Sen. Hillary Clinton’s recent statement that President Lyndon Johnson was responsible for the Civil Rights Act leaves me stunned. I remember when Martin Luther King was marching and bringing to the attention of the world the inequities among our citizens perpetrated against the black community..

Having lived in Maine all my life, the atrocities against the black community were unknown to me, or so far removed from my life as to be unbelievable. I imagine it also was to many others. Had Martin Luther King not marched and spoken of those troubles, many of us would have never known. He woke up Americans and brought those issues into our homes. It became personal for all of us.

King is the hero here, not President Johnson, as Clinton stated. No legislation would have been passed or considered if it hadn’t been for the actions of Martin Luther King. He paid for this recognition with his death.

The citizens of this country demanded that our black citizens be treated equally and fairly. That is the reason the Civil Rights Act was created.

I remember Martin Luther King. I barely remember President Johnson.

Mary Jane Newell, Oxford