Yer excatly right... No arguments with anything you have said...

King was no Malcolm X... He was no Fred Hampton... What he was, however, was yer grandfateher's Oldsmobile civil rights leader...

The speech I made reference to at Berkeley was in 1957. not 1965 'er '66... Yes, King represented the old school but he also represented non-vilence and civil disobedience and that carried us many of us well thru the 60's...

It was a multi-facited attack from various factions with various tactics... And many of us were torn between slash and burn and non-violence... Slash and burn, IMO, is why Fred Hampton got murdered by the cops... The one thing that the US governemnt is good at is killing and they don't mind doing it so when the Black Panthers flashed guns--- even if it were for effect--- then the invitation/challenge was plainly there and the governemnt was more than willing to play it's part... I remember Frank Rizzo bustin' down the doors of the Phillie Black Panter chapter, making men strip naked and walked them thru the streets... Who won that one???

Frank Rizzo... Not the B.P.'s...

But I do believe that in each of our ways we chose our battles and our weapons...

Don't get me wrong... I knew folks and coordinated stuff with SNNC folks... We diodn't have SDS on our campus... We had the Radical Student Union of which I was the "rector" (don't ask me)... I know we were infiltrated by governemnt plants who came real close to gettin' our organization to fire biomb the universtiy presidents house after Kent State... I fought them and eventually got enough folks to see these bums for what they were and the plot didn't develope any further and these guys just disappeared into the wood-work...

When I hear the Who sing "We won't get fooled agian" I think of those days and I also think about Dr. King... He taught us to have the wisdom to not use violence... He atught us that violence begets more violence and that, in essence, has been the paradyme that amnkind has followed going back forever...

Malcolm got killed, IMO, partly because he was starting to talk about uniting with white people to defeat racism and colonialism... I know that's not the official story but I don't think it's that far off course either... I do know that "system" was glad he was gone...

Now, as for King... There's a wealth of stuff that Dr, King spoke of that folks don't readily know about and as long as this thread goes I'll be sharing more of his stuff... Some of it is quite "radical"... No, not violent, but radical...

Not to dismiss the importane of a Roas Parks, or a Stokley Carmicle, or a H. Rat Brown, or, or...

And, yes, after the Civil Rights Act was passed Dr. King did lie low fir a year or two... Some of this is explanable and he talks about this, as well... I do understand how he as an ordained minister might have to do a little soul searching with so much going on in '66 and '67... I don't fault him for that... He was a deeply spiritual man who waited on his Big Boss to tell him what to do...

Those who are not of Faith might not understand that... I do...

More Dr. King quotes and thoughts next time...

B~