By Bryan Cain-Jackson
Four of the biggest figures in our history were assassinated all within 5 years. These men were not afraid to bring change to the masses. They wanted a better quality of living for everyone regardless of their color, creed, and religion or class system.
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Were it not for President Kennedy, we might have waited for many years for the Civil Right Act to be enacted. JFK was the beginning of the modern thinking. Away with the old and in with the new was the direction. We were to become a country that took accountability for its mistakes and kept no secrets from its citizens. The establishment protected its own best interests; thus was the beginning of a future of hope being snatched out from underneath an entire generation.
Malcolm X, a prolific Civil Rights activist, was assassinated in Manhattan on February 21, 1965. He gave us the wisdom of “The Hate that Hate Produced.” He was often targeted with hate for being an African-American man trying to rise to the occasion in a society that did not want that. X made many controversial statements in the eyes of the press; he was not someone who did and said what was expected of him. X pushed the envelope and brought the darkness to the light with his powerful and impactful words of wisdom. He was not pro-establishment; therefore he could not be allowed his rise to power. The establishment took Malcolm X from a generation that would have surely followed in his footsteps. So continues the hopes and dreams, snatched from us.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Civil Rights leader, was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. MLK was also a leader in the development of a new way of thinking like his respective counterparts, he believed in liberalism. MLK brought fourth many powerful and historical speeches, his most famous being “I have a dream.” Through words and through action, MLK repeatedly made a call for unity. He wrote his “Letters from Alabama” while being jailed for marching against hate and displaying his hopes with words and with actions. MLK’s protests were seen as disruptive and illegal. His call for unity continued despite those who did whatever to quite him. Although the establishment stepped forward to silence him, even in death his voice echoes on for generations to come.
Robert F. Kennedy, former U.S. District Attorney, New York Senator, and Presidential candidate, was assassinated June 5, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. He has just won the most important state in the Democratic Primaries, California. Bobby was the last best hope for a new liberal generation that wanted to end the war and break the color barriers that existed in our great nation. The nation was dividing, only his leadership could have brought forth a sense of paradise that this country would never have thought imaginable. The establishment must do what it feels is necessary to protect its interests. A generation’s last hope is snatched away by “the man.” Riots and hate ensue, Nixon becomes President and the senseless war in Vietnam rages on with a daily growing body count.
I raise the question that if one of these men had survived, what would our nation be like today? Each of these four men laid their lives on the line for the ideals of modern liberalism to take its rightful foothold on this country. Why? So that each man and woman could be free and independent without prejudice just as the constitution dictates under a guise.
These four giants in our history died in their attempts to bring power to the people.
