The Martin Luther King they won't celebrate

[dcsmart]

In 1967, Martin Luther King published a book called Where Do We Go From Here that set out a proposal for "Phase Two" of the movement.

January 19, 2009

THIS YEAR, the holiday celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday has taken on a special significance. For millions, King's struggle to smash racial barriers finds its highest symbolic fulfillment in the inauguration of the first African American president.


One can hardly set foot on Harlem's main artery of 125th Street without seeing literally hundreds of posters (in windows, or for sale from sidewalk vendors) depicting Obama and King together. No doubt, King's name and King's words will be on the lips of many who cross the inaugural stage.

It's a good thing that King is the object of so much official praise. But we should never forget that this wasn't always the case. Although he was assassinated in 1968, the campaign to acknowledge King's special contribution to this country with a national holiday wasn't won until 1986.

In the last year of his life, King actually became the source of much official derision, particularly after his public denunciation--at the Riverside Church in Harlem in April 1967--of the war in Vietnam. King, breaking with many of the more timid civil rights leaders, spoke out forcefully against what he called, "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government."

Did the liberal Democratic Party establishment leap to King's defense? Did they praise his courage?

Not exactly. Consider the reaction to the speech by then-President Lyndon Johnson, who fumed in the Oval Office: "What is that goddamn nigger preacher trying to do to me?"

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FULL ARTICLE
http://socialistworker.org/2009/01/19/the-king-they-wont-celebrate

[IndyOp]

1. I have a dream: Someday we WILL celebrate the WHOLE King. Peace. (n/t)

[wyldwolf]

2. another example of holding people of past generations to todays's standards

and from the Socialist Worker, no doubt. See Marx's use of the word "Itzig."

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

3. And don't forget the FBI position on MLK, they hated him.