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Hit it ka-dap on the head, and it's workin' now. It won't never go back to where it was!"¹⁰

It succeeded in spite of Turnbow's "difficulties", in spite of what King called the brutality of a dying order shrieking across the land.

In its successes, it has much to teach us now.

Today, from Somalia and Haiti and Bosnia, the United States looks back at Vietnam to discover what went wrong. We can look back at yesterday's civil rights movement to discover what went right.

Yesterday's movement succeeded because victims became their own best champions. When Mrs. Rosa Parks refused to stand up, and when King stood up to preach, mass participation came to the movement for civil rights.

Today, too many of my students and too many others = young and old, black and white - believe they are impotent, unable to influence the society in which they live.

Three and a half decades ago, a mass movement marched, picketed, protested and organzied and brought state sanctioned segregation to its knees.

One movement message is that people move forward fastest when they move forward together. Another lesson is that heroes need more than a passive audience if their heroism is to flourish. That audience provides a context for heroism, an encouraging and supportive cast for heroic deeds and a mirror for its valor.

King did not march from Selma to Montgomery by himself; he did not speak to an empty field at the March on Washington. There were

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