Just Sayin

[ellu]

Where would you have been on MLK?

Martin Luther King Jr.: Revered More After Death Than Before

Martin Luther King Jr. was among the most admired people of the 20th century when Americans looked back over the 100 years between 1900 and 1999, but was much less revered in the years before his assassination in April 1968. King had a more negative than positive rating in 1966, and did not...

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"He remembers that with each modest advance the white population promptly raises the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash.”​

― Martin Luther King Jr.,

“Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn.”

"But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear?...It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity."

"First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."


You say you admire him, but if you were the 1964 version of you would you agree with him? Or would you revile him. Imagine Obama making the above quotes, now better yet imagine Jessie Jackson, his colleague and contemporary, making the above quotes. They were MLK's quotes, a national hero, learn from them or not...FYI if you are looking to debate his quotes enjoy. They speak for themselves and I have no desire to assuage your conscious.

 

[krvanness]

I've always enjoyed MLK's niece, Alveda King, perspective on her Uncle:

"When I remember my uncle during the Martin Luther King holiday week, I think about his messages of faith, hope and love,” she said, adding that in "all of his life, he exemplified solutions that were nonviolent and Bible-based.”

King remembered that her uncle used to say that faith is "like climbing a staircase; you take one step at a time and the faith builds. And so he was very sure that if he continued to trust in the Lord and to have faith and hope and love, then he could carry a message that God had given him to carry."

"My uncle was a nonviolent man. He believed that we were one human race … God made all people to live together on the face of the earth. And as one human race, we really could learn to live together as brothers and sisters and not perish together as fools. All of his sermons and his messages led us to understand that our answers would come from God and that we must unite and learn to get along,” King also said.

She also recalled that Martin Luther King Jr. "decided to stick with love."

"Hate is too difficult a burden to bear. And then we bear each other's burdens and concerns, seeing each other as human beings, regardless of skin color. We could see skin color, of course, we really are not colorblind. We could see, but we should see ethnicity as something to be celebrated, not to be fought over,” she said.

"Martin Luther King Jr. lived a life of service and love," said his niece in closing.

"If he were here today, he would be praying for us and with us and encouraging us to set aside strife and to come together in love. And as we do that, we can surely be blessed, and 2021 will be a very different year than 2020 turned out to be."

 

[zeski78]

I like how he didn’t burn property, harm or cancel people that didn’t agree with him.

 

[Allied2651]

I can tell you where I was. I was on the steps of New Rochelle, H.S. about 15 feet away from the actor, Ozzie Davis and Whitney Young. It was a scary day and probably should not have been on the steps of the H.S. that day. My H.S had about 4k kids in it with a 50/50 Black - White ratio. Looking back, it was those two fellas that calmed everyone down. Very, very tense period .

 

[zeski78]

So I once asked my wife’s grandmother who lived in Corinth Ms(about an hour outside Memphis) what she remembers about the day MLK was assassinated. She said she heard about it on the radio and thought “my god what have they done”