Today marks the national recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a federal holiday. It seems only appropriate to spend a few minutes in reflection of his legacy.
Reverend King was both the face and moral courage of a movement towards the civil rights and hopeful equality for the negro in America. (I use that term because that was the racial description in use when Dr. King was alive). We, as a nation, had fought a civil war over a state’s right to enslave its population, but in the 100-years that followed, bigotry, discrimination, and racial separation had still held the negro as something less than a full citizen.
While the South was most infamous in their treatment, the discrimination of African-Americans was quietly and not so quietly going on all across the nation. It might not have been quite as obvious as in the Southeast, but it was there in the types of jobs available, promotion opportunities, or places where African-Americans could live. Up until President Truman, the African-Americans of this land could not fight alongside his white brothers-in-arms. Integration in the military came at a begrudging pace as life-long prejudices still remained, hidden by the very men who were charged with implementing the President’s orders.
Dr. King, was the most vocal and visible voice of both the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as they confronted the discrimination and second-class treatment of the negro population.
I believe it is safe to say without Dr. King’s activism and leadership we would not have the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Without either, it is reasonable to assume we as a nation would have continued to repress the rights of African-Americans to the point where the election of an African-American President would be an impossibility.
The question I struggle most with is what has happened to us, and our nation following his assassination on that April night in Memphis? Of course, this single thought leads to many other unanswerable questions.
I often wonder, would Dr. King agree with those who accuse half this nation of being racist because of our political disagreements?
Would he agree with the tenants of Critical Race Theory that hold the white man and his institutions are incapable of equal treatment of blacks under the law, and will forever marginalize the black man?
Would he accept the exploitation of race as a central defense of urban decay in major cities like Detroit, Baltimore, and Washington?
What would he say about the loss of family and the increase in black on black violence that accounts for the staggering number of African-American deaths in urban America?
Using the tactics of civil disobedience developed by Mahatma Gandhi in his fight for Indian self-rule, Dr. King set the conditions for the civil protest that would ultimately gain the fundamental rights promised to all men by the U.S. Constitution for most of a disenfranchised minority.
Today, almost 50 years after his assassination, the racial protests flourish in the NFL, are exploited by a BLM movement, and are cited in a number of other venues to make political statements. For example, when Congressional Democrats are offended they will stay home from work to protest the President. My question now is, are they just reactive as a political tool, or do they still become a proactive effort to improve the conditions of the average man and women? Do they actually serve as a vehicle for constructive change, or have they become contra-productive? Does anyone really think the NFL “take a knee” effort, where millionaire athletes attempt to mimic the courage of Tommie Smith and John Carlos in the 1968 Olympics carries the same risk? Is it truly about racial equality, or is it about pushing for a particular agenda's political domination?
If Dr. King was still alive he would be 89 years old today. Consider how far we’ve come, how far we’ve yet to go, and whether is it possible to have true equality when one side begins with a belief equality is impossible.
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