Honoring the Most Dangerous & Challenging Man on MLK Day

'The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.'   

~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

A picture of my son in front of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, taken back in the spring of 2013 for the Cherry Blossom Festival. 

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. A lot of people like to remember the highly sanitized version of MLK. They see the videos of violence against peaceful protesters in the Deep South, and they see images of what used to be called "petty apartheid" in South Africa decades ago (strictly segregated bathrooms and entrances to buildings and fountains, separate seating areas in trains and buses, theaters and restaurants and other public spaces), and they think that of course that was ridiculous, and deserve to have been gotten rid of.

It is a sanitized version of MLK, in other words. One meant to gloss over the controversies of those times, the divisions that led to many Americans hating this man and accusing him of being a Communist. 

In fact, MLK was viewed by quite a few extremists in those negative connotations. He challenged people, and challenged the lack of social justice and economic inequality in the United States at the time. He lashed out against the Vietnam War, at a time when many equated doing such a thing to treason. His activism went well beyond getting rid of the symbols of racism, and did not stop merely when official Jim Crow segregation officially ended, as he continued to fight the harder to see, and much harder to root out, aspects of racism in America.

That was the activism that he was engaged in when he was struck down b an assassin's bullet, and he knew that he would be killed in such a violent manner. That was a version of Martin Luther King, Jr. that many people do not know so much about, and which is glossed over. But it was a key aspect of understanding the man and his drive for greater equality and fairness in the country. 

Frankly, it was a vision of MLK that, in my opinion, this country has failed to deliver on. Racism is on the rise, and stronger and seemingly more accepted by many Americans than it has been in many decades. There is greater social, economic, and political inequality, and these divides are being entrenched by the power that be, who rely on them to maintain their stranglehold on the country. 

These are not easy or convenient issues, clearly. They are difficult, and it takes courage and blatant honesty to recognize this fact, and not merely oppose it at a distance, but to actively and loudly fight against it. That was what MLK did, and even though this is not the version of MLK that many millions of Americans are aware of, much less celebrate, they nevertheless should be more familiar, and they should honor this part of MLK's legacy.

Below is an article that explores this a little further. Please take a long look:

Let’s remember the MLK who wasn’t liked by the Editorial Board of The Charlotte Observer, January 16, 2020:

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article239376063.html?fbclid=IwAR2jBrd9ta6g-u-UOIBmCiNH_DHZ2IIavUFLNJSPHgEYdjKXR1DPtpqfJqg