Heroes are real in the world. They are not perfect, but they are bold and visionary. The late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a visionary who saw injustice and wanted to eliminate it. Courage was part of his personality as he risked his life for us to be a better world than the past. People like Dr. King, Malcolm X, Ella Baker, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, etc. worked very hard, so they could build a foundation for all of us to walk upon. These are the people that contributed to me in 2025 to live where I want and to eat where I want. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. married a woman, Coretta Scott King, who was just as progressive as he was. In fact, Coretta Scott King publicly opposed the Vietnam War publicly even before Dr. King went into public to express opposition to the war. He was an intellectual political philosopher who questioned capitalism and glorified democratic socialism in his life. He was born in the South at Atlanta, Georgia. In fact, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to me was the greatest orator of the 20th century and one of the greatest speakers in human history. His parents were the preacher Michael King Sr. and Alberta King. He was raised with many siblings. Dr. King's father and grandfather were preachers of the Baptist faith. Dr. King would later be pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church just like his father. Dr. King loved to read literature, visited his grandparents, and played games with people. As a child, Dr. King experienced racism and decided to show love to all people. His father stood up against segregation and discrimination too. In fact, his father led hundreds of African American in a civil rights march in 1936 to the city hall in Atlanta, to protest voting rights discrimination. His father, Michael King Sr., also wanted white people to call him Sir not "boy" which racists commonly used against black men back in the day. Michael King Sr. was a man who wanted his dignity to be respected without compromise.
Dr. King was inspired by that. Dr. King could sing and play the piano plus played pool. He learned an extensive, large vocabulary from reading dictionaries. Dr. King worked in high school and spelled greatly. He won an oratorical contest on April 13, 1944. He was cursed at by a racist white bus driver and that was he was the angriest he had ever been in his life. He went to Morehouse College, he played football, traveled to Hartford, Connecticut (which was integrated), and he later entered the ministry in 1947. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in sociology in 1948 by the time he was 19 years old from Morehouse. Dr. King went up North to Upland, Pennsylvania at Crozer Theological Seminary to get his theological degree. He promoted the social gospel from many scholars like Walter Rauschenbusch's social gospel views. He graduated from the school with a Bachelor of Divinity in 1951. He earned a doctorate in systematic theology at Boston University. Ironically, I agree with Dr. Martin Luther King's political and economic views more than his theological views. Dr. King didn't believe in the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Birth, and a Literal Hell. I do believe in the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Birth, and a Literal Hell. Dr. King believes that suffering is redemptive, but I believe that suffering is part of a believer's life (yet suffering is not redemptive as only the blood of the Lamb can redeem the souls of humanity). Dr. King married Coretta Scott King (a singer and civil rights leader) on June 18, 1953. They love their four children who are Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King, and Bernice King.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had many challenges and victories involving the Civil Rights Movement. He worked with Rosa Parks, and others to promote the Montgomery Bus Boycott movement. The end result of the movement was the integration of the buses in America. The Dexter Avenue Baptist Church was a homebase in Montgomery, Alabama to promote the boycott. That fact is important as the Deep South played a key role in the victories of the overall black freedom struggle. Claudetta Clovin, Edgar Nixon, and other famous and unsung men and women worked together to make the boycott successful. The boycott lasted for 385 days. Dr. King's home was bombed, but he still kept the faith. Dr. King even carried a gun in his house for self-defense purposes (which he had a right to do), but Rustin convinced him to give up his gun. There is nothing wrong with self-defense or pacifism, but me personally I believe in self-defense and nonviolence. The Browder v. Gayle ruling banned racial segregation on Montgomery public buses. After this victory, Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. was a national figure and one of the most powerful leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1957, Dr. King, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, Joseph Lowery, and other civil rights leaders created The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to use the black churches to use nonviolent protests in promoting civil rights and human rights. He had allies like Stanley Levison and Ella Baker. He addressed the national audience in the SCLC's 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. By the early 1960s, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover hypocritically claimed to promote liberty, but used COINTELPRO and other illegal methods to monitor Dr. King, the Black Panthers, and other progressive movements for social change. You can't claim to be for freedom while using illegal tactics against citizens. Dr. King worked hard to try to inspire President John F. Kennedy to issue a Second Emancipation Proclamation to end segregation. JFK didn't execute the order, but Kennedy did promote the federal civil rights legislation in 1963 that Dr. King praised with enthusiasm. President Kennedy had a stronger civil rights record than all previous Presidents combined. Kennedy wanted to use the law and the courts (like Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Marshall disagreed with Dr. King on his views on the Vietnam War) to promote equality without massive demonstrations. I agree with Dr. King that you not only need the law and the courts, but you also need massive demonstrations and grassroots organizing to create true equality in American society. JFK was concerned with Hoover's allegations that communists in the SCLC could derail the civil rights initiatives. Dr. King was not a Communist and he condemned Communism by his words, Levison was a former Communist, and there were no communist members of the SCLC. O'Dell was a Communist. Although, O'Dell was a grown man with the right to believe in what he wanted. I am a not a Communist, but people should have the right to believe in whatever ideology that they want as long as they are not hurting others immorally. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. praised democratic socialism. Dr. King was stabbed by a mentally ill woman Izola Curry on September 20, 1958, when he was signing copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom. He made Atlanta sit-ins, was in prison, and survived the 1960 elections. In fact, Dr. King's father supported John F. Kennedy for the Presidency after JFK and RFK used their influence to get Dr. King out of prison. The 1961 Albany movement in Georgia wasn't successful, because segregationists used slick tactics in stopping the SCLC's efforts (via Police Chief Laurie Pritchett). He worked with others in the 1963 Birmingham Campaign. That was a turning point, because after that campaign, the Civil Rights Movement would never be the same again. In Birmingham, Alabama, Wyatt Tee Walker and other people created civil disobedience and other actions to try to end Jim Crow oppression in Birmingham. Later, children were used the protests. Many black children were jailed and assaulted with dogs and water hoses being one of the evilest actions done by the authorities in world history. Bull Connor promoted this evil. Dr. King wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail to respond to moderates who wanted him to stop demonstrations. Dr. King accurately wrote that the urgent racist system must be abolished, and unjust laws are no true laws at all. He invoked people opposing Hitler and the American Revolutionary War history to justify his nonviolent resistance actions. For example, Dr. King wrote that Hitler did legal things, but these things were wrong, so not all laws are just. We have the subsequent right to oppose unjust laws.
He was involved in the 1963 March on Washington being a keynote speaker. The March of Washington was created by thousands of people from every color like Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, A. Philip Randolph, John Lewis, James L. Farmer, Bayard Rustin, and other people who wanted to voice their demands to the American government on the Washington Monument grounds. The I Have a Dream speech from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a culmination of the plans of A. Philip Randolph who wanted such a March back during the time of WWII. Dr. King gave a 17-minute great speech with inspiration from Mahalia Jackson. More than 250,000 Americans of every color were in the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and the National Mall. The speech (and the agenda of the 1963 March on Washington in general) wanted no police brutality, labor rights, self-government of Washington, D.C. civil rights legislation, no racial discrimination, and other progressive policies. Dr. King worked to comfort the families of the bombings of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four innocent black girls were murdered by cowards (who were in a KKK-affiliated racist group). It was a terrible tragedy. Dr. King used demonstrations in St. Augustine, Florida in 1964. The SCLC worked with Robert Hayling who promoted nonviolence and armed self-defense. Dr. King promoted racial equality in 1964, worked in New York City, supported the labor strike at the Scripto factory in Atlanta, and supported the Selma Voting Rights movement (from 1964 to 1965).
The protests in Selma, Alabama were large, and Bloody Sunday was when innocent men, women, and children were beaten by corrupt police officers (many of them on horseback) in March 1965. Selma caused LBJ to sign the 1965 Voting Rights Act, one of the most important laws in human history. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 helped to increase voting rights power among African Americans, but recently the Supreme Court has cut many important parts of the law in a wicked fashion. Afterward, the Watts rebellion in 1965 took place over economic exploitation, discrimination, housing rights being abused, poverty, racism, and police brutality in Los Angeles. People were desperate for survival, and Dr. King was booed when he came to Los Angeles immediately after the rebellion in 1965. That was rare to be booed by black people, but Dr. King later learned that Northern and Western ghettoes in many cases already had voting rights and civil rights laws long before 1965. They needed empathy and real progressive policies to address economic oppression, educational deprivation, health care issues, racial discrimination issues, housing rights violations, and infrastructure problems that must be done by a radical redistribution of political and economic power. In other words, it is fine to ban Jim Crow apartheid, but that is not enough. You need also to address an oppressive economic and political system that deprives black Americans of the opportunity to live our best lives. There should be a radical change in the power structure so wealth is fairly distributed to the people via living wages, a guaranteed annual income, investments in housing, adequate jobs, and true economic and political power for the oppressed.
Dr. King worked in the Chicago Freedom movement involving open housing in 1966. Chicago was a test. It would involve the SCLC and the CCCO (or Council of Community Organizations), founded by Albert Raby. Albert Raby would be a great friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Chicago Freedom Movement saw more racism for Dr. King than in many places in the South. In Chicago, hundreds of white racists would go out to curse and fight black protesters who desire open housing. Dr. King worked in Belmont Cragin, Jefferson Park, Evergreen Park, Gage Park, Marquette Park, and other areas. Dr. King was hit in head with a rock by a racist. Richard J. Daley wanted token measures to handle the situation, but Dr. King wanted more militancy. There was an agreement in Chicago, and Jesse Jackson stayed in Chicago for the rest of his life to promote Operation Breadbasket (to boycott chain stories that discriminated against black Americans). A 1967 CIA document declassified in 2017 downplayed King's role in the "black militant situation" in Chicago, with a source stating that King "sought at least constructive, positive projects. Yes, the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, and military intelligence illegally monitored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. constantly. Dr. King dealt with the issue of Black Power too. Black Power, as a concept, existed long before 1960 as it was written by scholars like Richard Wright. Kwame Ture, Dr. King's friend and supporter, would explicitly support Black Power as a fundamental ideology in 1966 in Mississippi. To Kwame Ture, Black Power was about self-determination among black people to form a powerbase to grow black people's economic and political power (which was beyond the paradigms of segregation and token integration). Since Black Power was misinterpreted by many, many moderate NAACP leaders and some white liberals falsely called Black Power racist. Dr. King gave a nuisance perspective of Black Power. Dr. King said that black people do need self-determination and grow economic and political power, but he rejected separatism. Kwame Ture and Dr. King would support each other's opposition to the Vietnam War.
Dr. King always opposed the Vietnam War as early as 1964 and in 1965. He became pressured to keep quietly his views in public by the Johnson administration. Yet, Coretta Scott King continued to oppose the Vietnam War. When Dr. King saw images of Vietnamese people harmed by napalm, then it caused Dr. King to publicly oppose the Vietnam War in early 1967. He was hated by LBJ, many civil rights leaders, some in the press, far right people, etc. for his anti-war stance, but Dr. King said that the Vietnam War was unjust, and it should end. The war stripped away funds that could be used to rebuild American cities harmed by injustice. Dr. King wanted a negotiated settlement and withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam including reparations to end the war.
Dr. King worked with Muhammad Ali who also opposed the Vietnam War. During an April 4, 1967, appearance at the New York City Riverside Church, King delivered a speech titled "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence." He spoke strongly against the U.S.'s role in the war, arguing that the U.S. was in Vietnam "to occupy it as an American colony" and calling the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." He connected the war with economic injustice, arguing that the country needed serious moral change. He wanted to oppose the triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism. Dr. King's words caused the corporate media to turn on him in editorials, many companies refused to fund his campaigns, and fellow civil rights leaders angrily opposed him like Urban League leader Whitney Young (who would later oppose the Vietnam War when Nixon was President), and Hoover planted spies in the SCLC to try to stop Dr. King's campaign for justice too. The Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh inspired Dr. King to oppose the war, and Dr. King nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. traveled the world in 1967 like going into Geneva, Switzerland, in London, in California, in Virginia, in Wisconsin, in New York City multiple times, and in other locations. Dr. King went to Louisville, Kentucky to advocate for housing rights for black Americans. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a complex view of the 1967 Six Day War. The Six Day War when Israel led a preemptive attack against Egypt in claiming that Egypt was about to attack Israel. Dr. King believed that Israel has the right to exist, but Israel should not be unyielding. Dr. King wanted a Marshall Plan to rebuild Arabic areas in Palestine and in the Middle East. Dr. King also wanted Israel to give up the land it took as a product of the Six Day War too. On June 18, 1967, he said that, "I think that for the ultimate peace and security of the situation it will probably be necessary for Israel to give up this conquered territory because to hold on to it will only exacerbate the tensions and deepen the bitterness of the Arabs."
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other human beings (like Marian Edelman) organized the Poor People's Campaign in 1968 to address poverty in America, so economic justice would exist. Dr. King wanted a multiracial groups of black people, Asian people, Native Americans, Hispanic people, white people, etc. to use civil disobedience in a nonviolent fashion at the U.S. Capitol until Congress created an economic Bill of Rights. The campaign was preceded by King's final book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? which laid out his view of how to address social issues and poverty. King quoted from Henry George's book Progress and Poverty, particularly in support of a guaranteed basic income. Dr. King wanted economic aid to help the poor in America. Some people opposed this campaign, even among civil rights leaders, but Dr. King was in sync with that agenda. His final actions involved the Memphis sanitation workers' strike. Dr. King though if this strike in Memphis would be successful, then his Poor People's Campaign would work.
Dr. King supported the black sanitation workers who had low pay, lax benefits, and some were killed by machines. Dr. King led a march that ended by the police and agent provocateurs destroyed innocent property. Dr. King promised to make another nonviolent march. Later, he gave his final I've Been to the Mountaintop address at Mason Temple on April 3, 1968, that prophetically predicted his fate in a strange way. In that speech he wanted black owned institutions, economic justice, equality, the right to protest for right, and marching for nonviolence. Dr. King wanted the Memphis strikers to have fair wages for their work. In the final words of the speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that he may be there with them, but black people would get to the Promised Land. After his historic speech, he came back to the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis to rest. His advisors of Andrew Young, Dorothy Cotton, Orange, Ralph Abernathy, and other people were with him in Memphis. On the next day, he wanted to fight the injunction and wanted a new peaceful march in Memphis. He played with his friends and planned on eating dinner, but a bullet ended his life on 6 pm. It was a sad day filled with hurt and pain. Yet, God, in his infinite Wisdom and Love, would want us to follow what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. got right in order to make a better world. Dr. King was right to advocate for nonviolence, he was right to show care for the poor, he was right to say that Black is Beautiful, he was right that civil rights and voting rights must be protected, and he was right that economic justice is a necessity to advocate in any generation. Many people believed that he was murdered by a conspiracy, but it is more important to promote his legacy of truth and love of humanity in seeing the Real Promised Land for real. The United States Government is complicit in illegally monitoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. constantly in his life without question.
Dr. King's movement for justice inspired the world from the anti-apartheid movement of South Africa to the 2020 anti-racism and anti-police brutality protests globally. Now, we live in a new generation in early 2025 (filled with the new Generation Beta babies), and a new President who makes no bones about his intention of being a dictator on Day one. Trump's neo-fascism would be opposed heavily by Dr. King. With the Gaza ceasefire, the war in Ukraine, the Sudanese war, the Congolese war, the chaos in Haiti, and other problems, we can't be numb in solution making. We have to promote solutions to even complex issues. We want all Israeli hostages to come home, and Palestinians to have a future where occupation is gone plus true freedom is given to them. Dr. King's legacy also involves service. Performing charity, cleaning out the garbage, working with the elderly, mentoring children, fighting illnesses, building homes, helping the poor, protesting for human rights, saving lives, and teaching the truth all encompass legitimate humane actions that we advocate. President Biden was President from 2021 to 2025, President Biden helped people with student loan debt, made judicial appointments filled with diversity, promoted historic increase in food stamps, helped to reduce unemployment, saw a reduction of crime nationwide, grew infrastructure, expanded Medicare coverage, and pardoned many people (like Marcus Garvey, Liz Cheney, all members of the January 6th Committee, Dr. Fauci, and other people). President Biden's imperfections have been exposed by people from across the political spectrum, but Biden did much good for this country. Dr. King's living children and grandchild have worked daily to fight for the Dream that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has so justly promoted.
Rest in Power Brother Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
By Timothy
