More than a dreamer
17th January 2012 · 0 Comments
Ask five people what Dr. Martin Luther King stood for and you might get six different answers.
* To mild-mannered accommodationist negroes he was a fire-breathing revolutionary who went too far.
* To some radicals he was an Uncle Tom.
* Other militants differed on tactics and objectives but admired his passionate commitment to justice.
* Today’s politicians will claim he was a nice guy who did not make any trouble.
* What some consider as the “mainstream” media believe he was a colorblind preacher who just wanted everyone to get along.
* A preacher might say he was a soul-winner who did some protests as a sideline.
* There are those who even claim he was an undercover Muslim.
* Overt white racists still say he was a Jewish-controlled pawn of communism.
* Racist/Conservative media hosts have quoted him to prove that he’d be with them today.
But King was not an historical piece of clay to be molded into whatever shape was convenient for the person speaking. He actually stood for something and declared it openly .
That’s what made him dangerous then. That’s what makes him dangerous now. That’s why so many want to reduce his life’s message and work to a tiny part of a single speech about a dream.
Unlike many today, Dr. Martin Luther King spent a lot more time fighting for justice than dreaming about it. Consider the words of the man himself:
THE DRUM MAJOR SPEECH
“Now that’s a fact. That the poor white has been put into this position, where through blindness and prejudice, (Make it plain) he is forced to support his oppressors. And the only thing he has going for him is the false feeling that he’s superior because his skin is white—and can’t hardly eat and make his ends meet week in and week out.
“God didn’t call America to do what she’s doing in the world now. (Preach it, preach it) God didn’t call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war as the war in Vietnam. And we are criminals in that war. We’ve committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I’m going to continue to say it. And we won’t stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation.
“I know a man…He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him. They called him a rabble-rouser. They called him a troublemaker. They said he was an agitator. (Glory to God) He practiced civil disobedience; he broke injunctions.”
BEYOND VIETNAM – THE RIVERSIDE CHURCH SPEECH
“For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam.
We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: The family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation’s only non-Communist revolutionary political force—the unified Buddhist church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. What liberators?”
“Moreover I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.”
“These are revolutionary times. 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. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” We in the West must support these revolutions.”
“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.”
THE MOUNTAINTOP – KING’S FINAL SPEECH
“Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must have a kind of fire shut up in his bones. And whenever injustice is around he tell it. Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and saith, “When God speaks who can but prophesy?” Again with Amos, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Somehow the preacher must say with Jesus, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me,” and he’s anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor.””
“It’s all right to talk about “long white robes over yonder,” in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here! It’s all right to talk about “streets flowing with milk and honey,” but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can’t eat three square meals a day.”
But not only that, we’ve got to strengthen Black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a “bank-in” movement in Memphis. Go by the savings and loan association…. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies here in the city of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an “insurance-in.”
If the words above don’t sound like the guy you heard about, it’s by design. We have to take control of own history. We have to tell our own story and pass it on to future generations.
It is a crime that King is only known to many for having a nice dream. The truth is, if King had spent most of his time dreaming about a better world instead of working and fighting for justice there would be no King Holiday because he would not be worth remembering.
Our telling of his story and our emulations of his actions should focus more on his works and reflect what this great man really stood for and what he really did.
This article was originally published in the January 16, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper
