The story about who Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was has evolved since his death, and to a large extent his historical legacy has been molested by popular Black political figures like Barack Obama, and by White supremacists like Donald Trump. But make no mistake, he would have been a fierce critic of Obama’s war record, and he would have made it his life’s mission to confront and destroy the violent, poisonous, racist message of Trump.
Most Americans have seen video clips of Dr. King speaking, but what many do not realize is that he was a profound and prolific writer, who wrote in his lifetime enough prose to easily fill a small library. Dr. King was just 39 years old when he was murdered, and he had a lot of help from a wide range of supporters during his lifetime. In the final years of his life, some of his prior supporters became uncomfortable with his shift from civil rights in the US to his criticism of US imperialism and global capitalism.
Dr. King believed that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” and as such it was part of his mission to keep people energized not just about their own rights and well-being, but for the rights and well-being of people everywhere in every land. One of the greatest obstacles to this, King believed, were those who wanted the movement to be less radical and more agreeable to mainstream interests – an idea he had little interest in.
From a new article entitled “Martin Luther King, Jr was radical: We must reclaim that legacy” that provides many quotes by Dr. King, including his thoughts on moderates who were more committed to “order” than “justice,” known as “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” he wrote in part:
“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.” He went on to explain that white moderates were those who “set the timetable for another man’s freedom.” Read More.
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