Previous 1
Topic: Dr. MLK's dream
Dodo_David's photo
Mon 01/21/13 03:13 PM
The third Monday of January is the USA's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. In honor of the event, I present an excerpt from Dr. King's famous "I have a dream" speech.

What, if anything prevents the dream from being reality?

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four 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.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

no photo
Mon 01/21/13 05:11 PM

The third Monday of January is the USA's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. In honor of the event, I present an excerpt from Dr. King's famous "I have a dream" speech.

What, if anything prevents the dream from being reality?

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four 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.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"



Because it is a dream, not reality. Sounds good in la la land.
I have dreams, should they be real too? Go figure.ohwell

Zimzane2's photo
Mon 01/21/13 07:21 PM
:smile:

no photo
Mon 01/21/13 07:36 PM
Edited by hp20111 on Mon 01/21/13 08:00 PM
First, he was a bigot just like his wife as well as a communist he hated America.
His wife was kicked out of South Africa by blacks.
The U2 song was for Christ not him as they are a Christian Irish Rock band

Here read this for real facts not lies from libtards

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/epstein9.html

This guy that wrote this is Black-oh yeah doesnt matter if he was white either. T

read this for real facts.

msharmony's photo
Mon 01/21/13 08:01 PM
alrighty then

I think the modern ideal of 'freedom' has been achieved,, in that its no longer legal to lynch someone for thsir skin color, or enslave them without pay, or not respect their rights,,,,

I think the deeper personal choice to judge people by their character, is a more difficult goal, as humans are judgmental in so many ways and for so many reasons,

to aknowledge history, to aknowledge culture, etc,,,,is difficult in the plight for 'equality'

but to take each individual and get to know them on that individual level, is not as difficult,

no photo
Mon 01/21/13 08:12 PM
To judge people by their character doesn't require a dream. I judge a person by their character. I personally, have never wanted to lynch anyone or enslave someone. Last time I checked it was not legal to do so either. So, why conjure up a dream?

Bravalady's photo
Mon 01/21/13 09:05 PM


but to take each individual and get to know them on that individual level, is not as difficult,


I think it actually is pretty difficult for a lot of people to do this. It's much easier intellectually to apply a stereotype, or project one's own hatred back onto others, than to allow people the simple benefit of the doubt. Witness some of the jaw-dropping replies in this very thread.

Thinking for oneself, getting out of your rut, is hard. It requires energy, and there's not any instant payoff because the rewards are subtle.

Dodo_David's photo
Mon 01/21/13 09:35 PM

First, he was a bigot just like his wife as well as a communist he hated America.
His wife was kicked out of South Africa by blacks.
The U2 song was for Christ not him as they are a Christian Irish Rock band

Here read this for real facts not lies from libtards

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/epstein9.html

This guy that wrote this is Black-oh yeah doesnt matter if he was white either. T

read this for real facts.


Trying to pass off urban legends as facts . . . How sad.

no photo
Tue 01/22/13 05:32 AM
Edited by hp20111 on Tue 01/22/13 05:55 AM


First, he was a bigot just like his wife as well as a communist he hated America.
His wife was kicked out of South Africa by blacks.
The U2 song was for Christ not him as they are a Christian Irish Rock band

Here read this for real facts not lies from libtards

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/epstein9.html

This guy that wrote this is Black-oh yeah doesnt matter if he was white either. T

read this for real facts.


Trying to pass off urban legends as facts . . . How sad.


yeha you cant even take it from a Black. If it was said from a white. you would be saying it was a lie.

What you read from the libtards are LIES . These what i put are FACTS ,but u refuse to believe the facts when they are right there in front of you by a black lawyer who could get sued if it or any part where untrue.
I know U2 Because of a particular computer club. again like libtards u jump before u think or really lack there of. Look up the south AFrica It was on CNN.
your libtard news.
Because you refuse to read the facts that are right in front of u and copout- The site gives references. This is a definition of a FOOL .
HERE ENDTH THE LESSON

To msharmony I hope you goto and read the link. I have plenty of black friends and they all dislike and I dare say hate MLkjr. Doesn't matter ur skin color he was bad news for this country.

metalwing's photo
Tue 01/22/13 06:12 AM



First, he was a bigot just like his wife as well as a communist he hated America.
His wife was kicked out of South Africa by blacks.
The U2 song was for Christ not him as they are a Christian Irish Rock band

Here read this for real facts not lies from libtards

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/epstein9.html

This guy that wrote this is Black-oh yeah doesnt matter if he was white either. T

read this for real facts.


Trying to pass off urban legends as facts . . . How sad.


yeha you cant even take it from a Black. If it was said from a white. you would be saying it was a lie.

What you read from the libtards are LIES . These what i put are FACTS ,but u refuse to believe the facts when they are right there in front of you by a black lawyer who could get sued if it or any part where untrue.
I know U2 Because of a particular computer club. again like libtards u jump before u think or really lack there of. Look up the south AFrica It was on CNN.
your libtard news.
Because you refuse to read the facts that are right in front of u and copout- The site gives references. This is a definition of a FOOL .
HERE ENDTH THE LESSON

To msharmony I hope you goto and read the link. I have plenty of black friends and they all dislike and I dare say hate MLkjr. Doesn't matter ur skin color he was bad news for this country.


You are correct. The MLK story has changed over the years to describe someone who largely never existed. He was a vocal leader of civil rights in the years where civil rights changes and were a major issue of the day. However, his views have been modified to suit the pc crowd of the moment. I was there in the beginning. He was no angel.

msharmony's photo
Tue 01/22/13 06:26 AM
Edited by msharmony on Tue 01/22/13 06:27 AM
he didnt have to be an 'angel'

he made great stands and took great sacrifices for a great cause


and hp,, you didnt actually GIVE any sources of information to read, nor am I sure from your grammar and spelling that you are a lawyer

not saying it cant be,, just saying, I have lawyers in my family whose grammar and spelling are a bit easier to follow

and, who also love Dr King

its not unusual for birds of a feather to flock together or attract each other or reinforce each others beliefs,,,,,

my parents were there during the civil rights movement and I will take their 'version' of the history they lived through over that of those who only read about it and chose what to believe out of the mulitude of facts and factoids and straight out lies that anyone is able to set forth in a book or put on a website,,,

no photo
Tue 01/22/13 06:42 AM

he didnt have to be an 'angel'

he made great stands and took great sacrifices for a great cause


and hp,, you didnt actually GIVE any sources of information to read, nor am I sure from your grammar and spelling that you are a lawyer

not saying it cant be,, just saying, I have lawyers in my family whose grammar and spelling are a bit easier to follow

and, who also love Dr King

its not unusual for birds of a feather to flock together or attract each other or reinforce each others beliefs,,,,,

my parents were there during the civil rights movement and I will take their 'version' of the history they lived through over that of those who only read about it and chose what to believe out of the mulitude of facts and factoids and straight out lies that anyone is able to set forth in a book or put on a website,,,


Nobody has to be an angle that is a copout .

I never said i was a Lawyer read I said the guy who wrote it is . Micheal Im not Micheal. This isnt English Class or I could be the Grammer Nazi and call it on all of us.

That lawyer can be sued by his family ,but cant as they are facts true facts , with references. My family was there also so was metal. You forget that also. The pc -libtard-Fools movement has made him look like what he never was.
From what you said you never read it. Sad very sad. Dont say you did for if you did you would have never have said i was the lawyer. I made that very clear i wasnt that lawyer. This is exactly what FOOLs=Libtards do.
HERE ENDTH LESSON

msharmony's photo
Tue 01/22/13 06:53 AM
I stand corrected, I misinterpreted your statement

'These what i put are FACTS ,but u refuse to believe the facts when they are right there in front of you by a black lawyer who could get sued if it or any part where untrue'

because there has been no source in this thread who is a black lawyer,,,,the op was actually promoting king,,,,


and I think you may be referring to a conversation you had elsewhere, I am pariticipating in the current thread and have no idea what sources you are referring to or what it is I supposedly 'never read'

and as I said, you can find groups of people who believe anything, who will reinforce each others beliefs, ,,,

your parents could perceive the Dr one way, and others differently

noone who wasnt in his head could actually know WHAT he felt, we can only give educated guesses by his actions what he stood for,,

there are always those who want to tear down greatness by pointing out imperfection,,,,so be it,,,

Dr King was a great man relevant to civil rights

anything else was not really the topic of the thread nor the point

willing2's photo
Tue 01/22/13 07:36 AM
Edited by willing2 on Tue 01/22/13 07:37 AM
Real history cannot be censored. There will always be copies somewhere.

The real MLK.

KUHNER: Martin Luther King Jr.’s mixed legacy
Embrace of victimology tainted his call for a color-blind society


By Jeffrey T. Kuhner

-

The Washington Times

Thursday, September 1, 2011


Follow Us On
facebookFacebook

In Washington, there now stands a new memorial: a 30-foot-tall granite statue of Martin Luther King Jr. overlooking the Tidal Basin. For decades, liberals and some conservatives have deified King as the last of the Founding Fathers, a man whose opposition to Jim Crow embodied the culmination of the Declaration of Independence’s promise of individual liberty and equal rights for all Americans, regardless of race. This is only partly true: King helped to both liberate and further hold back black Americans.

Undoubtedly, King deserves much praise. He spearheaded a noble movement that eventually achieved true justice and individual freedoms for blacks in the segregated South. Today, it is hard to imagine the intense level of racial hatred and institutionalized discrimination blacks faced on a daily basis. Voting rights were denied. Lynching was common. Economic opportunities were meager. They were systematically segregated, forced to live in impoverished neighborhoods, attend inferior schools, sit at separate lunch counters and ride at the back of the bus. Kids could not even purchase an ice cream cone from white vendors. Jim Crow was a form of apartheid, an official system of racial subjugation.

It took more than a decade but the civil rights movement finally succeeded in abolishing this moral abomination. Many activists - blacks and whites - suffered and died because of their noble convictions. As its leader, King justifiably achieved international fame. His finest hour was his “I Have a Dream” speech. He championed black integration and a color-blind society. His message was a powerful and simple one: People should be judged by the content of their character, not skin color.

Yet, there was a dark side to King and it should not be ignored. Its effects continue to plague our society. Contrary to popular myth, the Baptist minister was a hypocrite who consistently failed to uphold his professed Christian standards. His rampant adultery and serial, life-long womanizing revolted even some of his closest associates. Large parts of his doctoral dissertation were plagiarized. He had numerous ties with communists and Soviet sympathizers. Then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover knew this, which is why he considered King a “fraud.”

Moreover, King was a radical leftist. He promoted socialism, pacifism and the appeasement of totalitarian communism. He opposed the Vietnam War and even openly supported the Viet Cong and North Vietnam’s Marxist dictator Ho Chi Minh, praising them as anti-imperialists battling Western occupying powers. Yet, these Soviet-backed communists would eventually impose a murderous police state upon the Vietnamese. King embraced the 1960s New Left’s hatred of America. In their eyes, the United States was an evil empire driven by white oppression, militarism and capitalist exploitation. King openly promoted the anti-colonial “liberation” movements engulfing the Third World. For example, he defended Ghanaian strongman Kwame Nkrumah, excusing his authoritarian rule and forced nationalization.

At home, he called for heavy public spending, urban renewal and a cradle-to-grave nanny state. He was critical of the Great Society for not going far enough: White America’s collective racist sins could only be expiated through big-government liberalism. King called for racial quotas in government contracts, affirmative action and billions in welfare assistance. In short, he helped lay the groundwork for the modern Democratic Party - anti-war, favoring the redistribution of wealth and obsessed with identity politics.

King’s leftism ultimately betrayed his original civil rights creed. His call for a color-blind society was contradicted by his multicultural progressivism. Affirmative action, racial quotas, government handouts to minorities - these policies directly violate the basic principle of equality under the law. Contemporary Americans are not judged as individuals, but as members of a racial group, gender or ethnicity. This is a perverse inversion of the very kind of racialism prevalent in the Old South. More than 40 years after his death, we are further away from being a genuine meritocracy. Victimology and racial set-asides dominate large swathes of American life, from university admissions and government bureaucracies to big business and construction. The country has slowly Balkanized, splintering along ethnic lines.

King’s socialism also convinced many blacks to adopt welfare liberalism. It transformed them into a permanent Democratic constituency. The results have been disastrous. The nanny state has crippled the black community, undermining self-reliance, entrepreneurship and personal responsibility. It has fostered family breakdown, soaring rates of illegitimacy and trapped millions in a cycle of poverty and urban squalor. King showed blacks the way out from segregation, but he led them to an economic plantation.

The great irony is that more Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act than Democrats. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the legislation but to overcome the intense hostility of Southern Democrats he needed - and received - strong GOP congressional support. The party of Lincoln not only freed the slaves, it helped to dismantle Jim Crow. Instead of rewarding Republicans, blacks have largely turned their backs on them and with that, have rejected the self-empowerment and prosperity that comes from free-market capitalism.

King’s legacy has been a double-edged sword: He both liberated and imprisoned black America. As we celebrate his achievements with the new memorial in the nation’s capital, for the sake of future generations, let us remember too how King erred. In order to truly create a society where all citizens rise to the height of their potential, we must discard the shackles of affirmative action and the welfare state.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/1/martin-luther-king-jrs-mixed-legacy/#ixzz2Iicrrc00
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

msharmony's photo
Tue 01/22/13 10:27 PM
The great MLK,,,may he forever rest in peace and be a role model to those standing up for equality

willing2's photo
Wed 01/23/13 05:24 AM
This here is what is stopping equality dead in it's tracks.

The special people won't give up their "SPECIAL" rights. Those are the ones the rest of us can't get in on.

King’s leftism ultimately betrayed his original civil rights creed. His call for a color-blind society was contradicted by his multicultural progressivism. Affirmative action, racial quotas, government handouts to minorities - these policies directly violate the basic principle of equality under the law. Contemporary Americans are not judged as individuals, but as members of a racial group, gender or ethnicity. This is a perverse inversion of the very kind of racialism prevalent in the Old South. More than 40 years after his death, we are further away from being a genuine meritocracy. Victimology and racial set-asides dominate large swathes of American life, from university admissions and government bureaucracies to big business and construction. The country has slowly Balkanized, splintering along ethnic lines.

msharmony's photo
Wed 01/23/13 06:24 AM
by the numbers:

unemployment rate

white: 6.6 %
black: 12.7%

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t02.htm

college enrollment

white: 15027
black: 2889

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0281.pdf


affirmative action programs STOP discrimination based on race which had been in practice the MAJORITY of AMericas history and gives minorities a redress against such discrimination,,,the numbers dont reflect that it has 'dominated' anything

quotas are not legal, unless imposed by judge as a REDRESS Against proven discrimination,,,,


the whole 'whoa is us, trying to correct past injustice has been so unfair',,,,,is bologna

metalwing's photo
Wed 01/23/13 08:00 AM

Real history cannot be censored. There will always be copies somewhere.

The real MLK.

KUHNER: Martin Luther King Jr.’s mixed legacy
Embrace of victimology tainted his call for a color-blind society


By Jeffrey T. Kuhner

-

The Washington Times

Thursday, September 1, 2011


Follow Us On
facebookFacebook

In Washington, there now stands a new memorial: a 30-foot-tall granite statue of Martin Luther King Jr. overlooking the Tidal Basin. For decades, liberals and some conservatives have deified King as the last of the Founding Fathers, a man whose opposition to Jim Crow embodied the culmination of the Declaration of Independence’s promise of individual liberty and equal rights for all Americans, regardless of race. This is only partly true: King helped to both liberate and further hold back black Americans.

Undoubtedly, King deserves much praise. He spearheaded a noble movement that eventually achieved true justice and individual freedoms for blacks in the segregated South. Today, it is hard to imagine the intense level of racial hatred and institutionalized discrimination blacks faced on a daily basis. Voting rights were denied. Lynching was common. Economic opportunities were meager. They were systematically segregated, forced to live in impoverished neighborhoods, attend inferior schools, sit at separate lunch counters and ride at the back of the bus. Kids could not even purchase an ice cream cone from white vendors. Jim Crow was a form of apartheid, an official system of racial subjugation.

It took more than a decade but the civil rights movement finally succeeded in abolishing this moral abomination. Many activists - blacks and whites - suffered and died because of their noble convictions. As its leader, King justifiably achieved international fame. His finest hour was his “I Have a Dream” speech. He championed black integration and a color-blind society. His message was a powerful and simple one: People should be judged by the content of their character, not skin color.

Yet, there was a dark side to King and it should not be ignored. Its effects continue to plague our society. Contrary to popular myth, the Baptist minister was a hypocrite who consistently failed to uphold his professed Christian standards. His rampant adultery and serial, life-long womanizing revolted even some of his closest associates. Large parts of his doctoral dissertation were plagiarized. He had numerous ties with communists and Soviet sympathizers. Then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover knew this, which is why he considered King a “fraud.”

Moreover, King was a radical leftist. He promoted socialism, pacifism and the appeasement of totalitarian communism. He opposed the Vietnam War and even openly supported the Viet Cong and North Vietnam’s Marxist dictator Ho Chi Minh, praising them as anti-imperialists battling Western occupying powers. Yet, these Soviet-backed communists would eventually impose a murderous police state upon the Vietnamese. King embraced the 1960s New Left’s hatred of America. In their eyes, the United States was an evil empire driven by white oppression, militarism and capitalist exploitation. King openly promoted the anti-colonial “liberation” movements engulfing the Third World. For example, he defended Ghanaian strongman Kwame Nkrumah, excusing his authoritarian rule and forced nationalization.

At home, he called for heavy public spending, urban renewal and a cradle-to-grave nanny state. He was critical of the Great Society for not going far enough: White America’s collective racist sins could only be expiated through big-government liberalism. King called for racial quotas in government contracts, affirmative action and billions in welfare assistance. In short, he helped lay the groundwork for the modern Democratic Party - anti-war, favoring the redistribution of wealth and obsessed with identity politics.

King’s leftism ultimately betrayed his original civil rights creed. His call for a color-blind society was contradicted by his multicultural progressivism. Affirmative action, racial quotas, government handouts to minorities - these policies directly violate the basic principle of equality under the law. Contemporary Americans are not judged as individuals, but as members of a racial group, gender or ethnicity. This is a perverse inversion of the very kind of racialism prevalent in the Old South. More than 40 years after his death, we are further away from being a genuine meritocracy. Victimology and racial set-asides dominate large swathes of American life, from university admissions and government bureaucracies to big business and construction. The country has slowly Balkanized, splintering along ethnic lines.

King’s socialism also convinced many blacks to adopt welfare liberalism. It transformed them into a permanent Democratic constituency. The results have been disastrous. The nanny state has crippled the black community, undermining self-reliance, entrepreneurship and personal responsibility. It has fostered family breakdown, soaring rates of illegitimacy and trapped millions in a cycle of poverty and urban squalor. King showed blacks the way out from segregation, but he led them to an economic plantation.

The great irony is that more Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act than Democrats. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the legislation but to overcome the intense hostility of Southern Democrats he needed - and received - strong GOP congressional support. The party of Lincoln not only freed the slaves, it helped to dismantle Jim Crow. Instead of rewarding Republicans, blacks have largely turned their backs on them and with that, have rejected the self-empowerment and prosperity that comes from free-market capitalism.

King’s legacy has been a double-edged sword: He both liberated and imprisoned black America. As we celebrate his achievements with the new memorial in the nation’s capital, for the sake of future generations, let us remember too how King erred. In order to truly create a society where all citizens rise to the height of their potential, we must discard the shackles of affirmative action and the welfare state.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/1/martin-luther-king-jrs-mixed-legacy/#ixzz2Iicrrc00
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter



That is the story of MLK I remember, and I was there. I watched the debates on these events as I was in college paying close attention. I don't deny his efforts to improve the life of blacks but I am not some ignorant liberal that is unaware of his hypocrisy and anti Americanism either.

Toodygirl5's photo
Wed 01/23/13 01:18 PM
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday was first observed as a national holiday in 1986. However, his life had become a fixed part of American mythology for years prior to this. Indeed, to many African Americans whose rights he helped expand, to many other minorities whose lives his victories touched, and to many whites who welcomed the changes his leadership brought, King's life seemed mythological even as he lived it. He is celebrated as a hero not only for the concrete legislation he enabled, but for his articulation of dreams and hopes shared by many during an era of upheaval and change.

After lengthy theological training in the North, King returned to his home region, becoming pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. As a promising newcomer free from the morass of inter-church politics, King became the leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott when it broke out in 1955. That year-long non-violent protest, which led to a Supreme Court ruling against bus segregation, brought King to the attention of the country as a whole, and led to the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, or SCLC, an alliance of black Southern churches and ministers. This group elected King their president, and began looking for other civil rights battles to fight.

The episodes immediately following met with less success, but nonetheless provided King with the opportunity to refine his protest strategies. Then, in 1963, King and the SCLC joined a campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, to end segregation there and to force downtown businesses to employ blacks. Peaceful protests were met by fire-hoses and attack-dogs wielded by local police. Images of this violence, broadcast on national news, provoked outrage, and this reaction created a political atmosphere in which strong federal civil rights legislation could gain favor and passage, and the next year President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Meanwhile the SCLC, under King, was repeating the tactics of Birmingham in Selma, Alabama, this time for the sake of African American voter registration. Once again, images of the police brutality directed at the protest enabled the passage of federal legislation, this time the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The community of black activists felt that these two major victories marked the limit of what gains could be made politically, and thus after 1965 King began to focus on blacks' economic problems. His strategies and speeches concentrated increasingly on class as well as race, and addressed the United States as a whole. King had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and this recognition encouraged him to broaden his scope: by the time of his death, he was speaking out virulently against the Vietnam War, and was organizing a Poor People's March on Washington.

When King was assassinated in 1968, the nation shook with the impact. Riots broke out in over one hundred American cities. King was almost immediately sanctified by the white-controlled media, which, however, in its coverage of his accomplishments, also neglected the radicalism of his final three years. Instead his contemporaries focused (as we continue to focus today) on the spirit and the accomplishments of the middle of King's career. For many born after his death, he is known best for the "I Have a Dream" speech, which reflects this spirit, and which he delivered in 1963 at the height of his fame. The federal holiday commemorates this King, who articulated the progressive, human hope of the early 1960s.


Sparknotes.com

Toodygirl5's photo
Wed 01/23/13 01:23 PM

The third Monday of January is the USA's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. In honor of the event, I present an excerpt from Dr. King's famous "I have a dream" speech.

What, if anything prevents the dream from being reality?



People need to love all people and except everyone for who they are.

Previous 1