BS: In Memory: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Subject: RE: BS: In Memory: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
From: Azizi
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 01:18 PM

In my opinion, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr has unfortunately become a feel good symbol of "kumbayaism" in America.

In most communities of the United States it is relatively easy to voice support for MLK and his dream of an America where a person's racial/ethnic background is unimportant.

But it is far more difficult to confront the facts of institutional and personal racism in America.

Many of us are still climbing up those mountains. But some folks feel comfortable pretending that the mountains were never there.
And still others pretend that the mountains have all been torn down.

Wishing and pretending won't make it so.

One of the main reasons why so many African Americans are angry at the Clintons is that we thought they were our friends and would never ever use race baiting tactics against Barack Obama.

What does this have to do with Martin Luther King, Jr. Day?

I'd say it has a great deal to do with the reality of race, racism, and race baiting in the USA.

Subject: RE: BS: In Memory: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
From: topical tom
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 12:55 PM

A great American hero of our times.A man of ucompromising priciples of freedom and justice, these to be achieved by non-violent means.Thank God for the gift to us all of Martin Luther King Jr.

Subject: RE: BS: In Memory: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 12:18 PM

Just a few of my own favorite quotes from the man who has had the most effect on me and my values....

Yes, Dr. King was a preacher and a man of God. In an address to the National Press Club on July 19, 1962, Dr. King said,...

"...Our goal is freedom. I believe we will win it because the goal of the nation is freedom. Yet we are not passively waiting for a deliverance to come from others moved by their pity for us. Our destiny is bound up with the destiny of America- we built it for two centuries without wages, we made cotten king, we built our homes and the homes of our mastera and suffered injiustice and humiliation- but out of a bottomless vitality continued to live and grow. If the inexpressable cruealties of slavery could not extinguish our existence, the opposition we now face will surely fall. We feel that we are the conscience of America- we are its troubled soul- we will continue to insist that right be done because both God's will and the heritage of our nation speak through our echoing demands..."

Dr. King later states a theme upon which his "I Have A Dream" is based in saying, "We are simply seeking to bring into full realization the Anerican dream- a dream yet unfulfilled..."

I have several quotes by Dr. King that I will be sharing in this thread as this htread develops...

My next post will deal with how Dr. King viewed "militancy"...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: In Memory: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
From: Ron Davies
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 11:20 AM

My group sang a concert in his honor--annual event--at the Kennedy Center last Sunday, with lots of black groups also. We each sang as individual groups and we sang as a huge, thoroughly mixed group. Wonderful, stirring, experience.

"Lift Every Voice and Sing" is so much better a national anthem than the one we have.

Mudcatters might do well to remember Dr. King, among other things, was a Christian minister--which came through loud and clear in all the music we sang.

I had a chance to talk to some of the singers from the black groups.   And it came through--no revelation but yet again--that we're all just people.

Subject: RE: BS: In Memory: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
From: Janie
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 11:11 AM

Oops. I made a misleading statement above. "I Have Seen the Promised Land" is not published by Time and CNN. What I meant was the links were to webpages published collaboratively by Time & CNN.

Subject: RE: BS: In Memory: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 12:22 AM

Janie, thank you so much, esp. for the links. It is indeed good to remember and to continue in our own ways.

Subject: BS: In Memory: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
From: Janie
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 12:00 AM

Dr. King's birthday was Jan. 15. For those of you from across the pond, Monday is a USA national holiday in honor of him. In his last year of life, he was moving in the direction of expanding the American Civil Rights movement to broader human rights and economic equality. He was in Memphis as a prelude to a planned "Poverty March" in Washington DC. He was also meeting resistance within his own organization to the expanded focus, as well as dealing with calls for more militant action by younger leaders within the "Black Power" movement.

The following is copied from I Have Seen the Promised Land, by Taylor Branch

"Riots just don't pay off," said King. He pronounced them an objective failure beyond morals or faith. "For if we say that power is the ability to effect change, or the ability to achieve purpose," he said, "then it is not powerful to engage in an act that does not do that--no matter how loud you are, and no matter how much you burn." Likewise, he exhorted the staff to combat the "romantic illusion" of guerrilla warfare in the style of Che Guevara. No "black" version of the Cuban revolution could succeed without widespread political sympathy, he asserted, and only a handful of the black minority itself favored insurrection. King extolled the discipline of civil disobedience instead, which he defined not as a right but a personal homage to untapped democratic energy. The staff must "bring to bear all of the power of nonviolence on the economic problem," he urged, even though nothing in the Constitution promised a roof or a meal. "I say all of these things because I want us to know the hardness of the task," ....

The links below are to photo essays and an extensive excerpt from Taylor Branch's book cited above, published by Time and CNN. They are well worth seeing and reading. I was particularly struck by two impressions. 1. the expressions on the faces of, not just the leaders, but also of the ordinary Black citizens that showed the courage, fear, fatique and determination of the folks involved in the events documented, and 2. these were not a bunch of young, dumb, idealistic, energetic kids. These were mature, responsible, determined citizens who had had enough.


The Last Days of Martin Luther King Jr., photo essay

I Have Seen the Promised Land by Taylor Branch

Civil Rights Movement Photographs newly published from "Life Magazine" archives