BSD Holidays + You: Above and Below the Line Knowledge to Engage in Deeper Cultural Awareness
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has left an indelible mark on the consciousness of our country. He is included in the canon of great American leaders. While still alive, many regarded him as the moral conscience of this nation. His leadership inspired an entire generation of people to stand up for justice for Black America. To this day, the echo of his powerful words still reverberates in syncopation off our eardrums and into our hearts. His legacy is clear: leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, assisted in the passage of both the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and the author of one of the most quoted speeches of the 20th Century. However, despite his litany of historical accomplishments and his immense global popularity even after his death, there remains significant gaps in his story. Before we can truly honor Dr. King these omissions must be reconciled.
The bulk of what we commonly learn about Dr. King spans just about a decade. We make our introductions to him in 1955 during the Montgomery Bus Boycott and we usually part ways with him around 1965 after the passage of the Voting Rights Act. The remaining three years of his life often is overlooked. However, those three years prior to his tragic assassination in 1968 are pivotal in understanding him as a leader. So, what exactly did he do during this period?
First, by 1967, Dr. King becomes increasingly critical of America’s involvement in Vietnam. He delivered an impassioned plea to the military to withdraw from South East Asia. Dr. King exposed the contradiction of the government and the media endorsing his nonviolent stance in advocating for the civil rights of Black Americans but yet, not practicing those same virtues while dealing with North Vietnam. In his seminal speech, Why Am I Opposed to The War in Vietnam, he states, “There's something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that will praise you when you say, ‘Be non- violent toward Jim Clark,’ but will curse and damn you when you say, ‘Be non-violent toward little brown Vietnamese children.’ There's something wrong with that press!” This embodies the leadership of Dr. King. At this point, Dr. King was an internationally renowned figure, he already won the Nobel Peace prize, he was the media’s darling; he had nothing to gain from taking this unfavorable position and everything to lose from it. However, he still took this stance because he knew it was the right thing to do.
Second, Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was planning their most radical crusade for the spring of 1968, entitled, “the Poor People’s Campaign.” The plan was to mobilize about three thousand people to march down to the nation’s capital and take part in massive civil disobedience throughout the city. They intended to protest the plight of the most impoverished segments of society. Dr. King recognized that civil rights alone had not improved the material conditions of African Americans; therefore, he sought economic justice. Their demands ranged from the government providing meaningful jobs with a living wage, all the way to access to land and capital to help people of color and the poor to start businesses and farms. The revolutionary element of the Poor People’s Campaign was that it organized the poor of all races and brought them together under one cause—economic justice for all. Dr. King was intentional in reaching out to Chicano, Native American, and White communities to bring them all in the fold. This multiracial coalition demonstrated the power of mass mobilization across racial and cultural lines. Unfortunately, Dr. King would not live to see the Poor People’s Campaign come to fruition. He was assassinated one month prior to its launch. Dr. King’s life is a testament to living within one’s truth, to doing the right thing, and a love for humanity that prioritized serving others before yourself. As we celebrate his life this week, take some time and think about what he stood for. How can you stand in your truth? How can you work with others from different racial and cultural backgrounds? Are you speaking out and taking unfavorable stances because it is the right thing to do? What would it take you to do so? I would strongly encourage everyone to learn more about Dr. King’s life post 1965. For a leader of his magnitude, he is certainly deserving of it.
Sources https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETL8nccHi_s https://poorpeoplescampaign.org/index.php/poor-peoples-campaign-1968/ https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10125-10133.pdf http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pacificaviet/riversidetranscript.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyE4eo_leX8 http://www.wearethebelovedcommunity.org/bcquotes.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_People%27s_Campaign#cite_note-80 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC1Ru2p8OfU&t=4s
John Eklof M.Ed. I Equity Specialist
Bellevue School District No. 405