As Dr. King lay
dying from an assassin's bullet, his aides point in the direction
that the bullets came from, April 4, 1968,
in Memphis Tennessee.
La Jornada, Mexico
It's Been 40
Years Since the Death of Martin Luther King!
"King began to realize that
that Afro-American people had been discriminated against since the dawn of modernity
… and his discoveries led him to accuse his own country of being the cause of
misery to other peoples. In 1967 he led the 'Poor People's March,' which raised
the issues of racial and economic injustice to the national and global level.
It seems as though he had overstepped the limits of allowable criticism."
Forty years ago on April 4th,
Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis! It's an anniversary that provides
food for thought.
Martin Luther, an
Afro-American from a Baptist community, was born in the midst of economic
depression in 1929. As his father was a pastor and having obtained a doctorate
in Boston [Boston University, in systematic theology], he took charge of
a community of believers in Atlanta, Georgia [actually, it was in Montgomery,
Alabama; the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church]. The struggle for the civil rights
was picking up, but it was a routine “event” that would launch Martin Luther
into history.
Such “events” are always of
humble origin, but resonate strongly with the public. As with the “water war”
or the “gas war” which ended up toppling two Bolivian governments, what began
small ended up having a huge impact. One shouldn't dismiss “events” that could
develop into storms - an issue exposed by Alain Badiou in his “Being and Event,” and which
Walter Benjamin referred to as “now-time” in regard to the
arrival of the messiah.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
In this case, the “event” was
the simple fact that an Afro-American woman [Rosa Parks: see photo box, left], tired after finishing
work, refused to give up her bus seat to a White person who wanted to take it,
as the established custom and the discriminatory laws of the south dictated.
The woman preferred to have the bus stopped. The police were summoned and a
full-blown confrontation ensued. But the best part is that the other
Afro-Americans on the bus not only got off, they declared a boycott of the bus
company. The controversy spread. The local pastor, Dr. Martin Luther King,
became involved in the boycott and led demonstrations. Meanwhile, every
Afro-American in Atlanta began to walk to work, sometimes over long distances
and for days or even weeks.
Rosa Parks in a
photo taken by Alabama police after her arrest for refusing to give up
her bus seat to a White man, in February 1956.
Because it went into
bankruptcy, the bus company sued the movement. King was accused in a court of
law and found guilty of causing economic damage the company by holding the
boycott and had to suffer incarceration. All this had the effect of raising the
social pressure, and the young, 26-year-old pastor was transformed into a
leader of Afro-American multitudes who had already begun mobilizing across the
country for the fight against racial discrimination
In 1956, a law was decreed to
end racial segregation in the United States (which is not the same as making it
a reality), and slowly but surely, Afro-Americans began accruing political
clout. Martin Luther’s leadership continues to inspire, not only in his native
state, but across the country. Reflecting on Mahatma Gandhi’s doctrine of
"non-violence" (which was inspired by the ancient Jain school of
Indian thought), he began a true strategic struggle against racism in the
United States, a phenomenon as old as slavery, which was established in the
17th century. Martin Luther was arrested again several times. While "non-violence” isn't a universal principle, it's a
strategy that works in a country that respects the rule of law (for the
powerful, of course, not for the poor).
It was August 28, 1968 when
he delivered his most famous speech before 200 000 people in front of the
Lincoln Memorial in Washington:
“… I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the
American dream.
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 the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a
state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of
oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
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.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its
governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition"
and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black
boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and
white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
Gradually, the Atlanta
preacher [Alabama, actually] began to realize that that Afro-American people
had been discriminated against since the dawn of modernity; since the onset of
European slavery that involved over 15 million Africans. It was a terrible kind
of oppression, and yet it was an oppression that went unnoticed by French
Revolutionary and Enlightenment thinking. Then Martin Luther began to discover
other forms of oppression. So his discourses began to include all of the poor
of the United States, from the urban working poor, Hispanic farm laborers and
the marginalized, to the jobless. And after 1964, he began using his leadership
to oppose the Vietnam War. In that year he received the Nobel Peace Prize .
But there is more. His
discoveries led him to accuse his own country, the United States, of being the
cause of misery to other peoples. In 1967 he led the “Poor People's March ,” which lifted the
issues of racial and economic injustice to the national and global level. He
reached out beyond the poor of the United States to those of Africa, where the
slaves originated, and to Asia and Latin America. It seems as though he had
overstepped the limits of allowable criticism.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
And so on April 4, 1968 (the
same year as the May unrest in Paris and Berkeley, and the October Massacre in
Tlatelolco ), the life of
Martin Luther King was cut short by an attack in Tennessee, when he was only
39-years-old. The young world leader wouldn't die like an old bureaucrat in his
temple, but like the founder of Christianity [a martyr]. Of course those who
killed him subsequently made calls to memorialize him in order hide their
guilt. Although largely subsumed by the system he criticized, King nevertheless
remains an example of a warrior for justice on behalf of the disadvantaged,
oppressed, exploited and humiliated.
[Editor's Note: In an
interesting parallel to today's tumult over the Beijing Olympics, Mexico's
"Massacre in Tlatelolco" was also prompted
by the approach of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Students, frustrated over
a variety of injustices attributed to the authorities, held major
demonstrations on the afternoon and evening of October 2, 1968, ten days before
the opening of the Games. Most sources estimate that between 200 and 300
students were shot to death by police and military forces. And of course, these
demonstrations were part and parcel of similar student protests being held
around the world in that turbulent year ].
