Wow, very timely and powerful. Thanks for posting this.

And one of my favorite leaders in the prophetic problem-solving tradition of Dr. King: Van Jones, making the connection between ecology and equity.

Religion Dispatches writes:

But, again, cultural memory can be a stupefying narcotic. Forty years ago today, on April 4, 1968, America was hardly on King’s side. His poetically articulated Dream of 1963 was long forgotten. King’s call for a more just society was interpreted as the fanatical delusions of a Negro radical in the mind of the American mainstream. Let’s face reality. Martin Luther King Jr.’s reputation as an American hero was mortally wounded well before the assassin’s bullet shattered his jaw. In his post-1965 reincarnation, King fatally fell out of favor with America. The reasons are simple yet far from simplistic.

He chose what he regarded as Christian discipleship over racial diplomacy and moral truth over political tact. King essentially decided to no longer be a political bonsai tree pruned in the direction that the white and even black establishments would have him grow. His shift from the language of reform to that of revolution (an American “revolution of values” to be exact), and from civil rights for Southern Negroes to human rights for the oppressed throughout the globe, effectively sabotaged his career as a “Negro leader.” This is what King seemingly desired. Not that he found masochistic pleasure in vexing his civil rights cohorts, aggravating white liberal allies, and seemingly justifying the concocted claims of longtime opponents. But King did realize that a man of moral conscience could not be a consensus leader. Prophets are neither hand-picked by the powerful nor necessarily popular. Like his ancient Hebrew spiritual interlocutors that served as his moral inspiration, King was prepared to lament from outside the city gates of cultural acceptance.

To be clear, King’s condemnation of America over the war in Vietnam was just one of several issues that undermined his reputation as a moderate Negro “voice of reason.” Remember that when King questioned not just racial inequality but the morality of the American capitalist economy, the donations of limousine liberals began to dry up. For wealthy whites who wanted to provide charitable gifts downward without protesting inequality upward, King refused to confer a spiritual indulgence to absolve them of their sins. Funds that once filled the coffers of King’s organization had, by 1967, dissipated to the point of almost crippling the operational budget of the Southern Christian Leadership Coalition. Yet King remained undeterred.

Recall that when King denounced but refused to disengage from the chorus of “Black Power” emerging from a younger generation of black activists, African American civil rights leaders like Whitney Young of the National Urban League and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP grew ever the more uncomfortable with him. Contrary to black bourgeois leaders, King believed that it was too simplistic to scapegoat the radical pleas of black youth for the public policy failings of a federal government that was not genuinely interested in social equality. The all-too familiar tune of “cooperation from below will lead to change from above” had been omitted from King’s intellectual iPod to the chagrin of black elites who were beginning to reach for the economic carrot that the federal government dangled before them. Yet King remained unfazed.

More here.

Last year I had the opportunity to visit both Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and the motel in Memphis where Dr. King was gunned down. It was a very moving experience.

Thanks for this post. We do well to remember his legacy.

Michael

I live in West Augusta in a upper middle class sub-division of 40 homes. One neighbor is the top cardio-vascular surgeon of University Hospital and black. Another neighbor is the State Senator representing West Augusta and a leading Augusta attorney, also black. Both are products of the Affirmative Action Program the produced Associate Justice Thomas. A program, faulty as it may be. would not have occurred without Rev. King.

The Medical College of Georgia, a state supported academic medical center, shares 15th street with Paine College a Methodist associated black liberal arts college. Recently,
The Medical College appointed the retiring President of Paine College as interim President during a search for a new President of the Medical College. 42 years ago, when I arrived in Augusta there were no black faculty and no black students. The President, Dean, and I recieved several death threats when we determined to admit black students and recruit black faculty. (The head elder of the Augusta Seventh-day Adventist Church is a black alumnus of Loma Linda and a retired faculty member of the Medical College of Georgia.)

Several of our black alumni have served on the State Board of Dentistry and several others have held office in the Georgia Dental Association that only 40 years ago would not admit black dentists to its membership.

The ripple effect of one courageous minister has changed America and particularly the deep South forever. Tom

What a great video! Martin Luther King speaks with such courage- he is an example we'd do well to follow!