Many decades ago, there was born a human being who changed history. He was not wealthy, and he was hated by many reactionary forces, but his impact on society was monumental. He was the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the song of a preacher (Dr. Martin Luther King Sr.) and a great mother (Alberta Williams King). He was trained in Christian teachings when he was young. Dr. King played sports, traveled to places for speech competitions, and went to college when he was 15 years old. He had an extraordinary oratory ability that moved the souls of people. Later, he was educated in many univerisities about theology, sociology, and philosophy (like the views of Hegel). He earned a Divinity degree and was part of the church in Montgomery, Alabama by the early 1950's. This was the time of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He was a reluctant leader who at first didn't want to be part of the movement. Yet, he was advised by many men and women to be involved as the church historically have been at the forefront of socially conscious movements. It is imnportant to note that one man didn't head the Civil Rights Movement in America as the alte Ella Baker has said. The Civil Rights Movements was headed in an egalitarian coalition of men, women, and children who were tired of oppression and desired true freedom for black people. Dr. King worked hard in giving speeches, supporting carpools, and risked his life. His home was bombed, and he inspired the crowd to not use violence in retailiation. His wife, Coretta Scott King stood by Dr. King's side. Coretta Scott King also was a lifelong activist who supported peace campaigns, fought racism, and agreed with nonviolence as a way of life just like her husband. Dr. King had a gun in his house, and Bayard Rustin convinced him to get the gun away to follow nonviolence. Later, the black community of Montgomery, Alabama won to end Jim Crow apartheid involving buses. This victory came after the tragedy murder of Emmett Till. Dr. King used the SCLC (or the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) to show speeches, invest in political development, fund voter registration drives, and use other means to eliminate Jim Crow from the world. By the late 1950's, Dr. King spoke at a March on Washington D.C. to combat injustice. By the early 1960's, Dr. King struggled in Albany, Georgia because of Sheriff Pritchett using slick tactics. SNCC (or the Southern Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) rose up and some in SNCC viewed Dr. King as outdated, but as we shall we Dr. King was ahead of his time in his views. Later, Dr. King and his advisers went to Birmingham, Alabama.
The movement of 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama was the first turning point of the early civil rights movement. Birminghama was a heavily segregated city with bombings, murders, rapes, and other evil inflicted against black Americans. Therefore, Dr. King went there with civil rights leaders to fight back against oppression. Rev. Shuttlesworth was already in the city standing up for freedom. Birmingham was a victory in the end, but it cost a lot. During the campaign, racist police officers sent dogs and water hoses against innocent men, women, and children. That was one of the most evil displays of racist brutality in history. There were mass demonstrations, massive arrests (children were arrested for protesting in Birmingham too), and Dr. King was arrested in the time too. Dr. King wrote a note called The Letter from the Birmingham Jail to refute moderate clergymen who wanted an end to demonstrations in the streets to oppose racism. Dr. King wrote in the letter that unjust laws are no laws at all, and the Nazis did evil legally. So, Jewish people and others in Nazi Germany had the right to resist those unjust laws in Nazi Germany decades ago. So, the essence of Dr. King's argument is that oppressed people should never wait for freedom as freedom is an inborn right not based on the parts of a clock. The letter listed the indignants of black people in America from being cursed at and calling grown black men "boy" by racists. These evils should end. Later, Dr. King spoke about his Dream at the 1963 March on Washington. It was a massive speech. The I Have a Dream speech was not just about equality. Dr. King, in that speech, condemn American oppression against black people, he condemned police brutality, he condemned economic oppression, and he condemned the status quo. He desired a progressive plan to solve problems. The crowd cheered making Dr. King the most famous black civil rights leader in that time. J. Edgar Hoover after that speech infensified his efforts to illegally monitor Dr. King. Hoover had a hatred of progressives, and he was a stone cold hypocrite for claiming to be for freedom but using tactics that are against the concept of democratic freedom. Then, another horrendeous tradegy happened. It was the murder of four innocent black girls at Birmingham Baptist Church. These girls just wanted to worship and celebrate God. Their lives were gone by cowardly people, and Dr. King gave the eulogy. Tht event shows the murderous nature of racism. In 1964, Dr. King worked in St. Augustine, Florida to demand civil rights, he won the Nobel Peace Prize, and the Civil Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Baines Johnson.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was one of the greatest laws in human history. By the time of 1964, rebellions grew in NYC and other cities of America. Malcolm X shooked Dr. King's hands, and times were changing fast. The summer of 1964 saw Freedom Summer, when people of all colors worked in Mississippi to demand voting rights and equality for black people. Three civil rights workers were murdered during Freedom Summer too. Fannie Lou Hamer opposed racists in the Democratic party in Mississippi during the 1964 National Democratic Convention. LBJ defeated Goldwater in the Presidential election of 1964. By early 1965, There was the Selma voting rights movement. The Selma movement was the peak of the old school version of the Civil Rights Movement, because it was when support among many colors were strong, it was highly organized, and it had set plans plus goals. The Selma movement had men, women, and children to protest for voting rights. Many people were assaulted on the bridge which was called Bloody Sunday. Dr. King came back and turned back. Later, Dr. King and others fully came back to march over the bridge to the Alabama capitol to protest for freedom. This resulted in the 1965 Voting Rights Act that was signed by LBJ. In recent years, the Voting Rights Act has been gutted by the Supreme Court in disgraceful ways. In 1965, the Watts rebellion in Los Angeles happened. It was shocked for many, but not for black Los Angeles residents back then. For years, black people in LA suffered racism, gentrification, police brutality, and other forms of economic oppression. This angered exploited with buildings burned, the National Guard called, and many people killed or arrested. Dr. King came to Los Angeles to speak and he was booed, which was shocking during that time. Later, Dr. King later knew that people booed him, because they were impatient with the slow progress of the civil rights movement when the same conditions of oppression existed in the Midwest, the North, and the West Coast (where in many places legal segregation was banned legally but de facto segregation remained). Dr. King condemned the destruction of innocent property in a rebellion, but he said that a riot was the language of the unheard. That means that a riot represents the neglect of society to hear the cries of the oppressed. By 1965, there was a split in the civil rights movement. Many white people in the movement shifted into the anti-war movement specificially, and some of them falsely believed that equality was won. Many black people in the movement went into the Black Power movement, the anti-war movement, and other movements. Dr. King was touring the nation to figure what was next on his agenda. By 1965, he publicly condmened the Vietnam War. This caused LBJ to cause a meeting with Dr. King to try to stop him from making anti-war statements, especially in public. In 1966, Dr. King went into Chicago.
The 1966 Chicago movement was done by Dr. King, Al Raby, and other men and women to address the conditions of black people in the North and Midwest. Chicago had over 1 million black people. Dr. King wanted to see if his nonviolent resistant movement would work in Chicago. He faced opposition not only by racists, far right people, and the political establishment like Mayor Daley. He faced opposition from moderate black leaders, because they wanted him to stay out of the city. Back then, many Northerners and Midwesterners hypocritically condemned racism and oppression in general in the South, but sugarcoated the injustices happening in their own backyards (as Dr. King has said). Dr. King struggled in Chicago by being hit with a rock, seing thousands of racists wanting to attack protestors, and witnessing overt racism beyond what he has seen in the Deep South. Chicago ended with a statement of demands, and Chicago opened Dr. King's eyes that this problem is not just about Jim Crow apartheid. It's about the whole structure of capitalist society that permits massive wealth for the few and massive economic complications for the many. In 1966, in private, Dr. King advocated democratic socialism in order to solve poverty. This view angered Hoover and the FBI as they knew what Dr. King wanted via wiretaps. By the end of 1966, Dr. King grew his criticism of the Vietnam War. By January 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. courageously gave strong opposition to the Vietnam War. He was in Jamaica and saw images of kids and babies being harmed by napalm (as shown in Ramparts magazine), and Dr. King became emotional. He said that some in the press were hypocritical to praise him opposing Bull Connor with nonviolence but condemned him when he promotes nonviolence in Vietnam. His speech in the Riverside Baptist Church in New York City in April 4, 1967 marked a new chapter of his life. In that church, his Riverside speech gave total opposition to the Vietnam because: it is against international law, it strips resources from programs to help Americans end poverty, the war can end with a peaceful negotiation, and the war is morally wrong. He was opposed by the corporate media from TIME to the New York Times. His funding was cut. LBJ hated his views, and Dr. King struggled to gain money, except by his close friends and supporters. Dr. King had a nuisanced view of Black Power seeing that it was right to advocate black economic and political power. Dr. King just didn't want a slogan to be promoted alone and he rejected separatism. Dr. King fought for civil rights in Wisconsin, California, London, and other places in the world. Dr. King live to see the Six Day War. Dr. King agreed with Israel's right to exist, but he wanted a Marshall Plan to help Arabic people, including Palestinian people. He wanted the land Israel took via the Six Day War to return back to the Arabic people. He also condemned anti-Semitism. Dr. King spoke at Geneva, Switzerland too. By 1968, Dr. King supported the Poor People's Campaign.
The Poor People's Campaign was inspired by Mary Edelman. The movement wanted billions of dollars (i.e. $30 billion) to end poverty, build homes for working class/poor people, have a guaranteed annual income, and and a commitment to full employment. This plan wanted to be an extension of the Great Society programs. It was opposed by many moderate civil rights leaders and the far right. While this was going on, Memphis santiation workers protested in a strike after 2 black men were crushed by a garbage machine in early 1968. Dr. King went to Memphis to stand up for black Memphis santiation workers as all labor had dignity. He led a march and the provocateurs (possibly paid by the FBI) disrupted the march causing choas. Dr. King promised to promote a non-violent march. He faced an injunction as Dr. King felt violated his First Amendment rights. He worked hard to try to duplicate a march. During a stormy night in Memphis, Dr. King gave his prophetic I Have Been to the Mountaintop speech. In that speech, Dr. King said that he would be happy if he lived a little longer after the half century mark of the 20th century. Dr. King called for economic boycotts, building black owned institutions, and a continued strike by the Memphis sanitation workers to make economic justice a reality. He was cheered when he was finished. He met Lucretia Ward, Georgia Davis, and his brother A.D. King after the I Have Been to the Mountaintop speech. Dr. King talked with the Invaders, Andrew Young, and other people. Later, Dr. King watched over a balcony talking about dinner on April 4, 1968. He was shot by a gunman at 6 pm. This caused sadness, outrage, and anger over his unjust assassination. Dr. King's death caused rebellions in over 100 cities being the largest rebellions since the American Civil War. Later, a funeral happened in multiple placed. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy about nonviolence, peace, and justice remains part of our thinking to this day. No human is perfect, and we realize that Dr. King was not perfect. Yet, he was right to oppose the Vietnam War, he was right to support voting rights, he was right to advocate reparations for African Americans, and he was right that we want justice to roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. On this Dr. King holiday, we believe of being of service to help our neighbors, vote, advocate for freedom, and believe in the Dream wholeheartedly.
By Timothy
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