I deplore how society lays aside historical figures and their profound contributions to our society for 364 days out of the year, only to revisit them on an annual basis as if they are Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is arguably the foremost victim of such antics.

As society sits poised for yet another MLK breakfast or program, I am going to expound on one of my most frequent refrains regarding Dr. King. The statement that I am referring to is my belief that the “I have a Dream” speech delivered on August 28, 1963, has proven in retrospect to be King’s worst moment. 

The faces of the vast majority of people transform when they hear the above critique of Dr. King’s most memorable moment before an audience of 250,000 people. During robust lectures, I often follow that statement with brother Malcolm’s somewhat humorous quip that the A. Philip Randolph organized March on Washington “…was a circus, with clowns and all.”

Although I frequently use Brother Malcolm’s quip, I do not agree with his summation. Yet, I do harbor issues with this moment that have nothing to do with the content of Dr. King’s speech on this momentous occasion. My problem revolves around the reality that this moment was so big that most mistakenly freeze Dr. King in this moment and use it as a guide to understand his entire public life. Those harboring this belief are in grievous error. If one did not know any better, they could be led to believe that Dr. King was assassinated moments after his much-celebrated speech as the remaining portion of his life is rarely discussed. Unbeknownst to many, Dr. King’s prophetic voice was not silenced by an assassin’s bullet until 1968, nearly five years after his impassioned speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Despite the flawed historical recollection of a gullible American public, Dr. King’s legacy did not end on August 28, 1963. Most would be shocked to learn that “the Prince of Peace” never stopped evaluating and growing ideologically during this volatile period of this nation’s existence.

Consider for a moment that when faced with growing White resistance in the wake of Lyndon Baines Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights (1964) and Voting Rights (1965) Acts, Dr. King understood that Whites were unwilling to share political power or economic resources with anyone. This political climate led King to issue the following indictments toward both the nation and the movement he headed.

“[W]ith Selma and the Voting Rights Act one phase of development in the civil rights revolution came to an end. A new phase opened, but few observers realized it or were prepared for its implications. For the vast majority of white Americans, the past decade — the first phase — had been a struggle to treat the Negro with a degree of decency, not of equality. White America was ready to demand that the Negro should be spared the lash of brutality and coarse degradation, but it had never been truly committed to helping him out of poverty, exploitation or all forms of discrimination. The outraged white citizen had been sincere when he snatched the whips from the Southern sheriffs and forbade them more cruelties. But when this was to a degree accomplished, the emotions that had momentarily inflamed him melted away,

When negroes looked for the second phase, the realization of equality, they found that many of their white allies had quietly disappeared. Negroes felt cheated, especially in the North, while many whites felt that the negroes had gained so much it was virtually impudent and greedy to ask for more so soon.

The practical cost of change for the nation up to this point has been cheap. The limited reforms have been obtained at bargain rates. There are no expenses, and no taxes are required, for Negroes to share lunch counters, libraries, parks, hotels, and other facilities with whites…

Negroes of America had taken the President, the press and the pulpit at their word when they spoke in broad terms of freedom and justice . . . The word was broken, and the free-running expectations of the Negro crashed into the stone walls of white resistance.

Whites’ increasing resistance to racial equality in the public arena, let alone any degree of racial justice, forced King’s hand. In his search for a path to securing racial equality, MLK was forced to address the growing nihilism within the Civil Rights Movement that was most forcefully articulated by a rising tide of young Black Powerites. The shifting political winds were so significant that Dr. King felt compelled to issue the following statement regarding Black Power politics.

There is nothing essentially wrong with power. The problem is that in America power is unequally distributed. This has led Negro Americans in the past to seek their goals through love and moral suasion devoid of power and white Americans to seek their goals through power devoid of love and conscience…. [I]t is precisely this collision of immoral power with powerless morality which constitutes the major crisis of our times.

Black Power is a call for the pooling of black financial resources to achieve economic security.… Through the pooling of such resources and the development of habits of thrift and techniques of wise investment, the Negro will be doing his share to grapple with his problem of economic deprivation. If Black Power means the development of this kind of strength within the Negro community, then it is a quest for basic, necessary, legitimate power.

It is indeed time that those interested in this nation securing racial justice re-evaluate MLK’s legacy by placing some attention on his post-March on Washington speech era. Such action is crucial for anyone seeking to expand their understanding of King, Black Power, and the pursuit of racial justice. Hopefully, you do not think that Dr. King was the type of man to waste any portion of his life. Trust me when I say if you think that about Dr. King, you need to re-evaluate your entire understanding of “the Prince of Peace.”

James Thomas Jones III

© Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2019.