Photo courtesy of Mike Licht's Flickr page - Martin Luther King, Jr. 1964 (source: Library of Congress): https://www.flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/5360731135/in/photolist-9aH9AT-mLRDCZ-byiD4V-bBeysY-98y46Q-98anXF-4HLzXt-89Euxq-rZSq9r-av8XJ1-eLFvFD-be5b6z-aft15z-UCJ8Qp-e7B2Jh-bQ9dYi-5ztBnK-dPTWFy-4GFcYz-bWQf1P-bQ9dAP-22H1nQL-RRkZqw-fJY263-aJctCz-qx8SB-RbxqoW-b7hFta-bsuXP1-7Xe4ih-ogqXSc-8XwiHu-e7vkwT-8XwoCE-4Ej3fi-jDK7W8-5bwN4Z-7BhdzT-23HcQS2-91aiWb-e2Xpv7-bbEnM8-9aPE33-w89Av-8XtkoV-dHXneF-4cPkQK-qXSU6B-Ma55S-5TNMy4
Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
It has now been half a century since Martin Luther King, Jr., the most iconic leader of the civil rights movement in the United States, was killed.
King had given a very memorable speech the night before, one that seemed almost to be prophetic. It was the one where he essentially told his people that he had seen the mountaintop, had seen the possibilities for his people, and although he might not get there with them, he promised that they would, as a people, get there. Many people have since interpreted that to mean that he kind of sensed that his own demise was near at hand.
The next morning, he was gunned down in Memphis, the city where he gave that memorable speech, which he was asked to give that speech at the behest of the Reverend James Morris Lawson Jr., who was then the pastor of Centenary Methodist Church in Memphis. The speech was meant to address poverty, which had become King's major focus by that point.
Lawson is still alive at 89 years old, and living now in Los Angeles. He recalled some of his memories of those days, and of King's visit, in a recent story on NPR, which I highly recommend checking out (see the link below):
"When a public official orders a group of men to 'get back to work and then we'll talk' and treats them as though they are not men, that's a racist point of view," he said in 1968. "For at the heart of racism is the idea that a man is not a man."
"I used some of the movement's language that you were men. You're a child of God. You are somebody."
"Segregation tries to pretend that you're not a human being. You're not a man like that. You have to fight that as you have now engaged in this struggle. You yourselves must claim your humanity before God."
Having studied Gandhi's non-violent methods of activism while a missionary in India, and had been impressed with King's non-violent methods in the Jim Crow South. And so he felt that King could be a strong voice to shed some light on the racism and poverty that were still very prevalent in Memphis at that time.
"The climate in Memphis was that of a pretty fierce racism," says Lawson.
Lawson recalls some of the details, such as how there was a strong storm the evening that King spoke in Memphis:
"It was thundering and lightning outside and we had a tin roof in part of the Mason Temple. And so the rain was just battering the roof. Nevertheless there was a sense inside of warmth and unity. We're engaged in a great struggle."
King was shot the next morning. President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed the nation that day, and urged for calm to prevail:
"America is shocked and saddened by the brutal slaying tonight of Dr. Martin Luther King. I ask every citizen to reject the blind violence that has struck King, who lived by non-violence."
It did not, unfortunately. There were riots, and there was violence all across the nation in the wake of MLK's assassination.
In fact, many people still feel angry about how all of that went down. The violence was used as justification, then and now, to reinforce racial stereotypes, rather than combat them. I have met several white people who suggested that those riots proved that blacks were violent by nature, destroying their own neighborhoods, and that certain cities here in New Jersey, like Paterson and Newark, became what President Trump and his supporters (and I am sure that the people that told me this then now are proud Trump supporters, truth be told) might refer to as "shitholes."
Of course now, with President Trump fanning the flames of racial division, and with recent episodes of black men being gunned down, almost always when they were in fact unarmed, racial tensions seem to be more serious now than perhaps they have been since at least the L.A. riots in 1992, and perhaps even since before then, since the assassination of King and the riots that came from that.
That is unfortunate, because King's legacy should remain as a nonviolent leader who was instrumental in eradicating the evil of official Jim Crow segregation, when racism was not only the practiced cultural norms, but had the backing of official policies in much of the country.
Indeed, racism and poverty certainly still exist and persist, and are obviously major problems facing the country today. So long as Trump remains in the White House, none of those things are apt to see improvement anytime soon. We as a nation seem to have collectively gone backwards. Like with the assassination of JFK not quite five years earlier, this event seemed to mark a turning point, and for a while, it seemed that things were getting better.
Now, unfortunately, half a century later, we seem at some point to have made another U-turn, as things have grown worse. Once again, headlines that underscore racism and economic inequality here in the United States dominate the news headlines and do serious, possibly even irreparable, harm to the nation's image.
We have so-called leaders in the White House and Congress now who are not about to help. Who, in fact, are likely to make things continue to grow worse.
However, if you are anything like me, perhaps you will see that politics is just one aspect of things, and that this nation is not, and should not, be defined by who is presently on top politically. Things change, circumstances change, however slow and frustrating the process. The United States does have much more to offer, both in the past and the present, and most likely will in the future, too. After all, it produced Martin Luther King, Jr., and the inspirational, non-violent civil rights movement that he led, to it's credit. We can get past this, and I feel we will, someday. As bad as things seem now - and let us make no mistake that things are very bad right now - we have to remember that it is darkest just before the dawn.
We shall overcome.
It seems entirely appropriate to end this particular blog entry not by merely acknowledging what we lost 50 years ago on this day, but the brilliance and eloquence of a man who had a vision of a better nation. I am not sure that we have lived up to his dream of realizing that nation, even though some progress has been made. Indeed, for every step forwards, it sometimes feels that we take two steps back. That feeling has never been more prevalent than since Donald Trump won the presidency, and his relentless hatred and bigotry and just general idiocy can indeed be discouraging. Believe me, I know.
But it is a long struggle to make this country, and this world, better. It does not happen overnight, and we have to not only keep the fight going, but we also have to fight our own tendency towards indifference, as well as our own collectively diminishing attention span. If we are to make this nation, and this world, a better, more equal, more peaceful place, then we need to keep our eyes on the ball. Perhaps more than anything, we need to have patience, and to endure the Donald Trumps that inevitably, sometimes seemingly relentlessly, come around.
So, it seems best to end this blog with words by the great man himself. Here is a very famous quote that, I think, we can continue not only to take inspiration from, but apply in our lives still in the present day, as the clouds of some bad storm appear to be approaching and forming something sinister:
“Let us realize that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968)
Please take a little while to have a look and read this article by NPR, which I first listened to yesterday on the radio, and thought was definitely something worth sharing here. I promise it will be worth your time, if you allow it:
When MLK Was Killed, He Was In Memphis Fighting For Economic Justice by Debbie Elliot, March 28, 2018:
Having studied Gandhi's non-violent methods of activism while a missionary in India, and had been impressed with King's non-violent methods in the Jim Crow South. And so he felt that King could be a strong voice to shed some light on the racism and poverty that were still very prevalent in Memphis at that time.
"The climate in Memphis was that of a pretty fierce racism," says Lawson.
Lawson recalls some of the details, such as how there was a strong storm the evening that King spoke in Memphis:
"It was thundering and lightning outside and we had a tin roof in part of the Mason Temple. And so the rain was just battering the roof. Nevertheless there was a sense inside of warmth and unity. We're engaged in a great struggle."
King was shot the next morning. President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed the nation that day, and urged for calm to prevail:
"America is shocked and saddened by the brutal slaying tonight of Dr. Martin Luther King. I ask every citizen to reject the blind violence that has struck King, who lived by non-violence."
It did not, unfortunately. There were riots, and there was violence all across the nation in the wake of MLK's assassination.
In fact, many people still feel angry about how all of that went down. The violence was used as justification, then and now, to reinforce racial stereotypes, rather than combat them. I have met several white people who suggested that those riots proved that blacks were violent by nature, destroying their own neighborhoods, and that certain cities here in New Jersey, like Paterson and Newark, became what President Trump and his supporters (and I am sure that the people that told me this then now are proud Trump supporters, truth be told) might refer to as "shitholes."
Of course now, with President Trump fanning the flames of racial division, and with recent episodes of black men being gunned down, almost always when they were in fact unarmed, racial tensions seem to be more serious now than perhaps they have been since at least the L.A. riots in 1992, and perhaps even since before then, since the assassination of King and the riots that came from that.
That is unfortunate, because King's legacy should remain as a nonviolent leader who was instrumental in eradicating the evil of official Jim Crow segregation, when racism was not only the practiced cultural norms, but had the backing of official policies in much of the country.
Indeed, racism and poverty certainly still exist and persist, and are obviously major problems facing the country today. So long as Trump remains in the White House, none of those things are apt to see improvement anytime soon. We as a nation seem to have collectively gone backwards. Like with the assassination of JFK not quite five years earlier, this event seemed to mark a turning point, and for a while, it seemed that things were getting better.
Now, unfortunately, half a century later, we seem at some point to have made another U-turn, as things have grown worse. Once again, headlines that underscore racism and economic inequality here in the United States dominate the news headlines and do serious, possibly even irreparable, harm to the nation's image.
We have so-called leaders in the White House and Congress now who are not about to help. Who, in fact, are likely to make things continue to grow worse.
However, if you are anything like me, perhaps you will see that politics is just one aspect of things, and that this nation is not, and should not, be defined by who is presently on top politically. Things change, circumstances change, however slow and frustrating the process. The United States does have much more to offer, both in the past and the present, and most likely will in the future, too. After all, it produced Martin Luther King, Jr., and the inspirational, non-violent civil rights movement that he led, to it's credit. We can get past this, and I feel we will, someday. As bad as things seem now - and let us make no mistake that things are very bad right now - we have to remember that it is darkest just before the dawn.
We shall overcome.
It seems entirely appropriate to end this particular blog entry not by merely acknowledging what we lost 50 years ago on this day, but the brilliance and eloquence of a man who had a vision of a better nation. I am not sure that we have lived up to his dream of realizing that nation, even though some progress has been made. Indeed, for every step forwards, it sometimes feels that we take two steps back. That feeling has never been more prevalent than since Donald Trump won the presidency, and his relentless hatred and bigotry and just general idiocy can indeed be discouraging. Believe me, I know.
But it is a long struggle to make this country, and this world, better. It does not happen overnight, and we have to not only keep the fight going, but we also have to fight our own tendency towards indifference, as well as our own collectively diminishing attention span. If we are to make this nation, and this world, a better, more equal, more peaceful place, then we need to keep our eyes on the ball. Perhaps more than anything, we need to have patience, and to endure the Donald Trumps that inevitably, sometimes seemingly relentlessly, come around.
So, it seems best to end this blog with words by the great man himself. Here is a very famous quote that, I think, we can continue not only to take inspiration from, but apply in our lives still in the present day, as the clouds of some bad storm appear to be approaching and forming something sinister:
“Let us realize that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968)
Photo courtesy of Johnny Silvercloud's Flickr page - Martin Luther King, Freedom Philosopher: https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnysilvercloud/15598583191/in/photolist-pLoPkv-dzqow8-bdMPTk-5e5Kqm-gcCLpQ-dPNmgg-98eaDM-asU1VW-b7optt-gwY7YH-bBeyzN-bQ9dwT-9aZkpA-jmLg8i-9HZ3fS-9HWd6M-25GNLyU-4mQKbd-9b9YxV-bQ9dXp-bBeyjW-bBey6m-9aH9AT-mLRDCZ-byiD4V-bBeysY-98y46Q-98anXF-4HLzXt-89Euxq-rZSq9r-av8XJ1-eLFvFD-be5b6z-aft15z-UCJ8Qp-e7B2Jh-bQ9dYi-5ztBnK-dPTWFy-4GFcYz-bWQf1P-bQ9dAP-22H1nQL-RRkZqw-fJY263-aJctCz-qx8SB-RbxqoW-b7hFta
Please take a little while to have a look and read this article by NPR, which I first listened to yesterday on the radio, and thought was definitely something worth sharing here. I promise it will be worth your time, if you allow it:
When MLK Was Killed, He Was In Memphis Fighting For Economic Justice by Debbie Elliot, March 28, 2018:
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