George raveling mlk speech
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He said, to be security guards. “Likewise, the speech should be calling us to become a beacon of change. Raveling reportedly held dear the university’s Augustinian values of justice, inclusion and action.
Villanova will collaborate with the Smithsonian and the National Museum of African American History, where it will go on display.
Critics may wonder why Raveling chose Villanova, even if it was his alma mater.
“It took a wealth of time to really realize what I was truly experiencing at the time, at 26 years old,” he said. He left there to coach at Iowa. He ended his coaching career at the University of Southern California.
He was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.
“She had been at a lot of the King speeches and demonstrations and she had heard King do it at Selma and Detroit, so she was familiar with it.” At that point, King began to improvise, as Raveling would later discover when he read the hard copy of King’s speech.
“What’s interesting about the speech is that the original intent never included the ‘I Have A Dream’ phase of it, if you see the original manuscript,” said Raveling.
We said yes.” The organizer told the pair to arrive at 9 the next morning.
“We got there at about 8 a.m. The organizer said, ‘we’re going to need extra security at the podium.’ He signed us up to the podium and that was how we got down that strategic security position.”
At 6 feet, 4 inches and more than 200 pounds, Raveling was an imposing figure as he stood near King and other celebrities on the podium.
“He said that history is best situated to record all man’s deeds. People ask me time and time again. “So King, at this point because he was the last speaker, began to ad-lib the ‘I Have A Dream’ part.
“At the end of the speech, as Dr. King finished and started to fold his speech, as he walked away, I just said — I don’t know why, just impulsively said: ‘Dr.
We said yes.
“He said, would you want to volunteer. “He asked us why and we gave him a little adolescent excuse, we didn’t have any money.”
Wilson’s father encouraged the young men to go. It was the day that Martin Luther King Jr would give his famed “I Have A Dream” speech.
“In a stroke of luck, fate or coincidence, Raveling found himself face-to-face with King just after he spoke and asked for the copy of his speech.
Real change, ideal change, doesn’t happen if you don’t take time to dream.”
Ed note: an earlier version of this story said Raveling was deceased.
VILLANOVA, PENN.
One of the lesser-known stories of that day is how George Raveling, who would become a Hall of Fame college basketball coach, ended up with an original copy of King’s speech.
As we celebrate the anniversary of the march, I recalled a June 2016 conversation in Harlem, New York, with Raveling about how he came into possession of that speech.
A former basketball star at Villanova, Raveling had just turned 26 and was working as a marketing analyst for the Sun Oil Co.
The historical twist is that Raveling had no intention of attending the march. Today, Raveling is Nike’s director of international basketball.
Before we ended our conversation, I asked Raveling what impact being at the March on Washington, standing next to King on a historic day and getting the copy of his speech, had on his life.
Like most young people, Raveling said, it took a while for the moment to register.
Wilson’s father, Dr. Woodrow Wilson, was a prominent dentist in Wilmington.
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“He asked us if we were going to go, and we said no,” Raveling recalled. The University has such a lopsided demographic that it has earned the nickname, “Vanillanova.”
Terry Nance, the chief diversity officer at the school, told The Villanovan, “Our mission is not an inactive one — it calls us to action and to serve the underserved,” Nance said.
We said, for what. King, can I have that copy?’ And he turned and handed it to me.” — George Raveling
“As King gets toward the close of the speech,” Raveling said, “if you were able to turn the sound up loud enough, you can hear a female voice in the back say, ‘tell ’em about the dream, Martin, tell ’em about the dream,’ and that was the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson,” Raveling said.
— George Raveling was on the mall in Washington, DC on August 28, 1963, where he agreed to volunteer as security during the March on Washington.