Reflections On Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Every year we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. King and by an accident of history, this year's federal holiday coincidence with the inauguration of the first black President of the United States to a second term in office. It also comes on the fiftieth anniversary of the famous "I Have A Dream" speech, which is familiar to the vast majority of Americans. So we might well argue that Dr. King and his legacy are well-remembered.
I'm not so sure. I wonder how many Americans are truly familiar with Dr. King's work beyond the often-quoted highlights of that 1963 speech. It's true we've created a national holiday and it's true that we're conditioned to think of Dr. King as the great hero of the Civil Rights movement. But I wonder if, in many ways, we're not honoring a one-dimensional representation of Dr. King instead of appreciating the full depth of the man himself and his deep commitment to justice.
What most people, especially white people, seem to remember about Martin Luther King is that he was a great black hero. We remember that part of him that is the least threatening to the establishment, the small segment of his work that allows us to look back with smug self-righteousness and say that, yes, Dr. King was right and heroic to take a bold stand against the great wrong that was segregation.
But that's exactly the problem. In modern times, few would argue that segregation wasn't a great moral wrong and a shameful part of our history. It's a safe, non-controversial position. It doesn't force us to confront anything about our current society. It treats Dr. King as a figure of history, who we can safely honor as if his ideas were about specific historical circumstances that are no longer relevant today. It acts as if nothing much happened between that famous speech in 1963 until his assassination in 1968, as though he didn't do much of anything in between.
The truth is that Dr. King did a whole lot of work between "I Have A Dream" in 1963 and his assassination in 1968. In a lot of ways, the work he did in those years was the most important, the most threatening to the established order, the most relevant to the fight that's left unfinished today. This is the work that challenges some of our most deeply held assumptions, the work that truly made Dr. King a threat who was so serious that he had to be killed.
If you haven't read or listened to much of Dr. King's far less quoted work, I encourage you to do so. One of my personal favorites is his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence" that he delivered at Riverside Church in New York City in 1967. This is the speech where he lays out his views on how we are all equally shackled by the chains of rampant war and militarism because, until we stamp out those things, a whole host of other evils will remain with us. Or read the many things Dr. King had to say about poverty, economic injustice, and rampant materialism.
It's a rich legacy. A truly in-depth reading of Dr. King will force most of us to confront some of our deepest assumptions about our own lives and society as a whole. It is this legacy that truly makes Dr. King a hero, not just for his time but for all time. It is this work that makes him not only a black hero, but truly an American hero.
"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., from "Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence"
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
--Langston Hughes
I'm not so sure. I wonder how many Americans are truly familiar with Dr. King's work beyond the often-quoted highlights of that 1963 speech. It's true we've created a national holiday and it's true that we're conditioned to think of Dr. King as the great hero of the Civil Rights movement. But I wonder if, in many ways, we're not honoring a one-dimensional representation of Dr. King instead of appreciating the full depth of the man himself and his deep commitment to justice.
What most people, especially white people, seem to remember about Martin Luther King is that he was a great black hero. We remember that part of him that is the least threatening to the establishment, the small segment of his work that allows us to look back with smug self-righteousness and say that, yes, Dr. King was right and heroic to take a bold stand against the great wrong that was segregation.
But that's exactly the problem. In modern times, few would argue that segregation wasn't a great moral wrong and a shameful part of our history. It's a safe, non-controversial position. It doesn't force us to confront anything about our current society. It treats Dr. King as a figure of history, who we can safely honor as if his ideas were about specific historical circumstances that are no longer relevant today. It acts as if nothing much happened between that famous speech in 1963 until his assassination in 1968, as though he didn't do much of anything in between.
The truth is that Dr. King did a whole lot of work between "I Have A Dream" in 1963 and his assassination in 1968. In a lot of ways, the work he did in those years was the most important, the most threatening to the established order, the most relevant to the fight that's left unfinished today. This is the work that challenges some of our most deeply held assumptions, the work that truly made Dr. King a threat who was so serious that he had to be killed.
If you haven't read or listened to much of Dr. King's far less quoted work, I encourage you to do so. One of my personal favorites is his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence" that he delivered at Riverside Church in New York City in 1967. This is the speech where he lays out his views on how we are all equally shackled by the chains of rampant war and militarism because, until we stamp out those things, a whole host of other evils will remain with us. Or read the many things Dr. King had to say about poverty, economic injustice, and rampant materialism.
It's a rich legacy. A truly in-depth reading of Dr. King will force most of us to confront some of our deepest assumptions about our own lives and society as a whole. It is this legacy that truly makes Dr. King a hero, not just for his time but for all time. It is this work that makes him not only a black hero, but truly an American hero.
"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., from "Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence"
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
--Langston Hughes