Letter to the Editor
Over the years, Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day is celebrated as a tradition at LHU. This year’s event is titled: “King…More Than a Dream.” The PUB Multipurpose Room was packed to capacity on Jan. 31 at noon. The event was organized by the Commonwealth University’s Department of Equity and Inclusion (DEI) on a perfect day bathed in golden sunshine.
Unlike other times when a speaker was invited on this occasion, this year, the presenter was from the campus community itself. The presentation focused in-depth on the legacy of Dr. King. Several lesser known but equally interesting facts were presented. For example, it showed how it took nine years after his death to award MLK the ‘Presidential Medal of Freedom’ in 1977. Similar facts such as how he was named after the 16th century German reformer Martin Luther of the Reformation fame, when his family visited Germany, were also announced.
The main narrative continued tracing the life and legacy of Dr. King. He graduated high school at the age of 15 and went on to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia to originally study medicine and law. A brilliant student, later shifted to pursuing a doctorate in theology at Boston University and becoming a pastor.
Picking up from the famous Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks, MLK became actively involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama, which lasted for 381 days in 1955-56. And it ended with the ‘desegregation’ of public transport system in the American South.
However, the emphasis of the presentation was on Dr. King’s struggle to go beyond the civil rights and the need for economic equality. This was a time of deep structural inequality in American society. Such a demand of course invited death threats and imprisonments. America was not yet ready to share its wealth with the less fortunate minority like the historically discriminated Black folks.
Being a prolific writer, Dr. King wrote a series of letters from the Birmingham Jail in 1963. But his “I Have a Dream” speech in the same year was a turning point in MLK’s activism. From here on he actively opposed the U.S. war in Vietnam and launched a struggle against poverty in America. This continued until his death in 1968. In the end, he came around to Malcolm X’s position that civil rights would have no meaning without economic equality. But before this could be achieved both of these leaders were killed.
Overall, it was an excellent presentation. Very informative, educational, and inspirational. However, what it failed to do was place Dr. King’s legacy in the wider context of the whole generational struggle that included movements such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Black Panther Party, Nation of Islam, Brown vs Board of Education, NAACP, etc. It is the constant pressure of all these popular movements that pushed the American political establishment to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Finally, it needs to be mentioned that even though the ‘civil’ aspect of equality has been achieved with voting rights, the struggle to achieve economic equity continues.
