Early Life and Education

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King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929. His father, Martin Luther King, was the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church. The family was part of Atlanta’s black middle class. Thus young Martin never felt the pinch of poverty. But he did experience racism. As he grew up, he kept in mind the words of his mother, Alberta Williams King. “You are as good as anyone,” she told him.

King graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta. He earned a second degree at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. He then went to Boston University, where he earned a doctorate. In Boston he met Coretta Scott. They married in 1953 and settled in Montgomery, Alabama. King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church there.

Civil Rights Work

In December 1955 Montgomery’s black citizens decided to make a stand against segregation on public buses. They organized a boycott of the city bus system. And they asked King to lead it. The boycott lasted 381 days. Meanwhile, civil rights groups appealed to the courts. Victory came in 1956. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of buses violated the Constitution.

Soon King was asked to lead a new civil rights organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In 1959, he returned to Atlanta. He became co-pastor, with his father, of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He continued his work with the SCLC there.

The SCLC pledged to avoid violence while working for equality. King’s leadership inspired this policy. He had studied the Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi, who won independence for India without violence. SCLC members were often jailed, threatened, and attacked. Yet they never wavered from nonviolence. They used techniques such as boycotts, marches, and sit-ins.

King traveled and spoke widely. In August 1963 he led the March on Washington. This huge demonstration drew more than 200,000 people to the nation’s capital in support of equal rights. King delivered his inspiring “I Have a Dream” speech. In it, he called “the conscience of the nation before the judgment seat of morality.”

SCLC campaigns helped to bring about the Civil Rights Act of 1964. King won the Nobel Peace Prize that year. In 1965, he led 30,000 blacks and whites on a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Voting rights were the focus of that protest. It helped win passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Soon after, King toured northern cities. The poverty he saw led to a new focus. Even when blacks won civil rights, poverty kept them out of the mainstream of U.S. society. King thus began to campaign against poverty. He also spoke out against the Vietnam War.

Death and Legacy

In 1968, King went to Memphis, Tennessee, to support a strike by sanitation workers. There, on April 4, he was shot and killed by an assassin. James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder.

The whole world mourned King’s death. He was buried in Atlanta. Since 1986 his birthday has been a national holiday in the United States. It is celebrated on the third Monday in January.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (King Center) is in Atlanta. The center educates people about his life and work. Also in Atlanta is the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site. It includes King’s boyhood home and Ebenezer Baptist Church.

So many days have gone by since the immortal words were uttered by  Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous speech, “I have a dream!”  We all recognize that a dream can be so fleeting sometimes to be lost in the wind leaving less than a memory behind.  While every year parades are held nationwide to celebrate the life of the Rev. King, the dream seems sometimes to be less potent than the original words.

African-American community activists would argue with the devil himself that the dream of the Rev. King has not altered in any way.  To say that the dream has somehow lost its meaning over the years would be blasphemy.  Still, we have to consider the number of racial and prejudicial acts reported in the news each day.  We have to remember that although the law is considered to be on the side of right, public opinion and thought do not necessarily follow.

Today in the year 2012 man is still judged by the color of his skin all across the world.  The Native American Indian is still look down upon and can be found in some of the poorest areas of the nation, trying to survive in a country that should provide them with a promised land.  The African-American today finds himself not only disavowing his own kind but actually killing his own people.  Even the renowned white man, Caucasian, has lost much of his luster, involved in too many crooked and shady deals that now make him out to be nothing more than the Devils agent.

Well, I have a dream also.  My dream is a far cry from that of Rev. King but I believe it is shared among the populace.  I believe that children can live lives innocent and free from death, horror and crime.  I believe that we can all grow up in a world that allows us to be creative and productive as to afford us all the material gains we desire.  I believe that all men, women and children can lead a happy life among peers that share the same dreams, hopes and desires.  I believe we will know our differences and learn how to deal with each of them.  I believe that no one will go one day wanting for anything.  I believe that this thing called poverty will be eradicated from the face of this earth never to exist again.  I believe in the power of an individual to do good, to create good, to live good and to embody good.  I believe we will  ascend to the stars.

These things I believe, and so I wonder, what is the difference between my belief and the Rev. King’s dream of a promised land.  Yes, a dream may be fleeting but a belief once instilled and embedded in an individual, and a race of people, can never have its strength lessened over time.  A true belief can never be lost like a whisper in the wind.  And, so I believe, and I continue to believe.

This was in 1956, where the South was segregated. Black people were supposed to give up their sits to white people if they were seated on the front section of the bus. This was a rule that everyone followed, men, women and children would give up their sit, however, that fateful afternoon of December 1st, Rosa Parks was so tired from a long day at work and did not feel like giving up her seat.

Perhaps Rosa Parks did not mean to get arrested and did not mean to start a movement. Today many of us fail to make a difference, because we are afraid of what might happen to us. We fail to speak out when everything is nuts, because we do not want to lose our standing in society. This was not the case of Rosa Parks. Her refusal to give up her seat gave way to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s rise to the national political scene. This marked the birth of the Civil Rights Movement.

Rosa Parks is truly a pioneer and an example to all of us. We live in a time where crony capitalism is running wild, where capitalism dictates the daily affairs of nations. We live in a time where money has more worth than a single life. Where instead of exporting democracy and prosperity, the United States exports weapons of mass destruction, death and tool kits for dictators all over the world.

There are movements around the world such as the Occupy Wall Street movement, that many people are afraid to join. Many people criticize it, but they forget the meaning of citizen participation. The journey truly starts with a single mile, or like another version of the quote states, “Even the longest journey must begin where you stand.” Real miracles and great deeds are put in motion by regular people like Rosa Parks that were too tired to comply, that were too tired to allow the oppressor to kick her when she was down.

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There are many things about this speech that are so poetic that the text of the speech has become one of the great historic texts of the nation’s history as well as of black history.  That is why virtually any school child can recite the most stirring words from the speech which are…

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, 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 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. 

What is most striking about this text if you read the entire text is the hope.  And it’s a wonderful tradition for every family to read this speech, perhaps on Martin Luther’s King’s birthday which is now a national holiday.  Dr. King called upon his people to look up and look with hope toward tomorrow.  But more than that, he called on all people to work together toward a shared hope, a hope of fulfilling the American dream that he discusses with such passion in his words.

The setting for the speech was on the steps of the Lincoln memorial, within view of the Congress, the reflecting pool and the White House on the National Mall in the center Washington D.C.  Dr. King called it hallowed ground reflecting his deep reference and respect for the icons of this country and his deep love of country which too comes through in the speech.

But it is a speech of struggle because he spoke of the fact that black people in America were still not living in an openly free and equal status with all other citizens.  Dr King did not loose touch with the reality of the tough lives African Americans were living in the United States.  That is why this speech is so perfectly crafted and so perfectly delivered.  It combines the harsh reality and resolve by black leaders and the African American population to make the world better for themselves and their children with a hope and an optimism that this was a country that would not put up with the oppression and discrimination that has kept black people down ever since slavery.

It is a speech that issued a call to action in the time frame of “Now” which was a call to action that many in the houses of power in our country took heed.  They did take action immediately to get the process of renewal and repair of a broken social system moving in the right direction.  One of the outcomes of this speech was the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 which changed the fabric of the country forever in the legal restrictions it put on discrimination in every aspect of American life.

If it had not been for the “I have a dream” speech, the March on Washington on that hot and humid August day might have just been another in the many protests and events of the civil rights era.  Instead it became an iconic moment in American and black history that changed Dr. King into a national hero for black and white people alike and energized a movement and a nation to take matters into their own hands and make thing better for all people.

Bravery

Many military leaders have the quality of bravery.  They know that as they fight battles and engage in skirmishes they are likely to be killed.  They are prepared to fight for a cause, when they take up arms.  Persons like George Washington, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Napolean Boneparte are some great leaders we often hear about.  With these great military leaders one thing is certain, they are no lacking in courage.  They have led armies and were quite aware of the risks of being captured, lamed, or killed.

Oratorical Skills

Some leaders may demonstrate courage as individuals fighting against oppression, racism, and exploitation.  They may do so non violently through passive resistance.  They have the ability to exhort people through their speeches to stand up for their rights and march for justice.  We are all familiar with the achievements of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.  These men protested and led non violent revolutions that transformed the countries in which they lived.

Scholarship

Other traits of such persons are that they are thinkers and creators.  They are visionaries that pave the way for our societies to take a new course through their ideas, ideals, and inventions.  Orville and Wilbur Wright are known as the genesis of being the first in flight in the nation.  There was Louis Pasteur, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking and many other scientists recognized for their outstanding accomplishments.

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There are historians, sociologists, fiction and non fiction writers, philosophers, and theologians that have all made contributions to our society.

Leadership

Every society longs for leaders.  They are especially lucky when they are blessed with extraordinary qualities.  A president like Franklin D. Roosevelt is known for successfully guiding Americans through the Great Depression.  A former wartime British leader of international acclaim is Winston Churchill who is acknowledged for his leadership and oratory.  Nelson Mandela has been a liberation leader who lived in apartheid South Africa where he spent 27 years in jail before becoming its president.

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As illustrated great people have some major traits in common.  Through their actions persons the world over are motivated to do what is in the best interest of their country.  These leaders come from every walk of life.  They can be found in every country, race, and set the agenda for other citizens to follow.

They are literary buffs, scientists, historians, and philosophers who vigorously embrace life.  They see their role like  missionaries and work tirelessly to accomplish their goals.  Through their commitments in providing for our social welfare, people around the world benefit.

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Despite polls that indicate a majority support among the 99% with the over-arching theme behind Occupy, there remains a discrepancy between the 1,500 who showed up in DC Tuesday night and the rest of the 99%.

 Why?

In a society of immediacy, change is a smoky concept.  While Occupy has succeeded in forcing open dialogue on political-economic corruption, resolution has failed to materialize overnight, which consequently has people questioning the effectiveness of the movement (in macro-political culture, this explains growing public opposition to the Afghanistan conflict and misunderstandings of time relative progress).  The fallout of perceptions of failure concerning the movement have essentially begun to reinforce opposition rhetoric and shore up mostly subjective conservative perceptions that the movement is defined by an entitlement mentality of pampered middle class kids.  This is an incredibly distracting image, one ill-enforced by a single protestor in pajamas barking about what democracy does and does not look like.  The primary issue with Occupy is the lack of measurable benchmarks and action to compliment modern perceptions of time and progress, which is why we have a disconnect between the theme that has given birth to Occupy and Occupy’s attraction to the general populace. 

As Clayborne Carson, director of the MLK Papers Project at Stanford, points out that Occupy needs to borrow notes from the civil rights movement and “create a 10-point plan.”  National coordination and cooperation between the Occupy movements with measurable checkpoints is an absolute must.  The movement needs to demonstrate that it is capable of doing more than simply harangue Congress, otherwise what’s the difference between the whining protestors and sedentary politicians?  Carson continues to remark that the movement “needs come critical thinking” and that it needs to “start identifying solutions that are pragmatic, that we can do now.”

Mentality and outreach on an individual level is an absolute necessity.  Expecting politicians to enact regulations or clean-up mechanisms to combat inherent systematic corruption is watery at best.  University chapters, grassroots solutions, and other engagement activities with a moderate, constructive approach are a must.  The system is the way it is because the 99% passively entrenched it.  Credit card debt, rash discretionary spending, and popular culture directly reflect that undeniable fact.  Unless the movement begins to critically do some in-house cleaning, it will remain epitomized by the pajama protestor hanging from a traffic light declaring, “This is what democracy looks like!”

Because if that’s the case; hell, I’d rather keep Congress.         

Rick Santorum schooled Mitt Romney in classic Santorum fashion during the GOP debate in South Carolina Monday night, drawing him in and pouncing. A super PAC backing Romney has been attacking Santorum for supporting restoration of voting rights to felons who have served their time. The ad implied that Santorum wanted felons who were currently in prison to vote.

Santorum put the question directly to Romney: “Do you believe that felons who have exhausted their time” should have their voting rights restored?

Romney ducked and weaved, but Santorum finally got his answer, after noting that today is Martin Luther King Day, and that the bill was called the Martin Luther King Voting Rights bill. He added that African Americans have “disproportionately high rates” of incarceration, especially with regard to drug crimes.

“I don’t think people who have committed violent crimes should ever be allowed to vote,” Romney said. Santorum jumped on him, noting that Massachusetts, while he was governor, had a more liberal law, allowing felons on parole and probation to vote, and that Romney had done nothing to change it.

Romney blamed the Democratic legislature.

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The most dangerous Negro is one that thinks for himself, but where is he?  In fact, he may even be able to instill in you, the courage to do so for yourself, but I cannot seem to find him.  Does he still exist?

I have been on the search for a dangerous Negro. They say that he or she is a rare find, but once you do find them, you will never let them go.  In the past, he was easy to find.  Phillip Randolph, Martin Luther King, Jr., even Malcom X, were at one time, dangerous Negroes to be feared because of their charisma, political influence, and leadership.  Some have even suggested that Herman Cain is a dangerous Negro; but to be fair, when one exists the campaign because a few women have accused him of sleeping with them, he comes across as being more afraid of us than we are of him.  

Why is it that African-Americans are no longer considered to be dangerous? Not criminally, but politically? See it is one thing to have a reputation to terrorize your own people, through intimidation, coercion, no one wants to speak to the cops because everyone is afraid of what you are going to do to them, or to their families. Even though you are a terrorist in your own ‘hood, no one considers you to be a terrorist to the nation and no one considers you to be a national security threat. There was a time in American history when Blacks stood up against oppression, against the mainstream, and spoke out, and were able to assemble and become one organized, unionized, threat against segregation. That was when we were considered to be dangerous.

These days there isn’t anything a drug dealer could accomplish that cannot easily be squashed through the prison-military-industrial complex. A drug dealer could have several billion dollars at his disposal, and the government could end it all within a matter of days. Drug dealers that hide in plain sight; millionaires, are of little, if any concern to our government, because they are not interested in changing anything. It is all about spending money, which will go back into the courts, back into the stores, back into the automobile dealerships and anyone else offering goods or services a dealer might need; lawyers, bondsman, real estate agents, whatever, whoever. A drug dealer is of concern to us because we have to live in those neighborhoods, or know people that do, so we keep our mouth shut and go about our own business.

It is not as though that dealer is actually going to go outside of the game to wreck havoc on the lifestyle of ordinary Americans. No, it is the other way around, people may leave their comfortable existence to go into the ‘hood looking for trouble. It wasn’t that long ago that a call to action was the trouble that we brought to the doorstep of mainstream America, demanding change. Now while it is true that we have a Black President, and while everything he attempts to get through faces a never ending array of obstacles and road blocks if you look at what has been proposed, he is not really dangerous. All our President wants to do, is to return us to some sense of normalcy where those who want to work, can and will work, people have health care, people have some money in the bank, people get out of debt. None of this is really revolutionary; the change that he proposes, is not really change, it is just the norm for America before the economy collapsed back in the seventies, eighties, and then again the last decade.

Our President was associated with dangerous Negroes though, or was he? His former pastor appeared to be a credible threat, but his pastor preached the same rhetoric for over twenty years. Back in the day, if he were really dangerous, there would have been a real problem and he would have had to fear for his life. Instead, he has stepped down, but his life is still in tact, and I doubt that he goes through anything close to what Martin Luther King or Malcolm X went through. Then again, no one would tell you if he did have to fear for his life even if that were the case; perhaps things changed once we realized that he was our future President’s pastor.

Then question then becomes; do we need a dangerous Negro in charge, or are we already on the right path, and is it just a matter of time before we have the even playing field that we deserve? For decades, well into the nineties, we called for another dangerous Negro to step forward. Arsenio Hall seemed to be dangerous, so did Farrakhan; Al Sharpton still gives pundits a run for their money, but while they represented Black people, in general, it wasn’t clear that they were a leader of the caliber of our slain heroes. We were so desperate for a hero, we even suggested that Tupac Shakur was a dangerous Negro; but is his death because of his rhetoric, or in spite of it? If gang members really were put up to it behind the scenes, then why are we still involved in gangs. Why are we involved in anything that is destructive; if you want to find a racist, look at the gangs, look at what goes on inside of the prisons that have been built for us. While the rest of us are looking between a rock and a hard place for racists to hide themselves at, we only need to look at the racism that is hidden in plain sight. We still don’t get it; it doesn’t matter, if Dr. Laura Schlesinger, or Howard Stern, or anyone else is a racist. We need to stop looking in the most obvious places; pointing fingers at Jews, Muslims and Christians, and concerning ourselves with the most obvious and immediate threats we have to deal with on a day to day basis. Everyone wants to talk about racism in the mainstream but no one wants to deal with the inconvenient truth of racism out on the streets. Anyone that subscribes to someone who spouts ignorance through the airwaves is already lost; it is easier to point fingers at a public figure, because they can’t see us and they cannot confront us, than it is to deal with someone who is pointing a gun at our face.

The fact of the matter is, we do not have dangerous Negroes in America anymore, and we probably never will. I know that is a sobering and depressing idea to wrap your mind around, and I would love to have a dangerous Negro to stand in awe of like everyone else, but I do not see it happening again, at least not in my lifetime. Perhaps the idea of being dangerous has changed, a new definition, new criteria. It could be that the threat itself has subsided. In any event, Black men may no longer need to be dangerous, at least not in the traditional sense that they were in the past, in order to affect change.  The definition, may not be as racist as it used to be at one time. What is more likely, is that change occurs, but since no one recognizes anything that hides in plain sight anymore, it becomes the elephant in the room.   

Despite his non-violent approach, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.  Unlike our contemporary heroes; Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, and many others, we don’t celebrate the death of Martin Luther King Jr.  No one goes onto Twitter or Facebook, the event passes by as though it was just another ordinary day.  There are no top trending topics or any other reminders.

Instead, we celebrate the struggles that Martin Luther King Jr. and others during the civil rights endured during Black history month.  I think of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement when I watch movies like The Help, or any other contemporary film that deals with the struggles that African-Americans went through during the 20th century, such as Red Tails.

I often wonder what Martin Luther King Jr. would think about the 21st century, or this new millennium.  The struggles of the civil rights movement appears to be behind us.  We have a new Black president, people who want to date people of other races can do so without repercussions and there are not any anti-miscegenation laws on the books making it illegal for you to get married outside of your race.  Affirmative action has put millions of young Black women into administrative, paralegal, and clerical roles; giving them a foundation through which they can ascend the corporate ladder if they choose to get their education and further themselves.

I often wonder if Martin Luther King Jr. ever thought the day would come when Black women are the head of the household, and Black men are in a diminished, emasculated, disfranchised, disaffected and apathetic role.  You can blame the White man, you can blame angry Black women, but a lot of the blame should be put on ourselves.  We rarely reach back into the void to pull another brother up out of the darkness when we do make it.  Mentoring seems to be an abstract concept, and too many of us would rather run the streets than pave the streets.

Too often we are in a position of getting a handout, instead of a position of ownership.  We talk about where we are from, but to be honest, you could be from New York, LA, Atlanta, Chicago or Tokyo, if you do not own anything, if you are not employing anyone, if no one depends on you one may as well not exist.  One day we will get it right, but until we do we always have the civil rights movement to look back at for encouragement.