Honoring the Rich Radical Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King is honored with a holiday across the US on the third Monday of January, between 15-21, every year since 1986 - three years after president Ronald Reagan wrote the holiday into law. Countries outside the US also recognise the life and achievement of Martin Luther King Jr. On this day we remember his life and work, celebrate the victories of the civil rights movement, and reflect on what still needs to be done in the pursuit of racial justice. 

Martin Luther King was born on Jan. 15, 1929 in Atlanta  and became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement. From the mid-1950s until his death in 1968 King sought equality and human rights for African Americans. Through peaceful protests, he and his followers fought for all victims of injustice and the economically disadvantaged. King was the hidden motivation behind many watershed events  

He rose to national prominence when he led the boycott of the 1955 Montgomery’s transit system after Rosa Parks, an African-American, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus. King later in 1957 helped form  the Southern Christian Leadership Conference serving as its first president. With the SCLC, he helped organise the non-violent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama. He also helped to organise the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

On October 14 1964 King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combatting racial inequality through non-violent resistance. In 1965, he helped to organise the Selma to Montgomery marches, and the following year he and the SCLC took the movement north to Chicago to work on segregated housing.

In the final years of his life, he expanded his focus to include opposition to poverty and the Vietnam War. On March 29 1968, King went to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of the black sanitary public works employees, who were represented by AFSCME Local 1733, King was killed by an assassin .at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on 4 April 1968 and died later that same day at St Joseph's Hospital. News of his death was followed by riots in many US cities.

American white supremacist  James Earl Ray was convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King Jr, entering a guilty plea to forgo a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentence, and was sentenced to 99 years' imprisonment.This sentence was extended to 100 years after Ray and six other convicts temporarily escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, in Tennessee, in 1977, only to be captured three days later. He died on 23 April 1998, aged 70.

MLK Day is a federal holiday, though it was not made official until 18 years after his assassination.

Efforts to honor King with a federal holiday began just months after his death. Those efforts failed, as did a 1979 vote by Congress that came after King's widow, Coretta Scott King, spoke out in favor of the day. Momentum for the holiday grew in 1980 when entertainer Stevie Wonder released "Happy Birthday" in King's honor, leading to a petition calling for MLK Day.

In 1983, 15 years after King's death, 22 senators actually voted against an official holiday honoring him. The North Carolina senator Jesse Helms undertook a 16 day fillibuster of the bill claiming that King's "action-oriented Marxism" was "not compatible with the concept of this country" He was joine in his opposition by Senators John McCain, Orrin Hatch and Chuck Grassly, among others. Ronald Reagon reluctantly signed the legislation, all the while grumbling that he would have preferred 

 a day similar to Abraham Lincoln's birthday, which is not technically a national holiday. 

To this day, after  MLK Jr. Day, was formally recognised  we often are presented with a sanitized, nonconfrontational version of Dr. King that is a far cry from the radical activist who was reviled during his time for his powerful justice work. Whether these misconceptions are promoted by those who are genuinely unfamiliar with Dr. King’s true history or by those who seek to silence today’s black activists with his more “acceptable” example, one thing is clear: there is a whole lot more to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s inspiring legacy than we are taught in school.

The reality is that Martin Luther King held revolutionary ideals rooted in the 18th-century vision of freedom and equality and grounded by a Christian theological vision of social justice. With these ideals, he and his fellow civil rights workers intentionally created national discomfort in cities, north as well as south, throughout the 1960s. 

We should  not forget that  King told the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) board on March 30, 1967, "The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism."

Just a few days later, on April 4, 1967—exactly one year before King was assasinated he delivered an infamous speech at Riverside Church in New York City condemning the Vietnam War. He called for an end to the "nightmarish conflict" as well as for the nation to "undergo a radical revolution of values," saying in part:;

"A true revolution of values will lay hand 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."

 

 Holding true to his principles is what compelled him to take a deeply reflective antiwar stance in the era of the Vietnam War. King articulated the great revolutionary hope that human beings might one day live in a world of individuality, mutuality and respect.

King’s ideals were also derived from a human rights tradition rooted in the long fight against slavery. He recognized that many before him had paved the way for him and his contemporaries to take up the fight for freedom and equality. He felt duty-bound to keep antiracist protests and democratic freedoms alive in the United States even as the forces of Cold War geopolitics were distorting them in the greater part of the world, in the name of political freedom. On MLK Day, it is worth remembering his stirring, passionate condemnation of U.S. militarism,and his arguments about why opposition to it can't be extricated from anti-racism or anti-poverty activism. Mainstream media outlets will remember King’s “I have a dream” speech, but forget that he also said, “We must see now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism are all tied together.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is also a fine opportunity to note that King belongs to a pantheon of famous historical figures who were, to the surprise of many admirers, committed socialists. King questioned the “captains of industry” and their ownership over the workplace, the means of production (“Who owns the oil?… Who owns the iron ore?”), and believed “something is wrong with capitalism. "There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.”

Martin Luther King Jr as part of a wider movement, standing alongside socialists such as Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin , and A Phillip Randolph in not just attempting to dismantle the Jim Crow system, but replacing it with an egalitarian social democracy, committed to building a broad movement to overcome the failings of capitalism and achieve both racial and economic equality for all people,

He also sacrificed his life to continuous political struggle. His dream sometimes became a nightmare and was met with frustrated reactions that at times were vitriolic, scornful and violent. For his militancy King was hounded by the FBI , denounced as a communist, n bombarded with death threats,

It is sad to recollect that most of the American public, either because of fear or complacency, accepted the forms of inequalities that had been heaped upon racial minorities in their country as though they were ordained by God. Only 22% of Americans approved of  the freedom rides fighting segregated transportation. King, however, sustained a utopian vision of what life could be like for all Americans and people around the world if national leaders and common citizens alike exercised our political will for the common good. 

Though Martin Luther King Day is an American holiday, the man himself was thoroughly international.

He had long supported anti colonial struggles in developing countries, His political thoughts traverses all borders.Like so many strugglers in the long fight against racism, King appreciated that it was, at it's heart a global project.  Many years later  despite some victory's and gains, the march for equality is unfinished, and for some his dream is unrealised, take for instance the case of the Palestinians who are daily imprisoned.

We cannot  let go of Dr King's dream, because, surely it is everybody's dream, we must continuously try to change the world, remember those in the U.S.A fighting for jobs and freedom, a land  still lanquishing to find itself, while perpetrating injustice, discrimination and inequality. A country that imprisons more  of their citizens than any other country in the world. African Americans in particular, though they are 12% of the population, make up 38% of the state prison population, despite their crimes being no different from their white and hispanic counterparts.

Sadly King's legacy was gravely dishonoured every day that bloody Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office. Yet despite this  Dr King's words can still be  be both sobering and inspiring, his words are a timeless representation of the struggles that disenfranchised people face. As the fight against white supremacy, militarism, and economic inequality continues, it’s important to remember that while King stood for hope, he also stood for action. Today’s Black freedom movement stands firmly in King’s legacy, and should be recognised as such.

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor … it must be demanded by the oppressed!” King determined. Reminding  us that “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at during times of challenge and controversy,” He also warned us that “We must learn to live together as brothers, or we will perish together as fools,” and  that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."  “These are revolutionary times,” King declared. “All over the globe, men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wombs of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born.”

 More than 50 years after his death, Martin Luther King Jr's rich radical  legacy and his words live long in the memory of millions worldwide because he put forward a vision of a society that provides equality for people of all races and backgrounds.This is the cause that King spent his life fighting for, and it is one we should recommit to as we honour his legacy. The power of his words speak as much to the present day as hey did to the turbulent times he witnessed.

 Lets continue to honor this champion of the poor and the oppressed,in our  actions and deeds. In the face of continuing  cruelty and injustice, speak out, and speak up, for surely history will judge us all for our silence. 

Martin Luther King was a Socialist

 Here is an old poem of mine in his honour

Strength to Love

Martin Luther King had a dream
That still today stirs our conscience,
He rejected violence to oppose racial injustice
Spread a message of peace, love and understanding,
His only weapons were his words and faith
As he marched in protest with his fellow man,
A force for good, but radical with intention
Pursued civil disobedience was not afraid
                                            of confrontation,
We are all born equal under skin
This noble struggle never stops within,
The causes of poverty must still be eradicated
There is so much more room for change,
As fresh iniquities call, lets keep hope alive
Standing firm let our voices ring out,
Keep sharing deeds of deep principle
In the name of pride and in the name of love,
We are all still citizens of the world
As Martin Luther carries on reminding,
“Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.
The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.”
We must continue to resist and overcome

“Let justice roll on like a river, 

righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
One day soon, all our dreams will be realised.