On Monday, January 20, we will celebrate the birthday of, in my mind, the greatest civil rights leader in American history. Of course, I am referring to Martin Luther King, Jr. His birthday is a national holiday, and as is the case with many of our holidays, we celebrate it on a Monday, in this case the third one in January, rather than on the actual day.
This year the holiday will mark the 30th anniversary as a National Day of Service. The NDS was established to honor the life and legacy of Dr. King, and to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities. Martin Luther King Day has been recognized in all 50 states since early 2000, however, some states, such as Alabama and Mississippi, have combined it with “Robert E. Lee Day” to honor the birthday of the commanding general of the Confederacy who was born on January 19.
This year will mark the 57th anniversary of his untimely assassination on April 4, 1968. Like the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the assassination of President JFK on November 22, 1963, and the terror attack on 9/11/2001 most of us will always remember where we were when we heard the horrible news.
For some people, the holiday holds no special meaning; it is just a day off from work, a day to spend with family or friends, part of a long three-day weekend. For many of us, however, particularly those of us who were alive in the 1950s and 1960s, it is much, much more.
MLK was born on January 15, 1929. In my opinion, he became the most prominent and influential American civil rights leader in the 1950s and 1960s, if not ever. MLK was more than just a pastor. He believed that more advancement in civil rights could be achieved by civil disobedience and non-violence than by violence. He preached peaceful disobedience such as sit-ins, marches and demonstrations, often in the face of wanton violence and cruelty by the police and others, rather than by rioting and violence. In this regard, he was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. In turn, he inspired many others such as Nelson Mandela and the Black Civil Rights movement in South Africa.
He also recognized the power of the press to bring attention to his cause and influence public opinion. For example, as many as 70 million people around the world witnessed the police brutality inflicted on the peaceful black and white marchers in Selma, Alabama, in March of 1965, including women and children as well as men. Those images, broadcast live on TV and radio, appalled and disgusted many people and provided an immeasurable boost to the public awareness of the injustices being visited upon blacks in the South. These events were captured dramatically and realistically in the 2014 movie, “Selma,” which featured David Oyelowo as MLK. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend it.
Unlike any other African American leaders before or since, he had the ability to unite, rather than divide. Although he was criticized by some of the more militant civil rights leaders of the time, such as Stokely Carmichael, he commanded the support and respect of a large majority of blacks and many whites as well. In that regard, he was similar to Mandela.
After his death, despite the urgings of some civil rights leaders who wanted to continue MLK’s philosophy, more militant African American leaders, such as Mr. Carmichael, came into prominence. There was rioting in over 100 US cities, and a slew of violent incidents at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago in front of the national press and millions of Americans, which many believe swung the 1968 presidential election to Richard Nixon.
MLK came into prominence in 1955 when he led a bus boycott, peacefully, in Montgomery, Alabama. The boycott had been fueled by the famous Rosa Parks incident in which she had refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. She was arrested on December 1. (Most people don’t know that earlier that year in March a similar incident had occurred, also in Montgomery, involving Claudette Colvin, a black girl who had also refused to give up her seat to a white man. However, that case did not receive the same notoriety. Civil rights lawyers declined to pursue it because Colvin was 15, unmarried and pregnant. They chose to wait for a case with a more favorable fact pattern, and they were proven to be right.)
Later, MLK became the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and remained so until his death. He applied his non-violence philosophy to protests in Selma, Ala., St. Augustine, FL, and the March on Washington, D. C., among others. He made it a policy never to endorse a particular political party or candidate. He believed he could be more effective if he were neutral and not beholden to anyone. Furthermore, in his view, neither party was all bad, and neither one was perfect. In his words, “[t]hey both have weaknesses.”
Perhaps, MLK’s signature moment occurred during the famous March on Washington in August 1963. Ironically, MLK was not the primary organizer of the March. That was Bayard Rustin, a colleague. The primary purpose of the March was to dramatize the plight of blacks in the South. Civil rights leaders, including Roy Wilkins, NAACP, Whitney Young, National Urban League, A. Philip Randolph, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, John Lewis, SNCC, James Farmer CORE, and MLK, wanted to bring awareness of these issues right to the seat of the Federal government. More than 250,000 people of all ethnicities and colors attended. MLK was one of several speakers, and he only spoke for 17 minutes. But, his “I Have a Dream” speech became one of the most famous speeches ever. The March, in general, and MLK’s speech, in particular, are credited with bringing civil rights to the political forefront and facilitating the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Some little-known facts about MLK:
1. His birth name was Michael King, Jr., after his father. In 1931 his father changed his own name to Martin Luther King, after the German theologian, Martin Luther, whom he admired. At the same time, he changed his son’s name.
2. In 1958 MLK was stabbed in the chest after a speech by a woman who had been stalking him, and he nearly died.
3. The FBI began tapping MLK’s telephone as early as 1963. Robert Kennedy, who was Attorney General at the time and who is viewed as a staunch supporter of civil rights, in general, and MLK, in particular, authorized the tapping.
4. MLK won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 at the age of 35, the youngest age ever at the time.
5. MLK won a Grammy Award in 1971, posthumously. It should be noted that he won it, not because he displayed a great singing voice, but for a “Spoken Word Album,” “Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam.” In addition, he won countless other awards and was awarded some 50 honorary degrees from various colleges and universities.
6. Even though MLK was one of the great public speakers of his time, inexplicably, he got a “C” in a public speaking course at the seminary. (Kind of like a baseball scout saying Babe Ruth can hit “a little bit.”)
7. MLK is one of three individuals and the only native-born American to have a holiday named after him. In case you’re wondering, the others are George Washington (born in the COLONY of Virginia), and Christopher Columbus.
Some MLK quotes to ponder:
1. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
2. “The time is always right to do what is right.”
3. “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
4. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
5. “Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.”
6. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
In recent years there has been much division among African Americans as well as their leaders. Some are moderate and want to work within the system; others are more militant. In my view, many of these militants are no more than “race hustlers,” have their own agendas and look for any excuse to foment distrust and discord. They do more harm than good. If you doubt me, just randomly turn on CNN or MSNBC and listen to some of the news coverage. The coverage and commentary of some of the guest commentators (and a few of the news anchors as well) are subjective and divisive.
Most often, crimes are viewed through the lens of race rather than the facts, and the media will very often jump to conclusions without regard of the facts. Later, when the facts become known if, as is often the case they are change the narrative, they are ignored or downplayed. (The recent Jussie Smollett case is a good example of this.) “White on black” crimes get extensive coverage while “black on black” crimes, which are far more numerous, are largely ignored.
In my opinion, the weak and feckless Biden Administration exacerbated the problem. I hope that the incoming Trump Administration will be able to reverse the trend.
CONCLUSION
In my opinion, we have made much progress in the area of civil rights. For example, we have elected an African American president (twice) and vice president; an African American sits on the Supreme Court; and African Americans hold and have held positions of prominence in every field of endeavor, including business, entertainment, sports, and the military. But it is still a work in progress. We can do more.
One can speculate whether and to what extent MLK’s assassination changed the course of history. In my opinion, had MLK lived, the Civil Rights Movement would have been considerably different over the last 50 years, more peaceful and less divisive, with better results. Furthermore, his assassination had a significant impact, not only on the history of the civil rights movement, but also on the overall history of the country, itself. I hope and believe that eventually a moderate leader will emerge and bridge the gap as MLK did half a century ago.
Finally, I firmly believe that MLK would have been appalled by the violent, arbitrary and senseless rioting and sharp uptick in crime of the past few years that was instigated, aided, and abetted by BLM, ANTIFA, many Dem political leaders and much of the media. I find this to be senseless and ironic since most of the victims are themselves poor minorities. How is that helping the civil rights movement? That is not what MLK stood for. Furthermore, in my view, he would not have been an exponent of the extreme “cancel culture,” “critical race theory,” DEI, and “political correctness” movements that many see as dividing the country today.
So, as you enjoy the holiday in whatever manner you choose, I ask you to reflect for a moment on where we are as a nation regarding civil rights, where we want to go and how we get there.
