It’s The Ides of March

My husband Dave poses with a statue of Julius Caesar on our visit to Rome

Today March 15th is The Ides of March. Shakespeare made the date famous with his line “Beware the Ides of March” in the play Julius Caesar.

The Death of Julius Caesar by Vincenzo Camuccini

March 15th in 44BCE was the day that sixty or so Roman senators led by Brutus and Cassius stabbed Julius Caesar to death. A soothsayer or seer warned Julius Caesar of his impeding doom with the words “beware the Ides of March.”

LBJ making his We Shall Overcome speech in Congress –Photo from the Associated Press

I learned when we visited the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin Texas last month that March 15th, 1965 is the day the former president gave his famous We Shall Overcome speech in Congress in which he made it clear that something had to be done about the civil rights of Black people in the United States.

He called on the country to “overcome their crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice.”

Display at the LBJ Presidential Library

A few years later Johnson would sign the Civil Rights Act which outlawed discrimination based on race or colour, sex, religion or national origin. The act also prohibited discrimination in voter registration and segregation in schools, employment and public accommodation.

Some people say you have to be careful on March 15th because bad things could happen.

But as I learned at the LBJ Presidential Library good things can happen on this day too.

Take care and have a good day.

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