Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
As an outlet for progressive political thought, Red Brown and Blue rarely finds cause to look back. We work to move things forward, to discuss innovative solutions, and to build tomorrow from today’s best ideas. We have good cause on Monday to make an exception and look back at a man who lived and died to bring progress and justice to America.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. died at a hotel in Memphis on April 4, 1968 after being shot from afar by James Earl Ray. The assassination ended a brilliant life dedicated to advancing the rights of black Americans (and, by extension, all Americans) through non-violent protest. Dr. King promoted understanding between disparate groups by encouraging open dialogue and peaceful demonstration, believing the alternate path of violent clashes and retribution would end badly for those he hoped to help.
King’s first real step into American history came in early December of 1955 alongside the trial of Rosa Parks, who defied the demands of a Montgomery, Alabama bus driver that she give up her seat (not at the front of the bus, actually, but in the first row of the “colored” section) to accommodate standing white passengers. The local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) met with King, a young civil rights leader in Montgomery, and suggested he lead a boycott of the city bus system. The boycott lasted longer than a year, costing Montgomery significant revenue from public transportation losses and courtroom defeats. The leadership MLK demonstrated through rousing speeches and organizing efforts resulted in victory via the repeal of segregated public transportation in Montgomery and renewed vitality for the civil rights movement in Alabama. It also brought violence and harassment to his door, establishing the pattern of cost and consequence he would struggle against for the remainder of his life.
Martin Luther King, Jr. continued promoting the civil rights agenda in the late ‘fifties and early ‘sixties through the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The initial focus of King’s work during this period sought empowerment of blacks in the political process through voter registration and increased public awareness of the need for change. He met with many religious and civil rights leaders and gave speeches across the nation. His public life became a series of speaking engagements, protests, and arrests. One such arrest following a sizable demonstration in Birmingham led King to compose his now-well-known 1963 “Letter From a Birmingham Jail.” Within this letter, as a reply to criticism from his own community of southern clergymen, Dr. King spelled out the underlying reasoning of his peaceful modus operandi:
Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.
Later that summer, King’s public work culminated in the massive march on Washington, D.C., where he offered the famous “I Have a Dream” speech in front of over two-hundred thousand people. One could argue the changing sentiment of the American public regarding segregation and the eventual passage of 1964′s federal Civil Rights Act might have still transpired without MLK or his speech at the Lincoln Memorial, but King made an undeniable permanent impression on the public psyche that day, certainly changing some minds for the better with the power of his words.
As America moved further into the nineteen-sixties, Dr. King pressed on, and the civil rights movement see-sawed between advancements and set-backs. Even as he worked to push the cause into the larger cities around the country, King himself faced diminishing support for his methods from within the black community. Many felt their patience strained as MLK’s non-violent, politely confrontational tactics achieved change at such a gradual pace. Younger, more aggressive African-American leaders (including Malcolm X) felt Dr. King’s methods stepped too softly and allowed whites an undeserved concession of comfort.
By 1968, he, too, grew increasingly frustrated with the glacial crawl of civil rights. He felt aggravated with the continued harassment and arrests, exhausted by the marches and speeches, and discouraged by his critics. Yet he showed no intention of giving up. His final public appearance in Memphis to support striking public sanitation workers displayed his same trademark commitment to equal rights through peace in the face of hostile opposition. His murder the next day proved our nation not yet worthy of his nobility.
King could have celebrated his eighty-third birthday this year, but was taken at just thirty-nine. Incalculable quantities of words about the man have been written in the forty-plus years since his death and the likelihood of remembering him in a new or different way is practically nonexistent. But let us remember him again as a titan of progress. Let us remember that he demonstrated greater bravery than any of us ever dream of needing. And let’s remember that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. showed us that people – not just black people, but all people – deserve to be treated with equal dignity and equal respect and equal decency because they are people.
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Jake Negovan drives Red Brown and Blue to be an outlet for progressive political opinion that leads to the betterment of life for the real, multicultural population of the U.S. and the rest of the world. His columns address the issues faced by our country as we continue growing toward a society of equality. More about Jake can be found on the web at jakejots.com or on Twitter@jakenegovan.
