Where would we be without his dream By Glenn Reedus The Rev. Jesse Jackson, one of the men on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, said there is a right way to honor the iconic civil rights leader. On January 15, what would have been Dr. King’s 85th birthday, Jackson said the right way to honor the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner is to vigorously pursue those things that King fought and died for, especially workers rights, ending the war on poverty, the right to vote and increasing economic opportunities. “We need to have a massive voter registration drive today and revive the war on poverty,” the founder of the RainbowPUSH Coalition said. The pending March 18 Illinois primary elections for most state offices is an ideal opportunity to take up Dr. King’s mantle and impact change. For the first time in state history, 17 year olds can vote in the primary and their presence can greatly impact the election’s outcome, resulting in keeping candidates on the ballot whose ideals coincide with Dr. King’s. Those would be individuals who would vote to restructure student
debts and ease the financial burdens young people are facing. Part of the new initiatives Jackson envisions is to resurrect Dr. King’s efforts by revamping how the incarcerated are treated. He said RainbowPUSH members recently visited several inmates in Cook County Jail. “About 70 percent of the inmates are there for non-violent offenses. They need to be out and on monitors and in programs where they are learning a skill or a trade, and given a place to stay,” he said. Many contemporary efforts to honor Dr. King are misguided as they take attention away from the things he was fighting for – an end to poverty, hunger, and job discrimination, Jackson recalled. He said he was unaware of recent online depictions of Dr. King outfitted in the attire of hip-hop artists including gold chains and big rings. “He is the leader to be emulated and not to be transfigured into some impotent characterization.” He continued that Dr. King has become more popular in death because “we love martyrs but we don’t love marchers. When he was alive he was challenged, and there was an attempt to co-op his work. He was challenging the Roman Empire.” Jackson said, “We all have an
obligation to fight to end this war on poverty.” The late President Lyndon B. Johnson’s initiative to fight poverty 50 years ago recently has been receiving broad news media attention and closely aligns with Dr. King’s efforts on that front. Jackson said PUSH is honoring Johnson’s legacy. “He had a commitment to the war on poverty,” Jackson said. At the time of his declaration against poverty, Johnson said in a speech. “This administration here and now declares unconditional war on poverty.” Like Dr. King, Johnson thought the U.S. government was spending too much money on the war in Viet Nam and not enough on eradicating poverty at home. Dr. King remains the only African American to have a national holiday named after him, as well as only African American with a monument in his honor on D.C.’s National Mall. In 2012, the U.S. poverty rate found 16 percent of U.S. citizens lived in poverty. That means more than 43.6 million Americans lacked sufficient income to meet basic needs. For a family of four, an income below $23,050 meant they were officially declared poverty-stricken. Jackson added that Dr. King’s
legacy should be lifted through marches and massive voter registration campaigns. His torch is carried by Jackson and U.S. Representative John Lewis (D-GA), former U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young, the Rev. C.T. Vivian, and others. Jackson said most of them
have informal conversations but there are no organized gathering. Carrying the memory and visualization of being a few feet away when the assassin’s bullet struck Dr. King has created a pain that will never go away Jackson offered.
THE REV. JESSE JACKSON is on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (center) and the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy moments before an assassin’s bullet felled Dr. King.
Quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on issues of the day
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. I have a dream that my four 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. Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to
the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word. We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education. A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus. History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and that in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered. Martin Luther King, Jr.
1964: Freedom Fighter became Nobel Peace Prize Laureate By Charlene Crowell Special to the Crusader Newspapers Although youth of nearly every generation have been advised – if not warned – to develop maturity with age, the life of Dr. Martin
ogy from Atlanta’s Morehouse College. In 1955 and at the age of 26, he earned a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Boston University. And on December 10, 1964 in Oslo, Norway, Dr. King at age 35 became a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Today, nearly 50 years ago, Dr.
1918) and II (1939-1945). Created through the 1895 last will and testament of Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Peace Prize honors “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding
PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON launched a national war on poverty that coincided with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s work to raise the economic position of poor Americans. Luther King, Jr. is testament that wisdom guided by principles can bring global achievement and progress -- even in youth. At the age of 19, he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in sociol-
King remains one of only 64 Laureates to singularly receive this esteemed honor. Prior to 1964, no Peace Prize had been awarded for 16 years since 1901 including during World Wars I (1914-
and promotion of peace congresses.” Gunnar Jahn, who presented the honor as chairman of the Nobel Committee, said of Dr. King, "He is the first person in the
By Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. NNPA Columnist
Africa and everywhere in the world. Yes, today that is a big order and a tremendous challenge. As a young, statewide youth organizer from 1963 to 1968 for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in my home state of North Carolina, I witnessed first hand the incredible genius and courage of Dr. King. I also remember his militant band of preachers, community organizers and student leaders who had become impatient with the status quo of systematic racial injustice in the United States. Golden Frinks, the N.C. state field secretary of SCLC recruited and introduced me to Dr. King and SCLC. Working with Dr. King changed my life for the better. Today, my purpose is simply to apply what I believe is the living legacy of Dr. King to some of the most pressing issues that oppressed people face nationally and internationally. Remember when Dr. King spoke out against the atrocities of the Vietnam War in 1967, there were many in the
African American community who could not readily make the connection that saw between the issues of racial and economic oppression in the United States and the issues of war and peace in southeast Asia. One of Dr. King’s famous quotes was, “An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” It was only after Dr. King’s tragic assassination in 1968 that many shared his opposition to the Vietnam War. Martin Luther King Jr. would not have supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, there should be much louder voices now concerning the post-colonial devastating wars and violence in the Sudan, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Somalia, and in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo where millions have died. There is just too much public silence about these and other global violent conflicts. Dr. King’s commitment to nonviolence was non-negotiable.
This month will mark the 85th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Across the nation and throughout the world community, millions of people will pay tribute and celebrate the birth of one our greatest freedom fighters and most effective leaders. The legacy of Dr. King is more than a federal holiday although we should never forget the protracted but successful struggle that was required to get that holiday recognition signed into law. The legacy of Dr. King is more than a tall magnificent statue that now stands on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. King’s legacy is also more than a faint remembrance of the past sacrifices and victories of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The living legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. should be a legacy of presentday continuing the good fight for freedom, justice, equality and economic empowerment in America,
Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence. He is the first to make the message of brotherly love a reality in the course of his struggle, and he has brought this message to all men, to all nations and races. “Today we pay tribute to Martin Luther King, the man
who has never abandoned his faith in the unarmed struggle he is waging, who has suffered for his faith, who has been imprisoned on many occasions, whose home has been subject to bomb attacks, whose life and the lives of his family have been threatened, and who nevertheless has never faltered.” Jahn’s remarks also spoke of Dr. King as “an undaunted champion
of peace” and added that “his own struggle is a clarion call to all who work for peace.” In his acceptance remarks, the oratorical skills and Baptist cadence that characterized so many of Dr. King’s speeches emerged to reach yet another zenith. His words also hearkened back to the justice journey that began nine years earlier in Montgomery, Alabama.
King’s True Legacy
Africans and African Americans
as well as all people must strive to settle differences and disputes without engaging in self-destructive violence. This in part is what I mean when I use the phrase “living legacy” of Martin Luther King. Gun violence is down somewhat now in Chicago, but it is still too high. Gun violence is rising in Detroit, Washington, D.C. and in Philadelphia. SCLC, NAACP, National Urban League, National Rainbow Coalition, and the National Action Network should take on the National Rifle Association (NRA) and its policies to proliferate gun sales in America. Support of universal health care and the Affordable Care Act should be viewed as a fundamental aspect of the living legacy of King. We are most affected by the absence of health care delivery to our families and communities. Yet, in too many of our communities there still appears to a slow response to the Affordable Care Act. Dr. King new the importance of education at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s).
King’s legacy demands more financial support for all HBCUs. We must also meet the challenge of curbing drop-out rates and the failures of the secondary school systems of education with respect to our communities. Lastly, Martin Luther King’s concept of “the Beloved Community” involved economic equality and development as a means of eliminating poverty. We should be encouraging the rise and training of a new young generation of entrepreneurs. If we want more jobs, then we have to have more businesses and employers who emerge from the communities that we live in and serve. Yes, the National Holiday for Dr. King is about remembrance and celebration. But it should also be about living the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. everywhere people are crying out for a better life through freedom, justice and equality and economic empowerment.