[January 16, 2023] Today, we celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. So critical was King’s thinking that America created a federal holiday to remember what he did to help usher in Civil Rights for blacks and for all people. But do we truly believe in what he did?
Martin Luther King Jr. is useful to everyone these days. U.S. Presidents get to tell everyone that they share King’s “dream of equality, freedom, justice, and peace.” Advertisers using his name, help sell products and services. This was not always the case.
U.S. Senator Jesse Helms filibustered against the federal holiday, citing King’s “action-oriented Marxism” that was “not compatible with the concepts of this country.” In 1963, only 22% of Americans approved of the Freedom Rides fighting segregated transportation. King was part of a larger movement of socialism that did not just attempt to replace the Jim Crow system but replacing it with an egalitarian social democracy.
King was not a prophet of national unity, and that is why so many opposed his views then and now. He was a champion of the poor and those he considered oppressed. That does not sit well with those today aligned with the neo-Marxist Progressive movement in America who tacitly acknowledge Martin Luther King Jr. but openly oppose his dreams of equality of opportunity and freedom.
King’s legacy is distorted and manipulated into something we no longer recognize. Our new elitists of Progressivism no longer believe in what he did. And his dreams are being dismantled one stone at a time.
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🧑🏾 MLK is da man. He was great in so many ways but some of his ideas (like Marxism) were not good at all. I know that he was a compassionate religious man of God and that is to be commended yet he went too far sometimes beyond equal opportunity and into giving people something for nothing. MOre important here is that Gen. Satterfield said the new Marxists don’t like MLK because they want equity (meaning exact same thing for everyone or else institutional racism). This is wrong. And MLK’s legacy is tarnished.
I agree with you Darryl. Thank you.
Excellent article, thanks.
Documentary Exposes How The FBI Tried To Destroy MLK With Wiretaps, Blackmail
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/18/956741992/documentary-exposes-how-the-fbi-tried-to-destroy-mlk-with-wiretaps-blackmail
Altho NPR is a biased agency, there is some good info here in this article.
News: 5 of Martin Luther King Jr.’s most memorable speeches
https://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/article/2018/04/5-of-martin-luther-king-jrs-most-memorable-speeches
Excellent resource and place to listen to MLK’s speeches.
I am just glad it’s a holiday and I have the day off. Not many today care much about Martin Luther King and the race struggles he represented because he was not for transgender or LBGTQI+ struggles.
Gen. Satterfield is making the point here, IMHO, that MLK’s ideas are slowly eroding under the constant pressure of our new Marxism that has a strangle hold on America and much of the West. Today only his rhetoric is used but is twisted and destroyed in its real meaning.
Yes and that is sad because too many of our young think that a ‘color blind’ society – that King wanted so badly – is NO LONGER the goal.
Unfortunately that is the result of too many “trophy for everyone” leaders. Compassion is all they think about and compassion, in its extreme, kills all.
Agreed, but his legacy is being dismantled one bit at a time and that is what Gen. Satterfield is proposing. And he is right.
True!!!!! Cannot say that point enough. Thanks Gen. Satterfield for highlighting this important issue.
Martin Luther King, Jr., made history, but he was also transformed by his deep family roots in the African-American Baptist church, his formative experiences in his hometown of Atlanta, his theological studies, his varied models of religious and political leadership, and his extensive network of contacts in the peace and social justice movements of his time. Although King was only 39 at the time of his death, his life was remarkable for the ways it reflected and inspired so many of the twentieth century’s major intellectual, cultural, and political developments.
So today, challenge yourself to learn something about other great leaders like Bob Moses, Ella Baker, Aaron Henry, Fred Shuttlesworth, Fannie Lou Hamer, and so many more. Even better, look into the civil rights history of your own community (be it north, south, east, or west). I am sure you will uncover local heroes who helped ensure the continuation of Dr. King’s dream.
I agree. ✔
I fear that by focusing exclusively on the life of Martin Luther King Jr and achievements of one great leader, we lose sight of the idea that we all have the power to change the world and there were many many more heroes of the Civil Rights Movement.
MLK is very overrated. He was personally full of problems like infidelity.
U.S. Senator Jesse Helms had it right. But SOME of the ideas that King represented were good and he was the one who put them out there and did so publically and loudly. That was needed. No denying that fact. But the man was corrupted personally.
Yes, indeed, he had plenty of problems.