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
“I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without first having spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence I cannot be silent.” — MLK on Vietnam War April, 1967
It happened again – like it does every year the mainstream media trots out a week worth of documentaries on Dr. Martin Luther King. In this case it was “Words That Changed a Nation” which aired Sunday on CNN. The first 53 minutes of the hour covered the life, times, and words of Dr. Martin Luther King right up until the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Then the last few minutes focused on the last verse of “The Mountaintop” speech and his death. Once again we heard the most about the “I Have a Dream Speech”, once again we heard absolutely nothing about his life from 1964 to 1968, and once again MLK was essentially deemed irrelevant to our present day condition. Of course, there is no getting around or minimizing MLK’s historic and monumental contributions to America during the Civil Rights Movement. However, history and the media have dangerously reduced MLK to a “dreamer” instead a man of action – and more significantly — a man of present day relevance. Ride in the front of the bus. Check. Same water fountains. Check. Voting rights. Check. A black man and a woman are even running for president today. Martin’s dream has been officially realized! …Even Hillary has confirmed it.
The reality is that understanding the Martin Luther King, Jr. between 1965-1968 is much more useful and relevant to present-day America. That is the time where he was confronted with more nuanced and insidious injustices that not only existed in the South, but in the North; weren’t just domestic, but global; and pertained not just to race, but class. These issues couldn’t be as easily identified as Bull Conner’s dogs and fire hoses, and their solutions went far beyond the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Princeton Professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell explains that history’s retelling of King "makes it impossible both for us to find new leaders and for us to aspire to leadership". She believes it’s important for Americans in 2008 to remember how disliked King was in 1968. "If we forget that, then it seems like the only people we can get behind must be popular," … "Following King meant following the unpopular road, not the popular one."
It was the unpopular King, who in that same “Mountaintop Speech” spoke practically and unapologetically about “strengthening black institutions”, “the power of economic withdrawal”, and “redistributing the pain” before ever mentioning his visions of “the promised land”. It was earlier that year that King, demanded government intervention while drumming up support for his planned Poor People’s March forcefully stating "Now, when we come to Washington in this campaign, we are coming to get our check." And it was the prior year in 1967 where King defiantly spoke out against the Vietnam War making it clear for any of those that didn’t previously understand – including many of his very own overruled advisors — that the Civil Rights Movement was always a human rights movement at its core (a similar conclusion Malcom X prior to his death). In doing so, this past Nobel Peace Prize winner jeopardized his popular status by having the audacity to be consistent in his principles of non-violence. And while the mainstream media continues to have amnesia about the anti-war King, these presidential primaries combined with ongoing MLK tributes might be a good a time to refresh our national and political memory.
· Dissent vs. Disloyalty: “…Now, I’ve chosen to preach about the war in Vietnam because I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal… Now, of course, one of the difficulties in speaking out today grows the fact that there are those who are seeking to equate dissent with disloyalty. It’s a dark day in our nation when high-level authorities will seek to use every method to silence dissent. But something is happening, and people are not going to be silenced. The truth must be told, and I say that those who are seeking to make it appear that anyone who opposes the war in Vietnam is a fool or a traitor or an enemy of our soldiers is a person that has taken a stand against the best in our tradition… Yes, we must stand, and we must speak. [tape skip]…have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam.”
· War as the “Demonic, Destructive Suction Tube”: “There is…a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed that there was a real promise of hope for the poor, both black and white, through the Poverty Program. There were experiments, hopes, and new beginnings. Then came the build-up in Vietnam. And I watched the program broken as if it was some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war. And I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money, like some demonic, destructive suction tube. And you may not know it, my friends, but it is estimated that we spend $500,000 to kill each enemy soldier, while we spend only $53 for each person classified as poor, and much of that $53 goes for salaries to people that are not poor. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor, and attack it as such. …Now, I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.”
· On The “Noble” Media: “Been a lot of applauding over the last few years. They applauded our total movement; they’ve applauded me. America and most of its newspapers applauded me in Montgomery. And I stood before thousands of Negroes getting ready to riot when my home was bombed and said, we can’t do it this way. They applauded us in the sit-in movement–we non-violently decided to sit in at lunch counters. The applauded us on the Freedom Rides when we accepted blows without retaliation. They praised us in Albany and Birmingham and Selma, Alabama. Oh, the press was so noble in its applause, and so noble in its praise when I was saying, Be non-violent toward Bull Connor; when I was saying, Be non-violent toward [Selma, Alabama segregationist sheriff] Jim Clark. There’s something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that will praise you when you say, Be non-violent toward Jim Clark, but will curse and damn you when you say, "Be non-violent toward little brown Vietnamese children. There’s something wrong with that press!”
· On “A Revolution of Values”: “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation. It will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
· On REAL Patriotism: "Let me say finally that I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America. I speak out against this war, not in anger, but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and, above all, with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as the moral example of the world. I speak out against this war because I am disappointed with America. And there can be no great disappointment where there is not great love. I am disappointed with our failure to deal positively and forthrightly with the triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism. …It is time for all people of conscience to call upon America to come back home. Come home, America. Omar Khayyam is right: ‘The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.’ I call on Washington today. I call on every man and woman of good will all over America today. I call on the young men of America who must make a choice today to take a stand on this issue. Tomorrow may be too late. The book may close. And don’t let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine, messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America, "You’re too arrogant! And if you don’t change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I’ll place it in the hands of a nation that doesn’t even know my name. Be still and know that I’m God."
Click here for full transcript of "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam".
Click here for full AUDIO (Got to 2nd YouTube Box)
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
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Good read, and good timing on the article MODI. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about how we’ve allowed other people to shape Dr. King’s memory and black/minority history in general. I told them how Dr. King, Malcolm X, Che, etc., are now nothing more but a means to sell t-shirts. I’m as pro-black as anybody, but I’m sick and tired of hearing “I Have a Dream” all the time. It was a great speech, but I always believed that his best speeches, including the ones that you cited above were better and more important, were done after “I Have a Dream.”
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:48 amIt is still amazing that today, you can see the connections between Vietnam and Iraq. Dissent in these days = unpatriotic. If it’s unpatriotic for me to want my country to do what’s right ethically, versus what’s right to the bottom line of some corporation’s coffers, than I am unpatriotic. As a country, we’re always more ready to go fight the so-called evil ones elsewhere, than we are to try to help those in real need in our own country. Ask for people to tighten their belts to help the poor, and it’s “They need to learn to lift themselves up by their boot straps!” or “They’re lazy and they did it to themselves!” But, ask for a war, and it’s “we have to do it, otherwise they’ll attack us!” or something crazy along those lines.
kos,
Agreed. The “I Have a Dream” speech needs to be put on a shelf until youth (and adults) learn about who MLK really was. And let’s be honest, most kids only know 4 lines of the speech. MLK deserves to get his balls back. ME Dyson breaks this point down in The True Martin Luther King http://www.amazon.com/May-Not-Get-There-You/dp/068483037X
MLK would be HATED if he were around today. He would have opposed the war from the start and been killed for it. And if he were to look at the almost trillion spent, he would have been all over that “demonic, destructive suction tube”
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:45 pmThat’s how you do it. You know I’m withchu on ‘nis one.
January 23rd, 2008 at 5:03 pmModi,
I agree that Dr. King has been “Locked” into the 1964 Speech.
Dr. King evolved into an individual that was willing to do
what was right, as opposed to what was popular. He even stated in one of his later speeches that as he turned his attention to the economic disparity that existed between the races, he expected to lose many of his supporters. A man of convictions.
Dr. King was also a visionary. If you listen to a speech he gave in 67(I believe in Berkeley, CA), he spoke about
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:12 pmhow Technology, was separating the haves from the have-nots.
Who was speaking of this 40 years ago!!! Good Topic Modi
Temple, I know you are with me. Just put up Part 2. On part 3, I borrowing almost exclusively from your similar post — with credit of course…
Statesman, you are right. I will check out that technology speech that you speak about.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:07 pmThanks and you’re welcome.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:14 pmGentlereaders,
Unfortunately the discourse is limited to us here (at least for now). However, I certainly do hope that others lurking here found this timely, insightful and most useful thread posted by Modi. Excellent finds Modi. Bravisimo!
I will add this mini LAP (Long-Ass Post) regarding the “I have a Dream” speech as titled by the MSM and America. I can be contradicted though I will remain convinced that Dr. King did not start out to write a speech entitled “I have a Dream”. It was the perfect buzz, hook or catch-phrase from his speech which best resonated with the populace he sought to move (both those that were reactive as opponents and proactive as cohorts). Therein lies the continued battle people of color and the HAVE-nots will continue to fight.
For me, there’s an insiduous element to coining and glorifying an MLK “I have a Dream Speech”. In fact, I say it is a downright dirty shame and we often fail to recognize it. Therefore, with no apologies to historians and purists, I suggest we recast the August 28, 1963 speech as “Let Freedom Ring” by Martin Luther King, Jr. Afterall, he began the speech by talking about the day being the most significant day in the fight for for freedom. He ends the speech with 10 repeated versese of “Let Freedom Ring”. He mentions his “dream” only 8 times so my proposal has merits in sheer numbers alone.
To contextualize this thought with 2008 as you so aptly did with your King quotes, I would say the Clinton “Fairy Tale” coinage to Obama’s discourse and presidential run is very similar to what we are to believe about King’s “dream”. In both instances, we are told that those aspirations are nothing but “dreams” and “fairy tales”. One can dream the dream or even tell the tale. At the end of the day, WE (the privileged HAVEs) will determine your reality, your identity, your accomplishments and their meaning or significance in the grand scheme of things.
Ergo today, we DO have little Black boys and little white girls getting married and eating at the same luncheon counter or having children who run for political offices. It is a dream and a fairy tale, however, if you challenge US (the privileged HAVEs). Henceforth, I submit that Martin Luther King, and the generation that struggled with him had dreams. The generations that ensued should seek their realities and let freedom ring.
Credit be unto Bill Clinton for his accomplishments as President. His time as President or being presidential have passed. I have heard the statement about “owing Bill for having been a Black President”. With that “Fairy Tale” LOADED metaphor, Bill Clinton reminds ME and a few others who may be thinking like me, that he was not a Black President the way Toni Morrison and Andrew Young say. Bill Clinton and his wife are very much about remaining with the HAVEs and blocking others from joining the world of the privileged ones. The Clintons want to dole out freedom to the HAVE-nots like benevolent slave-owner/abolitionits.
Dr. King (and similarly effective Malcolm X) reached the apex of their rise and bordered the world of the HAVEs and privileged ones. Their lives were snuffed because their dreams smacked the audacity of reality and ultimate freedom. They were viewed as Princes of Peace and won major acclaims, accolades, lived comfortably and planned with Cesar Chavez, the Native Americans, and the impoverished HAVE-nots of Kentucky and the Appalachian Mountains. The fate of those dreamers was death.
Let us watch the MSM and see how they begin the destruction of the next generation of “dreamers”. We can start by reclaiming and renaming the MLK Speech to “Let Freedom Ring” by MLK, Jr. Keep us on ALERT Modi. And we got yo back.
January 24th, 2008 at 1:53 am“Credit be unto Bill Clinton for his accomplishments as President.”
Stop the madness.
I don’t have all day - and I’m not going to smash that greasy bastard right now, but please, stop the madness. I could go on and on and on and on - till the break of dawn. Clinton does NOT deserve props - he needs to put in perspective.
January 24th, 2008 at 10:18 amSteady:
I certainly agree with your assessment of the speech - and I would assert that the first half of the speech - the longer part was centered on outlining his “American nightmare.” The US has always portrayed itself as a democracy - even at the height of Jim Crow - even at the height of Clinton’s pissing away thousands of jobs with NAFTA…even through Bush’s unilateral determination to kill a former ally and seize the oil leases of a sovereign people (still in process). The folks who maintain the US is a democracy are absolutely delusional.
Clinton was the king of job exportation (NAFTA) and prison construction. He specialized in cutting safety nets (welfare reform/health care reform). He set the stage for framing the US relationship with China (remember that bombing in Kosovo?). He ignored Rwanda - the same way Bush is ignoring the Congo. And yet, somehow, the man who was so opposed to Big Pharma is PUSHING mandatory HIV-AIDS testing FOR ALL AFRICAN ADULTS in nations with high rates of infection. The economics of rolling out a mandatory continental testing program are enormous.
That saxophone playin’ pimp from Arkansas had sexual relations with the minds of millions of “thinking voters.” You’ve all been phukkked.
January 24th, 2008 at 10:28 amSteady, thanks for the post.
– As for the I Have a Dream speech, he had many previous speeches that used variations of the phrase, HOWEVER, you are absolutely correct that he had no initial plans to use it in 1963. It is no where in the copy that he was using that day in 1963. He just improvised at the end. In and of itself, if taken in its entire context is still a great speech.
– …changing it to Let Freedon Ring is definitely a step up, but even that phrase has been completely distorted. I mean SEAN HANNITY has a book called “Let Freedom Ring”! The bigger picture is somehow letting people know that MLK didn’t die that day! King must be restored as a HUMAN rights activist instead of one limited to the CRM. To do this, his latter years must be studied.
– About Bill Clinton, Toni Morrison’s comment was specifically referring to his “single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas”. None of those comments– whatever you think of them– speak to national policy. Clinton’s speeches and rhetoric on the subject of racial equality were never matched by his actual policies. As T3 points out and as you know full well because of your work there, he KNEW about Rwanda, but did not act (he does admit this to be his greatest mistake while in office). But beyond that, the crime bill that he signed in 1994 was just a TERRIBLE piece of policy that has had consequences far beyond his leaving office.
Also, when he wasn’t using Sista Souljah of all people to gain support, he probably signed the worst piece of legislation of our times: The 1996 Telecommunications Act. This act consolidated media in a way that is irreversable — as is its damage which ultimately spelled the demise of all smaller media sources which includes the independent black press and radio stations. I give him a partial pass on this one since 95 Senators also supported the Bill. The only reason that we never hear about the act is that all BIG MEDIA outlets benefitted from it.
And on a separate note the 1996 Act is also the main catalyst for the demise of all sports media. It helped enable Disney’s buyout of ESPN and its subsequent downfall.
January 24th, 2008 at 11:32 amYou have to love how politicians try to use a man that most of them probably hated when he was alive to further their agenda. How they twist his words to justify their view and to sell it to the masses.
January 24th, 2008 at 11:48 amTelecommunications act of ‘96 > It’s also the reason that Clear Channel, ran by a big Bush supporter, is the dominant player in radio. It’s why there was an explosion in talk radio, catering mostly to the angry white male. And closer to my heart, the dumbing down of radio. Stats, pay-ola, and the like are the reason there’s no variety in the radio these days.
kos, so true…
About Clear Channel, the dumbing dow of radio, stats, & payola, it annoys me to know end that 99% of all discussions on music, particularly hip-hop do not start right there. I’ve written about this in one of my very first posts: “How You Can Save Hip Hop?” http://www.cosellout.com/?p=6
January 24th, 2008 at 12:09 pmthank you and fuck ya
January 24th, 2008 at 4:03 pmAfter people stop giving Colin Powell head for being the first this or that, they can try to get down with his flat out lie at the UN - and the sellout actions of his crummy kid who ran the FCC.
January 24th, 2008 at 5:56 pmTemple3,
January 24th, 2008 at 6:45 pmFunny how the house of cards crumble in light of history and hindsight. Clearly these guys are paper gods or MSM-created vestiges. When their human foibles are revealed, Malcolm called it a case of chickens coming home to roost. The point is simply to remain vigilent. That’s all we’re doing here–remaining vigilent.
[…] Act King that is most relevant to our times today. Whether it was his views on the Vietnam war (article here), combating poverty, or black economic empowerment. These are messages that matter now. […]
January 29th, 2008 at 11:54 am