Obama supporters, please ask Obama to clarify this apparent inaccuracy.

[JDPriestly]

Obama gave a speech in Selma, Alabama which needs some clarification.

Here is the original post of the speech.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x68443

As I understand it, Obama credits the Selma marchers for having created a situation in which Obama's father from Kenya and mother from Kansas could meet and thus, for his own birth.

A quick Google search and a visit to Wikipedia reveal that Obama was born in 1961, and the first Selma march took place in 1965.

Thus, Obama's parents met, and Obama was born several years before the Selma march.

Please correct me if I misunderstood his speech. If not, Obama needs to apologize to the Kenyans who fought for their independence from the British for many years before the civil rights movement in the United States began. According to Wikipedia, Kenya became an independent nation around the mid 1960s. I clearly recall the classroom in which I was sitting when, sometime before 1960, I first learned that England planned to grant Kenya independence. I was still in high school at the time.

If I understood Obama's speech correctly, this could be quite an embarrassing gaffe for him. Perhaps he should clarify his statements.

[sandnsea]

1. He already addressed it

And said he was mistaken about the dates. I think he also said he was referring to the civil rights movement as a whole, which started long before Selma.

[JDPriestly]

11. This is the first I heard about this.

I think it is a pretty bad mistake. The Mau Mau in Kenya were fighting for their freedom long before the civil rights movement in the United States.

Do you have a link to Obama's clarification or apology? I would like to read it.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JDPriestly]

16. For some reason, it was recently posted here. I had not previously heard this speech.

I lived in Alabama in the late '50s and early '60s. That is why this speech elicits an emotional reaction from me. I was watching the civil rights movement very closely at the time.

[AtomicKitten]

2. A call to apologize.

Reminds me of a scene in A Fish Called Wanda in which Kevin Kline is holding John Cleese upside down from a window demanding an apology, and Cleese responds:

"I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact and was in no way fair comment and was motivated purely by malice, and I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future."

On edit: The OP has since been edited.

[wndycty]

3. I'm surprised it took this long for it to become a DU outrage. . .

. . .when I heard it back then I knew there would be more than a few ready to demand a clarification.

[geek tragedy]

8. It was discussed way back then.

Apparently some concern trolls hibernate over the summer.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

4. Maybe because the people who marched in Selma in 1965 had worked for years on Civil Rights?

It's not like that march was the first thing they ever did. :eyes:

[zabet]

5. Well, all I can say about this is...

Being from the South, his 'I'm coming home to Selma' remark
kinda left a bad taste in my mouth. Pandering, pandering while
not researching your facts because maybe you are like the rest of
the politicians, maybe you too think the poor southerners are
just too stupid and backwards to know any different. Up until this
speech, I was 100% for Obama, my support of him has steadily
dropped since, he is not even in my top 3.

[hedgehog]

10. All Americans now living owe the people who marched at Selma.

Same as we owe the people who fought at Bunker Hill or Gettysburg. It's a special place in American history.

[zabet]

12. I agree whole heartedly.

Just Obama ain't from Selma. I took that as
pandering to the African-American Southern voters.
Note I said that is how I took it, not that that
is what he meant etc. This was just the first of
many little things that have shown me he really is no
different than the majority of politicians in the mix.

[hedgehog]

15. The direct quote is"So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama.

Don't tell me I'm not coming home to Selma, Alabama. I'm here because somebody marched. I'm here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants. "

As an expression of his appreciation for the entire Civil Rights movement, I think his words were appropriate.

[zabet]

18. I am well aware of the quote.

As I stated before, this was MY impression overall
of his Selma speech. I did not say he was right or
wrong. I feel like he misrepresented himself and his
parents. Again, this is how it effected ME. Not you.

[JDPriestly]

21. The problem is that he attributes his birth and his educational

opportunities to the Selma marchers, but he was born before the first Selma march. He did not clearly state what he meant. It sounded like he got carried away, improvised in his speech and did not represent the chronology of events accurately. If you like him, you don't mind. But this will be fodder for those who seek fault with him.

[JDPriestly]

20. Very true.

[geek tragedy]

6. Dumbest post of the day. I hope you didn't

waste more than five minutes on this shit.

[jefferson_dem]

7. Lame.

:thumbsdown:

[geek tragedy]

9. I imagine we'll see the Madrassa story posted here

pretty soon.

[hedgehog]

14. If you read the entire speech, it is clear that Obama was

using the Selma marchers as symbols for all the freedom fighters in both the US and Africa. Note the implied reference to Rosa Parks and the Birmingham bus boycott. That started December 1, 1955, ten years before the Selma March. He used the Selma march as a symbol of the entire Civil Rights movement. He compared the movement to the Exodous journey and called on young people to continue the fight just as Joshua did.

[JDPriestly]

17. The speech was very moving. He did not make it clear that

the Selma march occurred after his birth. The civil rights struggle was very long. The abolitionists began it by exposing the horrors of slavery. I believe that historians time the rise of the abolitionist movement as beginning around 1776. The basic idea of Obama's spech was great. He just seemed to connect the Selma marchers too specifically to events that occurred before the march. That is the kind of discrepancy that can be easily avoided.

[zulchzulu]

19. If you read the speech intelligently, you see he was referring to the civil rights movement

Here is a portion of the text of the actual speech:

This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to this country. He met this woman whose great great-great-great-grandfather had owned slaves; but she had a good idea there was some craziness going on because they looked at each other and they decided that we know that the world as it has been it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child. There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don't tell me I’m not coming home to Selma, Alabama.

I’m here because somebody marched. I’m here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants. I thank the Moses generation; but we've got to remember, now, that Joshua still had a job to do. As great as Moses was, despite all that he did, leading a people out of bondage, he didn't cross over the river to see the Promised Land. God told him your job is done. You'll see it. You'll be at the mountain top and you can see what I’ve promised. What I’ve promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. You will see that I’ve fulfilled that promise but you won't go there.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2007/03/obamas_selma_speech_text_as_de.html

If you read the speech in its entirety, you see what he's talking about.

Consider that Rosa Parks didn't go to the back of the bus in 1955.

Consider the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Consider the Freedom Rides in 1961.

The Civil Rights movement didn't magically happen in 1965 in Selma. What happened in Selma in 1965 was part of a culmination of the movement.

We could pick apart Obama's speech that he mentioned Moses, who in fact was around way, way before Obama was born.