King Without Tears

Monday, January 16, was the federal holiday celebrating the birth of Rev. Martin Luther King (1929-1968). He is one of only three Americans so honored (1), and he is treated like a secular saint by the media, schools and most politicians. Though an avowed liberal and absolute pacificist, confrontational and controversial during his lifetime, his memory is honored by public figures of all ideologies today. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
Let us take a dry-eyed look at the man and his legacy.

Q1.: What was Rev. King's philosophy?
He believed that since people were basically similar, all forms of racial discrimination were morally wrong. He also considered all violence, including self-defense, wrong too. He was inspired by the examples of Jesus, Henry David Thoreau, and Mahatma Gandhi.

Q2: How did Rev. King try to attain his goals?
He used boycotts, mass demonstrations, and sit-ins to attract attention to what he considered injustices. These activities attracted big-time media attention, especially when violence was used against his followers. The news coverage would pressure politicians to take sides on the issue King was advocating.
Although he was opposed by state and local officials in the South, national figures (notably Presidents Kennedy and Johnson), under the influence of the national press and the black vote (2), would usually come around to King's side of the question eventually.
Rev. King understood that although most white Americans were raically prejudiced, most of them also were motivated by desires for fairness, justice, and benevolence. King's speeches invoked both Biblical calls for justice and citations from American documents such as the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights. King won substantial white support for his initiatives by appealing to the better aspects of the American character.

Q3: What was Rev. King's relationship to Jews and Israel?
He was always supportive of Israel, and had many Jews among his major supporters, including Rabbi A. J. Heschel. King understood that the Jews were the only white ethnic group to support the Civil Rights Movement, and he was the last national black leader to value this relationship.

Q4: What were Rev. King's major accomplishments?
He fought for federal laws to prohibit racial discrimination in public accomodations, employment, education, voting, and housing. Under the leadership of President Lyndon Johnson, two federal civil rights acts were passed during King's lifetime (3) and one shortly after his death.(4) These three laws banned all of the forms of discrimination King opposed.

Q5: How did King respond to the Vietnam War?
As a pacificst, he opposed all wars. However, since he valued the support of President Johnson for the bills listed above and the War on Poverty, King withheld criticism of the Vietnam War until early 1967. Once he broke with LBJ on Vietnam, he lost all influence with the Administration. He rejected calls from anti-war activitsts to run for President.

Q6: What was Rev. King's greatest failure?
In 1966 he led his followers to Chicago to struggle against slum-conditions and housing discrimination. Unlike the clueless sheriffs he confronted in the South, Mayor Richard J Daley welcomed King and endorsed all his goals. At the time, black politicians allied with Daley controlled two (of seven) congressional districts in the City, and had no need for King or his organization. After about a year of frustration, King moved on.
Today Chicago has a street named for Martin Luther King (5), and Daley's son runs the City.

Q7: Why was Rev. King assassinated?
Martin Luther King was shot to death on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on the evening of April 4, 1968. James Earl Ray, who had escaped from the Missouri State Prison, was convicted of the crime and died in prison in 2003. Ray was apparently told that a wealthy racist would pay $25,000 to whoever would kill the civil rights leader. He never collected anything.

Q8: Would America be wise to embrace Rev. King's philosophy of non-violence today?
It took one war to win American independence, another to eradicate slavery, and the most destructive war in human history to save the world from Nazism and fascism. No amount of eloquent oratory, demonstrations, or sit-ins could have achieved these victories.
In an ideal world, everyone would be a pacificist, and the scourge of war would be eliminated forever. But the real world in which we live is populated by millions of people more than willing to use all forms of violence, including terrorism, to subjugate others to their will and beliefs. The price of freedom is the willingness to fight for it when necessary.
On this point, Martin Luther King was wrong.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Preidents Day celebrates the births of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in February.
(2) Although the black vote in the South was suppressed until 1965, it was an important factor in large northern states such as New York, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan. It was crucial in John Kennedy's close victory in 1960.
(3) The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (accomodations, employment, and education) and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
(4) The Civil Rights Act of 1968 banned discrimination in housing. It was passed in April, 1968, as a type of memorial to Rev. King
(5) Formerly known as South Parkway, it is about a mile east of South State Street.