Martin Luther King Jr Day

"And another reason that I'm happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn't force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today.

"And also in the human rights revolution, if something isn't done, and done in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. Now, I'm just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period to see what is unfolding. And I'm happy that He's allowed me to be in Memphis."

...

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop.

"And I don't mind.

"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!"

Wrestling with the lessons of Martin Luther King...

What must students do? What should students do?

from Grant Lichtman

What Martin Luther King did... by Hamden Rice

"Before I tell you what my father told me, I want to digress. Because at this point in our amnesiac national existence, my question pretty much reflects the national civic religion view of what Dr. King accomplished. He gave this great speech. Or some people say, "he marched." I was so angry at Mrs. Clinton during the primaries when she said that Dr. King marched, but it was LBJ who delivered the Civil Rights Act.

At this point, I would like to remind everyone exactly what Martin Luther King did, and it wasn't that he "marched" or gave a great speech.

My father told me with a sort of cold fury, "Dr. King ended the terror of living in the south."

Martin Luther King, Jr. on Poverty in America [The Atlantic]

King was in Memphis to support a Sanitation Workers strike, and had become deeply engaged in what was then called the "War on Poverty." The idea of a guaranteed national income was not his alone, in campaigning for President in 1968 Robert F, Kennedy was calling for a "negative income tax."

"King had [a] more expansive vision. He laid out the case for the guaranteed income in his final book, 1967's Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? Washington's previous efforts to fight poverty, he concluded, had been "piecemeal and pygmy." The government believed it could lift up the poor by attacking the root causes of their impoverishment one by one—by providing better housing, better education, and better support for families. But these efforts had been too small and too disorganized. Moreover, he wrote, "the programs of the past all have another common failing—they are indirect. Each seeks to solve poverty by first solving something else."

"It was time, he believed, for a more straightforward approach: the government needed to make sure every American had a reasonable income. "

April 4th, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed. On that night, Robert F Kennedy, New York's senator back then, wanted to deliver the news to the people of Indianapolis, Indiana. Local police warned him, they won't be able to provide protection if the people wold riot because he was in the heart of the African-American ghetto. He wrote his notes on his ride and started the speech without any drafts or pre-written words before his assistance would give him their proposed draft.

This speech was delivered on a back of a Flatbed truck. Although all major cities had riots, Indianapolis remained calm after RFK's speech. Sixty-three days after this speech, RFK was assassinated in Los Angeles.

audio only (NPR media player)

King Assassination Riots, or, Holy Week Uprising (Wikipedia)

Chicago Riots May 1968 (Chicago Tribune)

The Death of Dr. King and the words of Robert Kennedy

"They all took their place in King's firing squad.

"And behind them were the subtle ones, those who never say anything bad but just nod when the bigot throws out his strong opinions.

"He is actually the worst, the nodder is, because sometimes he believes differently but he says nothing. He doesn't want to cause trouble. For Pete's sake, don't cause trouble!

"So when his brother-in-law or his card-playing buddy from across the alley spews out the racial filth, he nods."

- Mike Royco, Chicago Daily News, April 4, 1968, "Millions in his Firing Squad"