In
celebration of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination,
many writers reexamined the life of King and his continued legacy. The article “MLK 50 Years Later” was written
by Brooke Ross who highlighted a few major events in King’s career and
discussed many of the problems that persist today. Ross started the article talking about King’s
march on Washington where 250,000 people gathered to hear the historical “I
Have a Dream” speech. She then quickly went
over other victories in the Civil Rights Movement such as the Bus Boycott, the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, the march in Selma, Alabama, and the Voting Rights
Act of 1965. However, her focus in the
article was not the accomplishments of King, but the perception of King during
the 1960s. I think the overall article
did a wonderful job of making a realistic perception of King instead of fitting
into the master narrative. Ross mentioned
King’s low approval rating of 32 percent by America in 1967; something that
most people find surprising today because King is regarded as one of the most
revered men in history. King’s low
approval rating was not without reason, however. The younger generation believed King’s
nonviolent tactics were too soft and passive; they thought a more aggressive
approach was necessary. The older
generation believed King to be too radical and pushy. To make things worse, many criticized King
for speaking out against the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War.1
While the author did a good job
avoiding the master narrative of King, the one major critique I have involved the
article’s statement that King “was incapable of hating”1. King was a human being capable of normal
emotions, including hate. He was not
immune to hate, and it was something he struggled with just like any other person;
King chose to not let his hate guide him and instead embrace love and
nonviolence. I think it is a mistake to
disconnect King from his true nature as a person; the Civil Rights Movement was
not built by one saint but from thousands of talented and determined people who
aided King.
Near the end of the article, Ross
brought up many of the issues that still plague America today. Blacks still do not have the same educational
and economic opportunities as whites, and “According to a 2016 analysis by The Washington Post, blacks are 2.5
times as likely as whites to be shot and killed by law enforcement officers”1. If there is anything that we should learn
from King, it is that positive changes “have happened in this country because
people were willing to fight or them”1. King does not need to be a saint for his
legacy to be passed to the other generations who continue the fight for equality.
1 Ross, Brooke (n.d.), “MLK 50
Years Later,” retrieved April 24, 2018, from https://upfront.scholastic.com/issues/2017-18/012918/mlk-50-years-later.html
over the years king has been looked at as a figure but not a person. this is something people do not take into account. King was an actual person, he went to school, made jokes, had bad habits, and made mistakes. people often see him as this nonviolent person that never has done anything wrong and did all the movement work by himself. Its sad because the women in the moment will never get the recognition that they deserve because people don't want women in leadership positions.
ReplyDeleteGoing off of what Jeremy said, I think its crazy that while we focus so much on trying to show that MLK was just a "normal" guy with good morals and an unwavering goal of staying nonviolent throughout the course of the civil rights movement, we fail to even mention the others, particularly women, that played a significant role in the movement. We place more emphasis on trying to point out the flaws of King than we do on trying to point out the females of the movement that were of almost equal importance but remained hidden in the background of male superiority.
ReplyDelete