Obama screwed up his timelines in his Selma, Alabama speech.
What happened in Selma, Alabama and Birmingham also stirred the conscience of the nation. It worried folks in the White House who said, “You know, we’re battling Communism. How are we going to win hearts and minds all across the world? If right here in our own country, John, we’re not observing the ideals set fort in our Constitution, we might be accused of being hypocrites.” So the Kennedy’s decided we’re going to do an air lift. We’re going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is.
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.
Some were misled by the line about the Kennedy’s, but it’s true: JFK helped start this program BEFORE he became President.
The other issue is that the march across the bridge happened in 1965, yet Obama was born in 1961.
Obama is saying that he using Selma, and the bridge, as a metaphor for the entire civil-rights movement. Which does make some sense. A concrete example can help make more powerful an abstract concept. We will stipulate that was not entirely clear.
