The RELEVANT Martin Luther King, Jr.
Part 1: Vietnam or Iraq?
Part 2: Poverty and Race
Part 3: The Mountaintop Prescription
Part 4: Sports Writers Speak about MLK

MLK week is over, but we might take our ongoing “RELEVANT Martin Luther King Series” to April 4th and beyond! Positive, productive, and necessary dialogue should not be confined to one day, one week, one month, or one blog. As was

Part 1 (Vietnam or Iraq?)[1], today’s impetus comes from Michael Tillery and The Starting Five who wanted to "start a conversation". Well, let’s keep this conversation going. Along with some of my favorite sports writers — both alternative and mainstream — I was asked to participate in TSF’s “5 Questions to Take Advantage of a Black Sense of Urgency”. While you are strongly encouraged to read the extended discussion at TSF, we have reprinted full and partial response excerpts related only to the first question:  

 “What does Martin Luther King represent for you personally past, present and future?”

In the following 10 responses, the first five emphasize the power and influence of Dr. King while the latter five focus on sorting through Dr. King’s true identity.  High tributes are offered as Tillery describes the symbolic meaning of the MLK Monument and Dan Le Batard tells us that MLK is the greatest leader in history. Vincent Goodwill discusses how he empowered blacks, Chris Broussard adds how he empowered whites, and Walik Edwards connects MLK’s past to the use of “N-Word” of today.  

Sankofa didn’t initially take to MLK before concluding that he “wasn’t who he thought he was” . So who is MLK? Jemele Hill, says he was anything, but “soft”; that equality does NOT equal colorblindedness; and that King would likely be detested if he were still alive today. Dave Zirin notes that MLK was a global figure who connected the CRM and anti-poverty fight with his fierce and unpopular opposition to the Vietnam War. After adding my two cents, Temple3 brings it on home on the overriding principles of MLK, the OTHER half of the “I Have a Dream” speech, and why it is imperative that we all understand the last five years of his life that have been removed from popular history.  Needless to say, I couldn’t agree more. Let’s get started. 
 

Michael Tillery, Sports Writer – The Starting Five:

“…While making an appearance to help raise money for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, I asked Golden State Warrior forward Chris Webber how Dr. King affected him personally and he offered, “My parents made sure we knew of Dr. King’s legacy growing up. My mother was a teacher so there was no getting away from respecting his affect on our people and the nation as well. The only thing I can do with my “celebrity” to further his dream is to make sure I give kids–specifically Black boys–a positive role model to look up to. I’m not perfect, but I try to make sure I live my life in a way Dr. King wanted us all to.” One of the best moments of my life was November 13th, 2006. The MLK groundbreaking ceremony was special. MLK will be the first of his race to have a monument erected–between Jefferson and Lincoln–and the happiness seemingly on all the faces gave me a feeling similar to what I had during the Million Man March."

Admittedly, I was a little disappointed there weren’t more professional athletes present. I did see Bill Russell and Bill Walton, but no active players in any of the major sports. Its likely scheduling conflicts were an issue or athletes just weren’t invited, but a huge opportunity was lost that day for the three major sports leagues to affect change. I have a new found respect for Bill Walton. Walton was a prominent figure the entire day and in my opinion represented the NBA and his generation very well. Congresswoman Diane Watson shook me up a little when I asked her, Jesse Jackson or Dick Gregory could they ever see someone as great as MLK gracing our existence and Congresswoman Watson came with this response: “From the African proverb, there are always three spirits in the room: Those who came before, those who walk in the present and those yet unborn so those on earth can have justice they deserve as a people. I want to say this, all great messengers have left this earth in their thirties. Think about it. Jesus and others who brought a message. Once that message was delivered, they were taken back to be with God. So please understand how important this day is and the monument as well.”


Dan Le Batard, Sports Writer, Miami Herald/ESPN the Mag; Radio host; & ESPN TV personality

Not just the greatest African-American leader ever, but in the discussion of greatest leader, period — any time, any place, any country, any ethnicity. Greatest orator of my lifetime. Astounding bravery. Peaceful beyond human reason. Deserves a place on a more modern Mount Rushmore. An enduring and echoing greatness that should require genuflection from any person in this country, not just any black person. But his dream remains deferred. I’m not sure how he would feel if he looked around today. You have to wonder if he’d ask, “Seriously? We’re not equal ital:yet:ital?”
…for a man [Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.] to come along and believe that he could change that in one generation – nonviolently at that! – was simply amazing. He and his followers were inspired by belief in God’s Word rather than discouraged by belief in the White man’s power. We’ve got to get back to that as a people. So when I look at all the things plaguing us as a people today – seemingly insurmountable obstacles such as 70% of Black children being raised in single-parent households, the growing prison industrial complex, outrageously high Black male unemployment rates, a changing global economy that seems to be leaving us behind, continuing racism, etc… – I try to have the same faith Dr. King had and believe that with God, even the seemingly impossible is possible (that wasn’t just a cliché’ to Dr. King).
Dr. King also represents unity. Man, how I long for African-Americans to display the same unity and fortitude we showed during the Movement. All the movements of that era: Civil Rights, nationalist and Black Power. Not a unity that attempts to bring Whites down, but a unity that attempts to lift Blacks up. To be pro-Black is not synonymous with being anti-White. Finally, we often think of Dr. King as merely a Black hero, but Whites owe him a major debt of gratitude as well. Mainstream White society, particularly in the South, was incredibly sick back then. When you read about and watch in films how they treated and regarded Black folks, it’s almost unfathomable that seemingly civilized people could be so prideful, hateful and torturous. While they regarded Blacks as less than human, they were actually the ones behaving like animals devoid of rational thought. Dr. King’s work went a long way in humanizing them, and even though he couldn’t necessarily put love and fairness in their hearts, he did put a degree of fairness and justice in their laws. In the grand scheme, with an Almighty God judging us all for how we treat our fellow man, Whites (not just Blacks) need to be thankful as all get out that Dr. King helped deliver them.
 
MLK was somebody to fight for. I was one of the people who did the loud screaming, stomping and etc. in Arizona when they decided that having a Martin Luther King Day was irrelevant. It only became relevant when their Super Bowl privileges were being threatened. Can’t lose that Super Bowl can we, Sun Folk.”
Whenever I hear the “N” word justified in some ignorant way (spelling, term of endearment, etc.), I think of MLK and all of the non-violent folks who were hung, incarcerated, ridiculed, and tormented because of that word, and oh yeah, the perpetrators didn’t care how the word was spelled.
Can you imagine? “Hey, Nigger! What’choo doin’ around here?! Grab his black ass!”
As he’s about to be hung from a tree, the black man says, “I’m not a Nigger, sir, but a Nigga.”
“He’s got a point.”

“Alright, boys. Get that noose from around his neck! We’re sorry for the misunderstandin’.”

If you use the word, you can’t say you respect Dr. King. The two don’t go hand-in-hand. You have to follow the man’s words all the way.

Sankofa, Writer Black My-story 

"Growing up in Jamaica in the 60’s during the rise of the African conscious movement in the Corporate United States and the Rastafarian movement at home, I was conditioned towards a particular mindset. The postcolonial knee-grow factory and the legacy of the latent colonial worldview of Anglo -Saxon on top and African at the bottom experiencing disenfranchisement and poverty made my peers and I rebellious. The first book of substance I ever read was the “young Warriors,” an account of the rights of passage of young Maroon warriors during the British-Maroon wars. …By the time I read my second book of substance as a high schooler – the Autobiography of Malcolm X, followed by Soul on Ice, my path was set. Therefore when Martin Luther King came with his movement and speeches on non-violence and living as one, my African fist, clinched in an iron glove wasn’t hearing any of that. It was not but decades later, after more in depth reading on MLK, particularly after his opposition to the Vietnam invasion and studying Vernon John (his predecessor at Ebenezer Baptist) did I have an appreciation for MLK and his moral and physical courage. He is the kind of Christian I can appreciate because he walked the walk after talking the talk and gave his life so that others may live."

 
I’ve always felt affection toward MLK, but in my later years I’ve learned that while Martin preached a message of turning the other cheek, he wasn’t soft. MLK could have been our next president because he united disenfranchised groups and empowered them. His legacy has, sadly, been romanticized to fit racist agendas. People don’t understand he preached EQUALITY, which is a lot different than color blind-ed-ness. Being colorblind suggest everyone is the same. But we don’t really want that kind of America. We should want an America that recognizes, preaches, understands and learns from different cultures. It’s most important that America give equal opportunity and respect to all peoples. That is what MLK stood for. MLK didn’t hold his tongue. He wasn’t soft. He spoke for the underclass. …Unfortunately, if he were alive today, they’d probably castigate him like they do Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. They would call him a whiner and a race baiter. But if you read through his speeches, you’ll see MLK wasn’t playing around and I just find it interesting that the mainstream has made him into this benign, transcendent figure. Yes, he loved all people — white, black, yellow or green. But he stood up for what he believed in. He represented those who couldn’t represent themselves and gave a voice to the speechless. We’ve made his legacy one that doesn’t insult or offend, but trust me, if he were alive today, he wouldn’t be giving everyone the message they wanted to hear. He’d be giving them the message they needed to hear."
 

He represents something pure, a standard that cannot be touched, but can be used as a goal. For the past, he strived for something most thought was unattainable. If he stayed alive, maybe he could’ve been president or opened doors from people like Barack Obama quicker. We, as black people have also had a greater sense of pride, actually, he helped us develop a sense of pride, a sense of tolerance, a sense of humanity in an inhumane world. He was the greatest speaker, the most compassionate, the greatest visionary I’ve read about or seen in my limited time here. He didn’t want us as blacks to stand above or below. He wanted us to be equal and act as such, instead of being second-rate citizens. He wanted a smart black man to be looked at as something other than an anomaly, but as the rule. He gave ME a chance to have a voice.

 

"Dr. King stands as the embodiment of three ideas that I believe are essential to any analysis of social change. The first is the idea that change doesn’t begin in the back rooms of Washington DC but in the struggles of ordinary people – as they become extraordinary through struggle. We know and remember Dr. King precisely because thousands upon thousands of people whose names we will never know, fought in the streets for a better world. The second idea is that the fight against racism can’t be separated from the fight for economic justice and against poverty. At the time of his death, King was immersed in the Poor People’s Campaign, and his assassination of course went down in Memphis where he was providing solidarity to striking sanitation workers. He said, “There is no point in being able to sit at a lunch counter if you cannot afford a cup of coffee."
"And lastly, King understood and was vocal about the fact that the fight against racism at home could not be separated from fighting the US empire abroad. In his famous 1967 speech at Riverside Church, Dr. King said, “We were taking the Black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools… I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today–my own government. He made this point at great personal cost. The Washington Post said that Dr. King had “diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people.” Time magazine described his words “demagogic slander.”
"I agree with those who say that MLK is the greatest American our country ever produced. Hundreds of years from now, his writings and speeches will hold up because at his core he is not just a leader but a philosopher. That is why unlike other American in history he is a global figure that transcends our country. For me he represents a man of ACTION. I use that word deliberately because, unfortunately the mainstream media has basically reduced him to little more than a “dreamer” by manipulating a couple of lines in his most famous speech. Author Michael Eric Dyson expounds on this point quite well in “The True Martin Luther King, Jr.” And the strategic and moral leadership that MLK provided during the Civil Rights Movement was nothing short of extraordinary. From that period in his life “The Letter From a Birmingham Jail” is probably my favorite piece… It is the post-Civil Rights Act King that is most relevant to our times today. Whether it was his views on the Vietnam War, combatting poverty, or black economic empowerment. These are messages that matter now. Unfortunately they are also messages that have been written out of popular history and children’s textbooks. This is quite unfortunate because I believe that MLK, despite being so famous is completely misunderstood.…"
"In graduate school, I coordinated a rather large conference to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy. Our celebrations were unconventional to say the least. The focus was never strictly on segregation. Segregation was a tactic. Slavery was a tactic. Red-lining is a tactic. Redistricting is a tactic. Voter intimidation is a tactic. Too little attention has been paid to the principle which unified these various tactics over time and space. Moreover, too little attention has been paid to viable solutions. Our celebrations/conferences, then, focused on solutions and predicting tactics based on dynamic conditions. Those solutions were always framed in economic, political, environmental and cultural terms. My perspective of Dr. King is not widely shared in the United States. Most persons and institutions continue to focus on a singular speech made in 1963. There is no question that it was a great moment in the history of American rhetoric. Nonetheless, for many reasons, our national media, schools and information centers continue to focus on the second half of the speech. The first half of the speech passes in relative silence year after year after year. If this great speech could be formally divided into two halves, the first segment might have been entitled, “I Live a Nightmare.”
"Dr. King’s nightmare was etched in vivid detail. He speaks of his ancestors being seared in the withering flames of injustice. This description is as figurative as it is literal. Thousands of Africans were burned alive for reasons ranging from curiosity to capriciousness. This is part of Dr. King’s 1963 address. So too are references to manacles, narrow jail cells, police brutality, poverty and entrenched efforts to dehumanize and justify years of moral turpitude. Dr. King warned the nation that the summer of 1963 was part of a continuum – that it was not the beginning or end of a movement. He was right. He also set preconditions for America becoming a great nation. He spoke not merely of suppressed voting rights in Mississippi, but the absence of authentic political choice in New York. This is part of Dr. King’s1963 address. There is a great deal more to this speech than generally meets the ear. America’s perpetual need to feel good (as if a drug-induced stupor would actually resuscitate him or do service to his memory) has obliterated half of this speech and the last five years of his life. In 1963, Dr. King was the most visible face of a people subjected to terrorism by the state and wide factions of the public. He was killed by the concerted actions of that state and the public. He lived a nightmare – and in many respects, he never saw the sun."
"As for the future, I believe it is imperative that Black folk and persons of goodwill do the work of understanding the last five years of his life. If you are talking to young people about Dr. King and all you know is that he “had a dream” and that he opposed segregation, it’s time to do some work. I strongly suggest reading “Why We Can’t Wait”  and “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community.”

Final Note: Oddly enough, it was a college professor of mine who also chose “Why We Can’t Wait” to introduce myself and other students to King. This small paperback served as an initial primer that led to new pathways in my mind, an array of new books on my shelf (MLK and way beyond), and new perspectives that could never be reversed: Perspectives that my high school teachers; my daily environment; and my peers would unwittingly conspire to keep me as racially ignorant as possible. And my professor must have known this as MLK wrote “Why We Can’t Wait” as if he was explaining something to a white 5-year old, yet without condescension. Yet the truth was that at age 20, my historical racial IQ WAS that of a five year old – at best. So it occurs to me that for those fellow whites who had not had any life-changing professors, that they – and their children– start with Temple’s recommendations. …Once again, it is recommended that you read the entire original TSF post which is also includes the FULL responses, commentary on Tiger-Kelly, and the educational future of our nation’s youth.  

– Charles Modiano

 

[1] After being refreshed by this 2nd video amongst the three. It is MLK’s 1967 speech on the Vietnam War.