There will be no shortage of Martin Luther King Jr. coverage in the media this week, as we mark the 40th anniversary of his tragic death. If you’ve read, watched, or listened to anything in particular that you’d like to bring to the attention of others, or if there’s some upcoming programming that you’re aware of (like this documentary premiering on The History Channel this weekend), please let us know.
Here are a few interesting items that I ran across today:
1. This morning on the way to work, I listened to a wonderful NPR interview with Rev. Samuel Billy Kyles, who was at Memphis’s Mason Temple Church of God in Christ on the night of April 3, 1968, when Dr. King delivered his prophetic “Mountaintop” speech. It was the eve of his assassination.
2. USA Today features a nice piece on 25 Memphis sanitation workers who are still on the job, 40 years after King came to the city to march on their behalf during a labor dispute. According to the article, “They are a living testament to the final, unfinished chapter in King’s crusade for equal rights: to end poverty through guaranteed jobs with decent wages.”
3. The Economist carries a sobering report card on America’s progress in the realm of social justice and equality since King’s murder. In its dry, rather matter-of-fact fashion (it is a British publication, after all), the report lists the myriad challenges of racial and class inequality that remain to be solved in our nation, despite the enormous strides we’ve seen as a result of the civil rights movement.
4. Dr. King takes up one of the chapters of my book, Reconciliation Blues. But I first wrote about him at length for Christianity Today ten years ago. That article was in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of his death. How time flies.
One of my colleagues at work remarked that she had this nagging feeling that, if King were around today he’d seem a lot more like Jeremiah Wright than Barack Obama. We batted that one around for several minutes. It’s presumptuous, of course, to speculate about how Dr. King’s life and ministry would’ve evolved had he lived. But events like this 40th anniversary—and the history of his last days—are important reminders that “I Have a Dream” was only one part of his complex and increasingly radical message.
Hmmm … Juan Williams argues in today’s Wall Street Journal that if Dr. King were around today, he would not be like Jeremiah Wright. When Dr. King spoke to African-American audiences, says Williams, he studiously avoided playing the victim card and emphasized a positive vision toward which they could reach.
David,
So good to hear from you, brother. Thanks for mentioning that op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. Here’s the link to it:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120726732176388295.html?mod=hpp_us_inside_today.
I like Juan Williams a lot, but I think he falls short in this piece. He seems to ignore the history of what King was saying and doing in his latter years. Plus, he is simply repeating the narrow, uninformed view of Jeremiah Wright and his church. I expected Mr. Williams to offer more balance and depth in making his case against Obama and Wright.
I pray for the day when all the MLK Drives are located in thriving neighborhoods, where the people of different ethnic groups all live together. Is there a city in which they don’t run primarily through impoverished neighborhoods. All those MLK highways, drives, roads and avenues are editorials.
I’ll grant that Dr. King’s message was often more complex than we give him credit for, but still, comparisons of him to Jeremiah Wright give me pause. Just the other day I read about the insults that Rev. Wright had made against my own ethnic group. Somehow I can’t quite see Dr. King sinking to that level. I could be wrong, but I hope not.
I certainly wouldn’t embrace everything Jeremiah Wright is quoted as saying, though I must say when I read the full texts of those infamous sermons that were “sound-bited” out of context by some media, I actually found myself agreeing with much of what Wright had to say.
As I said, I think it’s presumptuous to say Dr. King would be saying or doing this or that today had he lived. But it is interesting to observe the course he was on during his final years—his outspokenness about the Vietnam War, his vision for a Poor People’s Campaign, and his discouragement over the slow rate of change in the thinking of white Americans during that time.
I quote a statement from Dr. King’s 1967 book, “Where Do We Go From Here?,” in my own book. He wrote: “Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a mass effort to re-educate themselves out of their racial ignorance…. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn.”
Certainly, King’s message was driven by a sense of grace and love. But he also was not afraid to speak truth to power. And many white people hated him for it. I think we diminish the full courage and magnitudue of the man if we forget that, back then, his message was not embraced by most white Americans, including evangelicals.
Understood. But as far as I know, Dr. King wasn’t going around calling people “garlic noses.” Sound bite or not, that sounds pretty racially ignorant and inconsiderate to me.
Absolutely. That remark is wrong and racist. I would never want to defend those types of remarks, and I hope I didn’t give that impression. It’s tricky, though, when you attempt to look at a person’s life and work in its entirety. Consequently, on different occasions, I’ve found myself “defending” everyone from Jerry Falwell and Don Imus to T.D. Jakes and James Dobson, folks that I’ve also had strong disagreements with on various issues.
Thanks for this post, Ed. To add another voice to the conversation….
Michael Eric Dyson will appear on C-SPAN2’s book tv on Sunday to talk about his latest book, _April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Death and How it Changed America_.
Dyson exmaines the end of King’s life, offers a literary analysis of his sermons (not jargon-laden but refreshingly readable), and discusses black America 40 years after King’s death. Dyson also address black leadership in the wake of King’s death–with chapters on Jesse Jackson [interesting chapter, Ed, in light of your chapter on Jackson], Al Sharpton, and Barack Obama–and perhaps most interesting of all takes creative license to write an Afterword titled “Intervew with Dr. King on His 80th Birthday.”
Stan and others. There is a great book called “Along Martin Luther King” in which a journalist and photographer visit most of the MLK’s in the country. Since I live and work off of the one in Chicago, this book and your comments ring true.
God is very much alive and at work along MLK. . .
What you’re saying makes sense (going back to your last comment, Mr. Gilbreath), and no, you didn’t give me that impression. I was just responding specifically to the comparison with Dr. King. I’m sure I wouldn’t have agreed with everything he stood for — my dad was a Vietnam vet and, I think, had a different take on the situation than Dr. King did. However, it does seem that Dr. King had a better way of relating to people, as disillusioned as he (justifiably) got, than Rev. Wright has.
You’re absolutely right that it’s a dangerous business to speculate on what so-and-so would have done or wanted. I do have a lot of respect for Dr. King, though, and I venture to hope that he would have continued to respect the dignity of all human beings had he lived.
The point of finding Dr. King’s comparison, I think is that he is much more radical than we would like him to be in our memory. I think that Gina is right that he would not have sought to provoke one ethnicity against the other, but as Cone argues clearly in his book Martin and Malcom and America, King and Malcom were moving toward each other philosophically toward the end of their lives.
I don’t know anything about this Mr. Wright, but I read an article looking at Dr. King through the lens of his Riverside Church address that clearly shows his sensibilities toward protecting the poor that put him at odds with most people of his day.
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=dr_king_forgotten_radical
Ed, your quotations from Dr. King concerning white ignorance and privilege continue to ring true. I recently sent a letter to about 35 pastors encouraging them to consider reading Divided by Faith as a means of helping their congregations have conversations around race, following Obama’s speech. My concern more than politics is the division within the body of Christ. 4 of the 5 African American pastors responded almost immediately (I had not encouraged them to read the book!). Of the remaining 30 or so white pastors only 1 or 2 have responded to date.
The privilege of being ignorant remains intact. While I agree that it is speculative to suggest what Dr. King would say. . . I do think that he would repeat that which he already said so long as it remains true.
I should have added that these pastors to whom I have written are friends and loved ones to whom I hope to continue to both challenge and learn from. Didn’t mean to come across as self-righteous in my challenge to them. . .
Stan - What a fascinating perspective about the MLK roadways! They are physical “editorials.” I’ll remember that.
Phil - Thanks for the heads up on the BookTV broadcast with Dyson. Sounds worthwhile. By the way, there’s an excerpt of that “Interview with Dr. King at 80″ piece at The Root.
Joel - Appreciate the link to the American Prospect piece. Look forward to reading.
Gina - Thanks for your honesty and willingness to engage the subject.
It’s an honor to interact with all of you.
It is interesting to consider how societal and political realities might alter a person and his message over time. I don’t blame you for speculating!
I saw a good piece on the CBS evening news tonight that featured a man who is a sanitation worker from Memphis who participated in the protests that MLK led. He wore one of the placards that read “I am a man” in protest of his white bosses calling him “boy.” He said that he is still sometimes called “boy” showing what work had to be done, but also broke into tears when two elementary school children- one black and one white- asked for his autograph when they found out he protested with Dr. King. He had tears streaming down his face when he talked about those children and he somehow seemed to encompass the struggle and protest of the sixties as well as the mixed experience of progress and lack thereof in the time since.
Also, you know how you can hear a pop song for years and not ever really listen to the words? These words actually came to me in the shower this morning from a U2 song that I’ve probably heard a hundred times.
From “Pride (In the Name of Love)
Early morning, April four
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky.
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride.
I think Bono has also sung the song differently since he realized the lyrics were innacurate as far as the time of day he died.
I think that being more like Wright is what ultimately got him assassinated. A couple interesting points; His Viet Nam Speech condemning the U.S. involvement in that war came out April 4 of 1967. The last year of his life was much more political and much more anti poverty. American Radio works has done an excellent documentary that every one should spend sometime exploring. http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/king/index.html In particular is a speech he gave in Memphis on March 18, where he explains what will happen to America if it ignores the poor. Check it out and see if anything sounds familiar. http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/americanradioworks/king/parable.mp3
I think it is very telling how the Church has done much to soothe the symptoms of poverty, but is deathly afraid to attack the systems that create those symptoms.
The two hour History Channel piece on MLK was really worth watching. If you missed it last Sunday, there will be an encore presentation Saturday at 4:00pm. Apparently in every time zone. I highly recommend it.
http://www.history.com/minisites/king
It was touching to hear MLKIII talk about being allowed to march with his father on one occasion and the fear that gripped him facing the police German shepherd dogs. He remembered how much his father’s protective presence and touch meant to him. It really tugged on my parental heart. The show was a stark reminder of how hard fought those early battles were and the price that MLK and many others paid.
Oh yeah. I almost forgot. This post brought to you by Hampton Inn. We love having you here.
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