Those who like violence, those who prefer cathartic rage, love to lift out King's words about riots: "riots are the voice of the unheard." But a more careful and correct understanding of what he said shows that he was merely explaining riots, not condoning them.
I know when I hear a cancer researcher describing the abilities of cancer cells to outcompete healthy cells in some situations I do not hear that explanation as the researcher cheering on cancer, but instead hear her explaining it--being able to understand it is how researchers learn to defeat some forms of cancer.
This is what Dr. King was helping white America to understand. In that speech he said, " I'm absolutely convinced that a riot merely intensifies the fears of the white community while relieving the guilt."
Boom. If we would honestly study MLK, his writings, his speeches, and learn from his actual words and actions, we would start to really grasp how we can heal our racial divide, stop our culture wars, and be the best version of America that we can be.
There are two references to MLK that have found their way into much of the American educational system (probably soon to be stricken from public schools at all levels in Florida and if Trump gets back in, possibly across the country).
First, of course, is his hallmark I Have a Dream speech that he made to a quarter million people in Washington and eventually to billions of us worldwide. His challenges that day were cogent and powerful.
Second, from a few months before that August 1963 speech, was his iconic Letter from Birmingham Jail. That is often excerpted and included in readers that even middle school students read in many places. I know this because I teach Peace Studies every year and the Oxford University Press reader that I use also excerpts a section of the letter. Students frequently remark that they recall reading that in high school or middle school.
If you do nothing else to observe the holiday marking MLK's birth, perhaps read the entire text of his Letter from Birmingham Jail. It is a remarkable work of grace, intelligence, and exemplary strategy. It is as canonical as any document in American history, in my view.
What I might suggest is to go beyond these two fairly ubiquitous bits of what King left us. Perhaps check out his Beyond Vietnam sermon, delivered (4 April 1967) one year to the day before his assassination (4 April 1968).
That sermon was so powerful to me that when I first visited New York I had to go to simply stand in Riverside Church, where he delivered that brave and brilliant sermon, letting the world know that he strongly disapproved of the US war on Vietnam.
Some have said, with a certain logic, that his words sealed his fate that day and that his murder exactly one year later was the direct result of that antiwar speech and that the choice of April 4 was the exclamation point on that vile act.
May peace prevail, and may we create it by creating the justice Dr. King asked of us.
—30—
Dr. Tom H. Hastings, PeaceVoice Senior Editor, is Coördinator of Conflict Resolution BA/BS degree programs and certificates at Portland State University.
War in Gaza and Yemen Incompatible with King’s Message
by Wim Laven
“My conscience leaves me no other choice,” the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. declared while condemning the Vietnam War on April 4, 1967. He insisted that it was morally imperative for the U. S. to take radical steps to end the war through nonviolent means.
The third Monday of January is a national holiday to reflect King’s legacy and his message. We can see that his work for justice benefited all humanity. But it is also an occasion to see our shortcomings individually and collectively.
The 2024 U.S. sees numerous attacks on the civil and voting rights King worked so hard to achieve. Ongoing racism and hatred are rooted into the fabric of the Constitution, our racist Electoral College, and mind-numbing Gerrymandering; it isn’t going away anytime soon.
For all the monumental importance of King’s work that will be reflected in the favorite quotes politicians share to mark the occasion, little to no lip service will likely be given to King’s equally important commitments to peace and nonviolence.
It is an election year and critical race theory is a topic du jour. But in the 60’s King practiced this critical analysis before there was a name for it. In keeping with his bedrock philosophy and practice, King ultimately composed and delivered a sermon eloquently condemning militarism and the war on Vietnam. His words then could and should guide us today.
Politicians do not reflect on his razor-sharp words arguing American power should be “harnessed to the service of peace and human beings, not an inhumane power against defenseless people.” Those words are true in Gaza and Yemen the same as they were in Vietnam. He called the devastation the result of “deadly Western arrogance,” and condemned American actions at home and abroad, noting, “we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.”
King never missed an opportunity to speak up for the poor or the voiceless. He was assassinated while speaking up for Sanitation Workers in Memphis. The protesters wore sandwich boards that read “I Am A Man.” Should children in Gaza and Yemen carry signs reading, "I am a child"?
The cherry-picking from King’s 1963 speech: “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,” is all too familiar. Let's challenge our elected officials to move into King's more peace and nonviolence rhetoric.
King knew struggle and while he continued, “we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition” … “Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice,” and, “We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.” The depths of his condemnation of injustice are avoided or ignored.
King spoke directly to the connections of the issues, saying, “millions of dollars can be spent every day to hold troops in South Viet Nam and our country cannot protect the rights of Negroes in Selma.” He saw the Vietnam war as a violation of the Geneva Convention, the basic rules of war and humanitarian law.
I wish this would be the year to take his legacy seriously. The words he spoke, “one greatly concerned about the need for peace in our world and the survival of mankind, I must continue to take a stand on this issue,” would go far to help us appreciate the incompatibility of war and human life. King understood H. G. Wells’ observation: “If we don't end war, war will end us.”
~~~~~~~~
Wim Laven, Ph.D., syndicated by PeaceVoice, teaches courses in political science and conflict resolution.
