The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty. – Dr. King
If Americans permit thought-control, business control, and freedom control to continue, we shall surely move within the shadows of fascism. – Dr. King
We don’t talk about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. enough. When we do speak about him–on the few days surrounding the national holiday–the public discourse is a watered down, misleading and shallow version of his life. Like so much of our current news we will learn about Dr. King this holiday in repeatable soundbites deemed acceptable by the mainstream media. The “I Have a Dream” speech will be played, his civil rights legacy will be reflected upon and presidents and preachers will encourage us to engage in service from his grave site in Atlanta. Yes the King Holiday is a day to “serve”–a day on, not off as the King Center states. And yes of course Dr. King was a courageous champion for civil rights. But the true Dr. King is deeper, more complex and much more radical than you will ever hear about in mainstream press or will be taught about in school.
King resisted the many systems of domination of his day-war, capitalism, U.S. Imperialism, fundamentalism and racism. For this in addition to his progressive synthesis of faith and reason he is extremely relevant to us. But understanding his vision requires more than I can convey in one blog post and more than alternative media outlets can provide. Ultimately we must engage him through reading his own words, listening to his speeches and sermons and watching him being interviewed. In this post I am providing links to a number of interesting writings, interviews, speeches, papers and books that shed light on his radical views on war, Imperialism, Religion, poverty and capitalism.
Two collections of King’s speeches and sermons are available in audio and book format. “A Call to Conscience” is a collection of King’s most famous speeches and addresses. His powerful critique of the Vietnam War called “Beyond Vietnam” can be heard on this collection. And in “A Knock at Midnight” you can listen to some of King’s most powerful sermons. One of my favorite sermons which is in his book “Strength to Love” is called “Transformed Nonconformist.” You can read it via google books here. And his speech and book called “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community” is an excellent source for King’s analysis of white supremacy, racism, poverty and the future of the country.
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Saturday, January 1st 2011 at 9:35PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
