re: #55 HappyWarrior

FDR you mean. FDR desegregated defense industries and Truman desegregated the military entirely a few years later. But yes Randolph was doing this stuff for a long time. I love learning about men like him since while we don’t celebrate their birthday like we do MLK, they paved the way for him and MLK certainly knew that oto.

The reason MLK was so much more successful than those who came before is… television.

Generations of civil rights activism had been doing marches, magazines & newspapers, lobbying efforts, but the only people who knew anything about it were people who deliberately wanted to know something about it.

But with television, every American in every state and city suddenly HAD to know about it. They saw photos and video footage that directly contradicted everything they’d ever wanted to believe about our nation, and they were ashamed.