well as the Negro.”

“We are to free all men, all races and all groups. This is our responsibility and this is our challenge, and we look to this great new state in our Union as the example and as the inspiration.”

“As we move on in this realm, let us move on with the faith that this problem can be solved, and that it will be solved, believing firmly that all reality hinges on moral foundations, and we are struggling for what is right, and we are destined to win.”

At Selma, King delivered the speech “How Long, Not Long.” “The end we seek,” King told the crowd, “is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. … I know you are asking today, How long will it take? I come to say to you this afternoon however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long.”

The Selma to Montgomery March effected great change; it led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, signed by President Lyndon B Johnson on August 6, 1965.

Martin_Luther_King-others-wearing_lei_in_Selma

Civil rights demonstrators, led by Dr Martin Luther King (5th R), civil rights activist Ralph Abernathy (5th L), John Lewis (3rd L) and other civil and religious leaders, make their way from Selma to Montgomery on March 22, 1965 in Alabama, on the third leg of the Selma to Montgomery marches. The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights ended three weeks and represented the political and emotional peak of the modern civil rights movement. The first march took place on March 07, 1965 (“Bloody Sunday”) when 600 civil rights marchers were attacked by state and local police. (Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images)