Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is most often thought of as a hero for the African American community. His contribution to the civil rights movement in the fifties and sixties in America will never be forgotten, and it is important to remember that Dr. King was also a crusader for social justice in all its forms. Sometimes to the dismay of his colleagues, Dr. King spoke out publicly against the Vietnam War, with his usual eloquence. A longtime ally of organized labor, Dr. King was on his way to support a garbage workers' strike when he was assassinated. This is why I recall Dr. King not only as a Black leader, but as a man of conscience and an example of the best we all could be in all ways.
"At the heart of all that civilization has meant and developed is 'community' – the mutually cooperative and voluntary venture of man to assume a semblance of responsibility for his brother."
4 comments:
Yes, Martin Luther King Jr was a humanitarian leader and inspiration to ALL people. I was re-reading his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (1963) today where he wrote: "I am cognizant of the interrelatednes of all communities and states...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".
His assassination was a current event for me as a 14 year old. It took years before I realized the significance of his philosophy, role and actions. I hold this "holiday" more important than most any others on the calendar.
Diane
Hi Diane and Walaka,
I had a great quote from MLK, Jr. about racism, economic exploitation and war, yet I lost it. In my search to rediscover it I found some other timeless gems from the man himself:
“When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.”
“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.”
"Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."
From "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963
And my favorite from an earlier search:
“Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”
Now after all that I finally remembered where I had found the first quote, www.mlkseattle.org:
"The problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are the triple evils that are interrelated."
I'm not sure if it is the mark of great people that they create sayings which continue to be relevant long after they are dead, or a sad comment on the fact that many continuing injustices and forms of oppression make them so.
And how much time do I spend trying to encourage students to cite sources clearly and correctly?
The only quote from Letter from a Birmingham Jail is the one directly above that citation. The two above that were from http://thinkexist.com/quotes/martin_luther_king,_jr./ (no citations as to where or when he said them), as is the creatively maladjusted one.
They undoubtedly do have more specific citations somewhere, and if I were really a dedicated academic, and not just playing one on TV, then I would search them out.
bhdThis was a story I heard on "This American Life":
A father explained that his 4 year old wanted to know about Christmas. And the father explained it was about the birth of Jesus. "Who's that?" So, he explained that Jesus was a man who taught that you should "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" and he explained what that meant, and she was very interested, so he bought her a kid's Bible and they read from it, and she was entranced.
Then one day they were driving by a church with a big crucific out front. "Who's that?" she asked, and the father thought "Oops...I didn't tell her the end of the story." So he explained that Jesus ran afoul of the Romans for his beliefs and teachings, and so they killed him because they didn't like his ideas. So, she thought about that.
Then on M L King Day, she didn't have pre-school, so he took the day off and took her to play and to lunch, where they found a paper with a picture of King on it. "Who's that?" "He was a preacher." "For Jesus?" "Yes, he's the reason you have the day off today and he preached that you should treat everybody the same way no matter what they look like."
"That's like what Jesus preached..." "Well, yes, very much."
"Did they kill him, too?"
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