Today is the national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. He was murdered in Memphis on April 5, 1968, nearly 40 years ago, at age 39. At the time of his death, he was shunned by the powerful, dismissed as marginal by the media, and disdained by the respectable opinion makers. Why? Because he was fiercely opposed to racism, to poverty, to injustice, and to war. He argued that each of these evils were pillars of American life, and needed to be rooted out. Today, the national holiday named after him — and it is the only national holiday named after a specific American citizen — is often celebrated as if King was a happy go lucky fellow, someone everybody admired, rather than the radical agitator he was. King spoke truth to power, and he expected to be murdered as a result of his uncompromising opposition to human suffering. Whether one agrees or disagrees with King’s goals and methods, I think it’s worthwhile to pause to consider the purposes to which the King holiday is put. Many of these purposes, in my view (and i am an historian of the civil rights movement who’s been rather obsessed with King’s life for most of my own life) are contrary to the values and goals of King and his movement. He spoke truth to power; but sometimes King Day events are dominated by the powerful seeking to enthrone themselves, or by deceivers trying to cover up their lies. Many people speak in King’s name without knowing what King believed. (A famous example of this is when the first president Bush invoked the name of King, America’s most famous pacifist, when waging the first Gulf War. And I’ve seen a few university presidents read quotations from King even as their administrations failed to address the impact of institutionalized racism on their own campuses.) EMU has, year in and year out, an outstanding series of King Day events. These are put on with a very low budget and with homegrown talent. Many are happening today in the Student Center. I urge you to participate. And you can even read one of his books or his sermons – start with “Stride Toward Freedom”, his book on the Montgomery bus boycott and the nonviolent method; or “Why We Can’t Wait”, his 1964 book that includes his “Letter From Birmingham Jail”.
