Remembering the Real Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In American schools, we are taught basically three things about Black history: Africans were brought to America, Rosa Parks sat on the back of a bus, and Dr. Martin Luther King was peaceful and had a dream. Dr. King was so much more than that.
Though Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, GA, Americans celebrate his legacy on the third Monday of January each year. Social media will be filled with “I Have a Dream” quotes and will be hyper-focused on Dr. King’s stance on non-violence. Too many people will invoke a white-washed version of Dr. King—a Black man who was America’s most hated up until the 1980s. These people invoke Dr. King as a means of shushing Black people advocating for justice. They don’t know Dr. King outside of “I Have a Dream.” They don’t know the real Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The Real Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
When Black Lives Matter protests first organized and began protesting the various injustices against Black people in the United States, there were an awful lot of White folk declaring “Martin Luther King would be ashamed of you.” That seems to be a favorite past time of some people—telling Black folk that MLK would be ashamed of them protesting. It’s evident they don’t know anything about him or what he stood for aside from the one pager in their middle school history books about the man who marched on Washington and gave a speech.
When people tout Dr. King’s being a pacifist, they misunderstand one very fundamental thing: he had to be. Jim Crow laws existed from 1865 to 1965, “ending” with the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1965. Black people in America did not have the luxury of being able to riot (even though anytime Black people come together to peacefully protest, it’s still labeled a riot by the media). Being peaceful, though his nature, was also a tactic.
It’s important to understand the man and what he stood for because his words are more so relevant today. Dr. King was not the warm and fuzzy, docile Negro that people like to portray him as in order to try to make Black and PoC people feel guilty for wanting justice. No. He was a revolutionary. A brilliant and courageous man who, like the rest of Black America, was tired of the bullshit.
7 Quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. That Are Relevant Today
One of the best ways to get to know more about Dr. King is to read his speeches. Here are 7 quotes from the peaceful revolutionary.
Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn. The reality of substantial investment to assist Negroes into the twentieth century, adjusting to Negro neighbors and genuine school integration, is still a nightmare for all too many white Americans…These are the deepest causes for contemporary abrasions between the races. Loose and easy language about equality, resonant resolutions about brotherhood fall pleasantly on the ear, but for the Negro there is a credibility gap he cannot overlook. He remembers that with each modest advance the white population promptly raises the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash.
—Where Do We Go From Here: 1967
We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.
—A Time to Break the Silence: April 4, 1967
You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations.
—Letter From a Birmingham Jail, 1963
And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.
—Grosse Pointe High School: March 14, 1968
Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.
—A Time to Break the Silence: April 4, 1967
I contend that the cry of "Black Power" is, at bottom, a reaction to the reluctance of white power to make the kind of changes necessary to make justice a reality for the Negro. I think that we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard. And, what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the economic plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years.
—Interview with Mike Wallace, 1966
First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. 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 Council-er 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; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
—Letter From a Birmingham Jail, 1963
Over the weekend, I reread Letter from a Birmingham Jail and thought about what Dr. King went through. I thought about the stories my grandmom told me. And I thought about where we are today.
We have come a long way since the Civil Rights era. But we still have a very long way to go. It becomes more and more evident while trying to enjoy a game and seeing someone with a racial slur as a gamertag, or being called slurs while gaming when we’re just trying to relax and decompress at the end of the day. There are gamers who will say they don’t want politics in their games but willfully ignore the hatred towards their fellow gamers.
Ignoring it ignorance doesn’t help. Fighting ignorance does.
