Raise a Fist, Take a Knee by John Feinstein

Author:John Feinstein [Feinstein, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Dreamers

GEORGE RAVELING IS A HISTORIC FIGURE in the sport of basketball. He is in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the College Basketball Hall of Fame. He was the first Black head coach hired by a school in what was then the Pacific-8 (now the Pacific-12) when Washington State made him the coach in 1972 at the age of thirty-four. He took the school to its first two NCAA Tournaments since 1941—the third year the then eight-team tournament was held—and then went on to success at Iowa and the University of Southern California.

Being elected to the two Halls of Fame might be at the top of Raveling’s résumé, and his being one of the first Black coaches hired at a power-five school is also right near the top of that résumé. But the thing he is likely to be most remembered for has nothing to do with basketball.

Among Raveling’s many treasured possessions is one that stands out from the rest: he owns the typewritten notes from Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, arguably the most famous and important speech of the twentieth century.

King gave the speech on August 28, 1963, as part of a massive March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom rally that had been organized to show support for civil rights legislation introduced by President John F. Kennedy.

Raveling had grown up in Washington, D.C., and had driven down that Sunday morning with some friends from Philadelphia, where he was working as an assistant basketball coach at Villanova—his alma mater.

“We were walking around on the mall a few hours before the speech,” he said. “Several people working for Dr. King came up to us and said they were looking for some guys willing to volunteer to provide extra security for him. I was six foot four by then, and my friends were big guys too, so I guess that’s what they were looking for. Of course, we said we’d do it. Next thing I know, a few hours later, I’m standing behind Dr. King on the steps of the [Lincoln] Memorial while he’s speaking to 250,000 people.”

Nowhere in the typed version of the speech do the words “I have a dream” appear. King began the speech by referring to the fact that Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation almost exactly one hundred years earlier and then said, “One hundred years later, the Negro is still not free.”

It was not until later in the speech—which lasted about seventeen minutes—after famed gospel singer Mahalia Jackson yelled, “Tell them about the dream, Martin!” that King began to say, “I have a dream,” which became the words that defined the speech, the day, and the Civil Rights Movement.

Initially, he said, “Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.” He then repeated the words “I have a dream” eight more times.

“I still get chills almost sixty years later thinking about that moment,” Raveling said. “A few minutes later, he finished, and when he turned to leave, I noticed he’d left the notes behind.

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