Senator Clinton out of line

Dear Editor,

Thank you for your cover article, "It's Wrong to Downplay King's Legacy" (National Weekly 1/17 - 23). Senator Clinton's attempt to downplay Dr. King's legacy indicates at worst her severely limited knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement and at best her feeble attempt to reinvent history.

It is a matter of historical fact that Dr. King's tireless work and social momentum led Johnson to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This country made it abundantly clear, both explicitly and implicitly that it expected those of African descent "to wait", as it "wasn't the time" to legally ban apartheid.

The Civil Rights agenda had been stalled for years, during several administrations. To lay the passage of this act at the foot of President Johnson is an insult not only to Dr. King's work, but to the countless men and women who jeopardized and lost their lives for its passage. Johnson himself was a latecomer to the Movement. He was undoubtedly spurred on by wanting to leave a legacy, but to attribute the success of this movement to him is in itself a "fairytale".

-T. Herbert