The first of these commentaries is written by Peter Dreier, the second by Marianne Williamson. Following (with added links) are excerpts from both of them.
In his absorbing profile of the writer Alex Haley (author of Roots and The Autobiography of Malcolm X) in the New York Times Book Review a year ago, Michael Patrick Hearn made a familiar mistake. He wrote: “Politically [Haley] was a moderate, philosophically more Martin than Malcolm.”
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was no moderate. Today, he is viewed as something of an American saint. His name adorns schools and street signs. His birthday – January 15, 1929 – is observed as a national holiday on the third Monday of January each year. This year as in years past, Americans from across the political spectrum invoke King's name to justify their beliefs and actions.
But in his day, King was considered a dangerous troublemaker. Both Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson worried that King was being influenced by Communists. King was harassed by the FBI and vilified in the media. The establishment’s campaign to denigrate King worked. In August 1966 – as King was bringing his civil rights campaign to Northern cities to address poverty, slums, housing segregation and bank lending discrimination – the Gallup Poll found that 63% of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of King, compared with 33% who viewed him favorably.
King called himself a democratic socialist. He believed that America needed a “radical redistribution of economic and political power.” He challenged America’s class system and its racial caste system. He opposed U.S. militarism and imperialism, especially the country’s misadventure in Vietnam. He was a strong ally of the nation’s labor union movement. He was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, where he had gone to support a sanitation workers’ strike.
King’s views evolved over time. He entered the public stage with some hesitation, reluctantly becoming the spokesperson for the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, at the age of 26. King began his activism in Montgomery as a crusader against racial segregation, but the struggle for civil rights radicalized him into a fighter for broader economic and social justice and peace.
During the early 1960s, the nation’s media accurately depicted both King and Malcolm X as threats to the status quo. But the media portrayed Malcolm X as an almost demonic force because he described white people as “devils,” and called on Black Americans to use self-defense – including violence, if necessary – to protect themselves from racist thugs and police brutality. King – a proponent of nonviolent civil disobedience and racial integration – was dismayed when Malcolm X, SNCC’s Stokely Carmichael, and others began advocating "black power," which he warned would alienate white allies and undermine a genuine interracial movement for economic justice.
Just as King’s views evolved over the years, Malcolm X’s ideas changed, too. Toward the end of his life, he had rejected Black separatism and by-any-means-necessary tactics. In 1963, he traveled to Africa, the Middle East and Europe, where he met radical white people whose political ideas he agreed with. When he was in Ghana, someone asked him “What do you think about socialism?” Malcolm X asked: “Is it good for Black people?” “It seems to be,” came the response. “Then I’m for it,” Malcolm X said.
In 1964 he broke with the Nation of Islam and rejected its policy of non-cooperation with the civil rights movement. He reached out to King and other civil rights leaders.
When Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965, King sent this message to his wife: “I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and root of the problem.”
. . . Throughout his life, King had his moments of despair. He lamented that the factions within the civil rights movement undermined its potential. He was frustrated at the reluctance of some liberal politicians, including President Johnson, to fully embrace the freedom movement unless they were confronted with protests. He wondered whether he had the stamina needed to endure the constant travel, speeches, and threats on his life.
But King would have rejected the nihilism and fatalism of what is now called “Afro-Pessimism,” a perspective that views American racism as so intractable that no movement for justice can redeem the nation's democracy, or its soul.
King would certainly be appalled by the recent upsurge of white supremacist and neo-fascist violence, catalyzed in part by Donald Trump. But he would recognize that they are the heirs of racist thugs like Bull Connor, George Wallace, the White Citizens Councils, and the Ku Klux Klan of his day.
If he were alive today, King would no doubt still be on the front lines, lending his voice and his energy to major battles for justice.
– Peter Dreier
Excerpted from “A True and Visionary Radical,
Martin Luther King Jr. Was No Moderate”
Common Dreams
January 17, 2023
Excerpted from “A True and Visionary Radical,
Martin Luther King Jr. Was No Moderate”
Common Dreams
January 17, 2023
The people who killed [John and Bobby Kennedy] and [Martin Luther] King had much bigger aspirations than just murdering those three individuals. They were trying to murder the vision of a just America, the political possibilities that those men represented. And in many ways they succeeded. Every year at the anniversary of King’s death, and Bobby’s death, I sadly recognize that everything we feared would happen when they died, has happened. Dr. King’s “three evils” of militarism and poverty and racism continue to plague us; those who would decry them most passionately now are often yelling into the wind. We can talk all we want to, we can even protest and write books and have TV shows! But changing public policy is a whole other thing altogether.
Militarism is now core to America’s business model; poverty is simply its collateral damage; and racism is okay to criticize in theory yet continues its pernicious hold on everything from policing to criminal justice to economic policy. We can use MLK Day to celebrate him all we want, but I’m not sure it means that much when the other 364 days of the year we are practically spitting on his grave.
What would Dr. King say about that $858 billion defense budget? What would he say about letting a child tax credit – one that cut child poverty in half – expire after six months and Congress not permanentize it? What would he say about our failure to raise the minimum wage for the last 13 years, while billionaires have seen their profits skyrocket? What would he say about our failure to pass meaningful police reform? What would Dr. King say about a president who gives a speech at Ebenezer Church about how wonderful he was, when Dr. King himself was in Memphis the day he died to support striking sanitation workers and said president just smashed the hopes of striking railroad works who simply wanted sick pay?
. . . If Dr. King had lived, he would be 94 today. He would hopefully be enjoying a well deserved rest after years of brilliant transformative leadership. But even had he lived, you and I would have the responsibility now to take up where he left off. What he would want to hear from us, I think, is, “Thank you, Martin. We’ll take it from here.”
It’s not enough to praise him; we should emulate him. We should remember his words, that “our lives begin to end on the day we become silent about things that matter.” He never became silent about things that matter, and neither should we. But we can’t just talk. We’ve got to act.
During the Obama presidency there was a push to make Dr. King’s birthday a “national day of service.’ That annoyed me, for it totally and completely missed the point. No amount of private charity can compensate for a basic lack of social justice. Dr. King was about more than personal transformation; he was about societal transformation. And he was about more than doing good works; he was about passing good laws. And so should we be.
We should use this day not only to look back but also to look forward. Dr. King quoted the prophet Amos, wanting “justice to roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Oh what America would look like if that were true. The message of this day should not just be Let’s all remember. To honor him the most, it should be Let’s all get down to work.
There is still so much to do.
– Marianne Williamson
Excerpted from “MLK Day Should Be Every Day”
Transform
January 16, 2023
Excerpted from “MLK Day Should Be Every Day”
Transform
January 16, 2023
Related Off-site Links:
MLK Day Should Be About Continuing Dr. King’s Radical Project – Daniel T. Fleming (Jacobin, January 16, 2023).
Progressives Counter Cherry-Picked Quotes With MLK’s True Legacy – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, January 17, 2022).
The Part About MLK White People Don’t Like to Talk About – Zenobia Jeffries Warfield (Yes! Magazine, January 22, 2019).
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Martin Luther King Jr. and Democratic Socialism
• Moderates, Radicals, and MLK
• The Good and Just Society
• Martin Luther King Jr. on the “Most Durable Power in the World”
• For MLK Day
• Martin Luther King Jr: Quote of the Day – January 16, 2016
• Somewhere In Between
• Richard Wolff on the Necessity of Transforming Capitalism
• John Pilger on Resisting Empire
• John le Carré’s Dark Suspicions
• R.I.P. Neoclassical Economics
• Capitalism on Trial
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