REFLECTION:
It is true that we have often genericized Dr. King's message in the decades following his death, making it safer, in some sense, than it was. Does this negate, however, the ubiquitous and foremost feature of all of Dr. King's teachings, which is that we ought to engage those who oppose us in a spirit of love for the purposes of being reconciled to them in a new birth of community?
Friday (April) 16th is an anniversary worth taking note of in American history.
It will be the 58th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham City Jail. Written as an open letter as King was serving time for taking part in civil rights protests in Birmingham, Alabama, the letter was a response to a group of liberal clergyman from the state who had announced their opposition to the methods of King even as they professed to sympathize with the cause of civil rights.
These critics of King's felt that he should allow the resistance to Jim Crow segregation to be advance through the courts. They feared the civil unrest that King's nonviolent demonstrations had and would continue to precipitate in the hotly charged environment of the segregated south, specifically the state of Alabama.
King's response to these ministers is often today cited as a key example of Dr. King's perceived antipathy towards moderation and simple civility, in contrast to a genericized understanding of King as representing the soft diplomacy of reconciliation.
We forget that King was a radical, some will say, and that the kumbaya rhetoric of unity for the sake of unity obscures statements such as King wrote in his famous letter, in which he said "I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to 'order ' than to justice...'"
King continued: "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."
It is true that we have often genericized Dr. King's message in the decades following his death, making it safer, in some sense, than it was. Does this negate, however, the ubiquitous and foremost feature of all of Dr. King's teachings, which is that we ought to engage those who oppose us in a spirit of love for the purposes of being reconciled to them in a new birth of community?
My friend and colleague April Lawson and I were pleased to welcome a mutual friend for whom we share deep respect and affection to the Braver Angels Podcast: author, educator and activist Tim Shriver, editor of the new book The Call to Unite and founder of Unite.us.
Our conversation explored the swelling bridge-building movement in America, the history of reconciliatory movements, and the challenges and opportunities that stand before us as we endeavor to heal America's divides. We also discussed King's Letter from Birmingham City Jail.
It is a powerful listen:
The Call to Unite | Tim Shriver with John Wood, Jr. and April Lawson
"...I hear in that letter no hatred for the people he powerfully opposes...people hear 'unite' and think that means everybody is happy with each other...that's not what I mean by it. What I mean by uniting is seeing in your opponent ultimately the means, the vehicle by which you create the end of the opposition...[how King] appeals on the basis of the shared faith of the people to whom he writes for a change of their hearts is a classic example of the uniter mentality at work." -Tim Shriver
In the conversation April presses Tim to address the tension that lies between seeking unity through love on the one hand and valuing truth on the other. April makes the point that the Nonviolent movements of King and Gandhi were in fact divisive and oppositional. The context of King's letter makes this plain. It was part of what he was being criticized for.
Tim's answers are compelling. But what I want emphasize here, lest you have any doubt as to the unyielding consistency with which Dr. King advocated for equality by means of love, is the fact that even King's fierce criticisms of the men he was responding to were framed within the larger context of King's belief that they were in the end brothers in the bonds of faith and the fabric of humanity.
Towards the beginning of King's letter he states that "I feel that you are men of genuine good will and your criticisms are sincerely set forth," thus signaling his own good will towards them. He mentions one of his critics by name, a Reverend Stallings, and commends him "for your Christian stance on this past Sunday, in welcoming Negroes to your worship service on a non-segregated basis." He refers to his critics as his "friends" and "brothers" and notes points of agreement at multiple terms.
Doing so did not prevent King from saying "I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership." It did not keep him from stating of those whom he criticized among moderates in the church, "Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave the clarion call for defiance and hatred?"
King's fidelity to love as the foundation of his activism did not prevent him from speaking the fullness and fierceness of the truth as he saw it. Neither does it prevent us from doing the same.
He closes the letter in this way:
"I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader, but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all of their scintillating beauty. Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood, Martin Luther King, Jr."
If love and truth stand in opposition in our society there can be neither love, nor truth. Let us remember this in the work of Braver Angels.
-John Wood, Jr.
National Ambassador
Braver Angels
