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January 21, 2008
MLK on Social Equality, Fellowship, and Love
In observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, here are some thoughts from Christopher Phelps, a history professor at Ohio State:
King's sermons from 1948 to 1963 . . . remind us of King's immersion in the black Baptist church and of the wide range of theological sources and social criticism he drew upon. For King, Christianity was the social gospel. His outlook was astonishingly radical, especially for the McCarthy era. In a college paper entitled "Will Capitalism Survive?" King held that "capitalism has seen its best days in America, and not only in America, but in the entire world." He concluded a 1953 sermon by asking his congregation to decide "whom ye shall serve, the god of money or the eternal God of the universe." He opposed communism as materialistic, but argued that only an end to colonialism, imperialism, and racism, an egalitarian program of social equality, fellowship, and love, could serve as its alternative.
Down riot-torn streets, he continued his quest for audacious social transformation by means of creative tension, compassion, love, inclusion, and humility. . . . The aspirations he left unfulfilled — especially for social equality and economic justice — may yet supply the legacy for a renewed American hope.
Given the disparities chronicled in Dalton Conley's Being Black, Living in the Red, King's agenda appears more timely than ever.
UPDATE: I just saw this post by Jon Hanson; very interesting take on King's legacy.
Posted by Frank Pasquale at January 21, 2008 08:16 AM
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Comments
And I don't think it in any way detracts from honoring King (his commitment to nonviolence, his courage, his religious faith, his political judgment, indeed, the vision that came to fuse the quest for civil rights to a fight for justice here and abroad) to recall how his political leadership was made possible by many (often forgotten or unknown) others that preceded him as well as untold others of his time and place. Toward that end, the few books noted here are representative of the historical, socio-cultural and political context that help us better appreciate King's leadership role in the civil rights movement:
Cooney, Robert and Helen Michalowski, eds. The Power of the People: Active Nonviolence in the United States (Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publishers, 1987).
Marable, Manning. Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction in Black America, 1945-1990 (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2nd ed., 1991).
Morris, Aldon D. The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change (New York: The Free Press, 1984).
Payne, Charles M. I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995).
I'm assuming familiarity with some well-known and standard works in the civil rights literature by Branch, Carson, Garrow, et al.
Posted by: Patrick S. O'Donnell at January 21, 2008 09:25 AM
In addition to these important works, there is new work on King, including a prize-winning recent book by Thomas F. Jackson, From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Struggle for Economic Justice (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007). Here's a link to a review: http://legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/reviewed-jackson-from-civil-rights-to.html
Posted by: Mary L. Dudziak at January 21, 2008 11:05 AM
Unlike five members of our supreme court, I believe that our society is still deeply racist and inquituous, and in need of a major overhaul.
One would think that simply driving to work through DC each day would be enough to inculcate some minimal measure of compassion in Roberts, et al., but I guess that's too much to ask for.
Posted by: Dudley at January 21, 2008 04:17 PM
