Happy Heavenly Birthday, Dr. King.
Although it’s officially celebrated tomorrow, Rev. Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. was born on this day in 1929. This Day in History provides a recounting of his involvement in and impact on the civil rights movement, beginning more than sixty years ago. Ancient history? The 1940s seemed ancient to me when I was growing up.
I was completely unaware of who Dr. King was until the day of his assassination in 1968. I was 13 years old and completely unaware of the civil rights movement and racial unrest against discriminatory practices based on the color of a person’s skin. If I looked at the newspaper, it was only to read the comics or to clip a world news article for current events day. In school, there was never any discussion of the unrest and discord in our country.
When I came downstairs, I had a few minutes before I needed to leave. I turned on the news to see if there was any other exciting world news I could report on. The coverage was all about Dr. King; that he had been assassinated. There were clips of men standing on a balcony, pointing. They were showing police where the shots had come from.
My parents were sitting at the dining room table, having coffee, and reading the paper. They didn’t watch television much because captioning for the Deaf on Line 21 was years away. They could not lipread the news or most programs because the speech was too fast for them to be able to decipher words. They got their news from the paper. I thought they’d know who Dr. King was. I took my time, slowly mouthing the gist of the story.
My parents’ reaction surprised me. They were happy and exclaimed, “Oh, good!”
“Why?” I wanted to know.
“He is trouble, a troublemaker.”
What did that mean? Was he a criminal? Was he doing something wrong? Their response was that he was making Black people angry and that was wrong. Their joy turned suddenly to seriousness. That means there will be trouble.
Trouble? Why?
They didn’t give me a straight answer but warned me to be careful in school. In fact, they would drive me.
That day, I became aware. All day, all we talked about in all the classes was who Dr. King was, what he’d accomplished in his short life, and the social injustices that were still going on. I had been totally unaware that life was harder for Blacks in terms of employment, housing, and everything I’d always taken for granted because I am white.
To Kill a Mockingbird made a deep impression on me. I realized that my parents were also racist, picking up patterns and bigoted ideas from their families, teachers, and friends. They were wrong. Dr. King wasn’t a troublemaker. He was a hero.
After Dr. King, discussion of racial injustice in school stopped. I went on reading, learning more awful truths I’d been totally unaware of before.
Today, I am angry that Dr. King’s inspiring words are twisted by the conservative politicians in Congress, the ones I’ve relabeled Rethugs and GQP. They are made up of many traitors who were involved in the January 6th insurrection and coup attempt at the Capitol. Recently, The Conversation had an article in their newsletter called “How the distortion of Martin Luther King Jr. ‘s words enable more, not less, racial division within American society.” Please read the article. It explains how the conservative right wingers began sanitizing and misusing Dr. King’s quotes.
I also get a newsletter called Now This/Know This. There are so many links to follow, I thought I would just copy and paste the whole thing. I hope citing this and giving credit to the reporter will be okay:
“Reclaiming some of Martin Luther King Jr.'s most famous quotes
MLK weekend is upon us once again. In addition to most of us getting a well-deserved Monday off and time to spend with friends, family, or other pursuits, it should serve as a time to reflect on the man himself and the role we all play in forging a more just society.
It’s also a time for Republicans to really, really, REALLY remind you that they apparently love Martin Luther King Jr., too. But the way they go about showing it is usually just taking his most famous quotes out of their original contexts and using them to defend preexisting conservative worldviews.
From Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) co-opting Martin Luther King Jr.'s depiction of “The Other America,” to former Vice President Mike Pence inexplicably finding similarities between MLK and former President Donald Trump, there’s nothing disingenuous people love more than misusing King’s words to support their own ideas and goals. Or, as the folks at The Recount once aptly put it, “If you only listen to Republicans, MLK said exactly one thing one time.”
So in honor of MLK weekend, we’re taking a look at a few of the civil rights leader’s most famous quotes and putting them back into their CORRECT context. “I have a dream that my 4 little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
This quote is often used to promote a “post-racial” agenda, criticize affirmative action, and silence those who advocate for race to be taken into consideration while working toward a fairer and more equitable America.
The quote is taken from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which was delivered before a crowd of more than 250,000 people on August 28, 1963, at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. That march was organized because King and his collaborators recognized the racial inequalities and injustices that persisted in society. They did not seek a “post-racial” existence; they sought equity. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
This is another quote that’s often used to condemn people who fight for racial justice and equity. When misused, it insinuates that those who advocate for an end to white supremacy are the real people who harbor hate, not the ones challenging it.
In July 1962, King was arrested while holding a prayer vigil outside Georgia’s Albany City Hall during efforts to eradicate racial segregation and discrimination in the area. During a short stint in jail, King drafted sermons for what would become “Strength to Love,” a landmark collection of religious writings that was released in 1963. It became the first volume of its kind made available to a white audience. This quotation can be found among those sermons.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
In April 1963, King was arrested for leading civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham. On the day of his arrest, 8 white Alabama clergy members published a criticism of King’s methods of pursuing racial equality in the Birmingham News.
In response, King penned “Letter from Birmingham Jail” from his cell, denouncing white liberals and moderates who he said were “more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice,” underscoring the immediate need for racial justice. This quote comes from that 21-page-long publication.
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Almost as if MLK knew his fate and wanted to leave his followers with words of encouragement, he spoke these words in his final Sunday sermon before his assassination. The sermon is titled “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution” and was given in the Washington National Cathedral on March 31, 1968. 4 days later, King was killed.
In short, Martin Luther King Jr. had a beautiful way with words, and anyone looking to show reverence for his memory should do their homework before borrowing a quote for a cause he would have never co-signed.
⭢ KnowThis |
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2023 marks the 37th year Martin Luther King Jr. Day will have been observed in the U.S. since it first gained federal recognition in 1986. The AP put together a roundup of several rallies, town halls, and other events set to be held in cities across the country in honor of the occasion. President Joe Biden will also be traveling to Atlanta this weekend to visit Ebenezer Baptist Church, MLK’s former parish. Biden will be the first sitting president to speak at Sunday service in that space, doing so on what would’ve been Dr. King’s 94th birthday.” I stand with those still dealing with inequality and justice. I am an advocate, a role I took on as a young adult. I have carried signs and marched, and I sat in support of disabled people seeking equality in all areas. I will always be an advocate. Finally, this old gray mare is still learning. I love Dan Rather’s article called Music of a Movement. I had no idea, and if you read all the way through, then maybe you'll learn something new too. |
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