A
few weeks ago, Memphis commemorated MLK50, the 50th anniversary of
King’s assassination. Newscasters from all of the country, and all over the world,
came to Memphis to participate in and document the events. In an NBC broadcast live
from Memphis, Lester Holt spoke about the Lorraine Motel as a place “where King
died, but where the movement he led- and his dream- survives”. [1] Holt’s
intentions were pure, but he slightly missed the mark for a variety of reasons.
I know that he was simply trying to honor King and King’s legacy, but his remark
downplays the truth about how King’s death actually affected Memphis. His
statement implies that King’s assassination did not have any poor affect on
Memphis, when in reality, it had negative effects that continue to ripple
throughout the city even today. Washington post journalist Leta McCollough
Seletzky framed the Lorraine Motel in a different and much more accurate way,
writing that it “isn’t just a landmark or a place where something terrible
happened; it’s a wound from which the city never fully recovered- a gash in the
civic soul that still aches, maybe even festers” [2]. I like the use
of the word “fester” here because it provides an image of an untreated wound
that has possibly even gotten worse than when the injury first occurred. Fifty years
later in Memphis, racial economic disparities still exist. Racial educational
disparities still exist. Racial injustices still run rampant.
Another
problem in Holt’s comment is the ambiguity of the “movement” and “dream” that
he ascribes to King. Exactly what movement was Holt referring to? Was he
referring to the sanitation workers’ strike? Was he referring The Civil Rights Movement
as a whole? Additionally, what “dream” is Holt talking about? The vagueness of
this statement supports the master narrative that Julian Bond portrayed. Bond explained
the false narrative that Americans have constructed over the years: “Dr. King
was tragically slain in 1968. Fortunately, by that time, the country had been
changed, changed for the better in some fundamental ways…”. This portion of
Bond’s work sounds a lot like Holt’s comment. The only difference is that Holt
was actually being serious.
In
our society, people throw around phrases like “King’s dream will never die” and
other happy-go-lucky ambiguous statements. The problem with this is that it
completely undermines the reality that our country still has work to do in achieving
full racial equality. Some white people in this country would rather construct
a false narrative of perfect racial harmony than admit that the problem of
racial injustices in our country has still not gone away.
[1] Beifuss, John, and Daniel Connolly.
“National, International Media Highlighted Problems and Potential of Memphis
during MLK50.” The Commercial Appeal, The
Commercial Appeal, 6 Apr. 2018, www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2018/04/06/mlk-martin-luther-king-jr-memphis-tn-media-problems-potential-mlk-50/479971002/.
[2] Beifuss, John, and Daniel Connolly.
“National, International Media Highlighted Problems and Potential of Memphis
during MLK50.” The Commercial Appeal, The
Commercial Appeal, 6 Apr. 2018,
www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2018/04/06/mlk-martin-luther-king-jr-memphis-tn-media-problems-potential-mlk-50/479971002/.
You are right, Lester Holt meant well but he was oblivious to the effects that Martin Luther Kings assassination had on Memphis. Even the city of Memphis is split down the middle. Half of the city still morns his death and the other still thinks this issue as part of the past. There still needs to be more education about racial inequality even in the city where the face of the movement was assassinated.
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