Happy MLK Day!

Today we formally recognize the life contributions of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. to the United States of America and to the world.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a United States federal holiday marking the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year, which is around the time of King's birthday, January 15. The floating holiday is similar to holidays set under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, though the act predated the establishment of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by 15 years.

The idea of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a holiday was promoted by labor unions in contract negotiations.After King's death, United States Representative John Conyers (a Democrat from Michigan) and United States Senator Edward Brooke (a Republican from Massachusetts) introduced a bill in Congress to make King's birthday a national holiday. The bill first came to a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1979. However, it fell five votes short of the number needed for passage. Two of the main arguments mentioned by opponents were that a paid holiday for federal employees would be too expensive, and that a holiday to honor a private citizen would be contrary to longstanding tradition (King had never held public office). Only three other persons have national holidays in the United States honoring them: George Washington, Christopher Columbus, and Jesus.

Soon after, the King Center turned to support from the corporate community and the general public. The success of this strategy was cemented when musician Stevie Wonder released the single "Happy Birthday" to popularize the campaign in 1980 and hosted the Rally for Peace Press Conference in 1981. Six million signatures were collected for a petition to Congress to pass the law, termed by a 2006 article in The Nation as "the largest petition in favor of an issue in U.S. history."

The bill established the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday Commission to oversee observance of the holiday, and Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s wife, was made a member of this commission for life by President George H. W. Bush in May 1989

Pictured left is Coretta Scott King at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day signing ceremony

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._Day

This year President Obama issued the annual proclamation of MLK day: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/01/18/presidential-proclamation-martin-luther-king-jr-federal-holiday-2013=

I Have A Dream

On August 28 in Black History

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr gives his "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.
The March on Washington put much more pressure on the Kennedy administration to advance civil rights legislation in Congress. The diaries of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., published posthumously in 2007, suggest that President Kennedy was concerned that if the march failed to attract large numbers of demonstrators, it might undermine his civil rights efforts.In 2004, the Library of Congress honored the speech by adding it to the United States National Recording Registry. In the wake of the speech and march, King was named Man of the Year by TIME magazine for 1963, and in 1964, he was the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  In 2003, the National Park Service dedicated an inscribed marble pedestal to commemorate the location of King's speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

Here is the full text of the speech:

"I Have A Dream"

"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_a_Dream

A Day of Service

"Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possible - the known pilots and the unknown ground crew.  So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit." 

Martin Luther King, Jr., 1964 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  At the White House Rose Garden on November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday to honor King. Observed for the first time on January 20, 1986, it is called Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Following President George H. W. Bush's 1992 proclamation, the holiday is observed on the third Monday of January each year, near the time of King's birthday.^[200] On January 17, 2000, for the first time, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was officially observed in all fifty U.S. states.^[  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.

Read Coretta Scott King's letter on the meaning of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday:  http://www.thekingcenter.org/KingHoliday/Default.aspx

 

Black Men Leading the Charge

These black men, intellectuals, contemporaries of each other, have led the charge over the years. Let us appreciate the diversity in approaching the common cause of advancement and equality for African-Americans from Booker T. through today.

Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois

Contemporaries of their time, these three black men were leaders following their own path as they advocated a better life for African-Americans during their time.

"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else."
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington Representing the last generation of black leaders born into slavery advocated the advancement of black people through education and self help. He founded the Tuskegee Institute.

Marcus Garvey, leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, was the first African-American leader in American history to organize masses of people in a political movement. The ad above was featured in Garvey's magazine, The Negro World. During August 1920, the UNIA holds its first International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World at Madison Square Garden and adopts the Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World. He worked with and supported WEB DuBois but later had major philosophical disagreements and described Du Bois as "purely and simply a white man's nigger" and "a little Dutch, a little French, a little Negro ... a mulatto ... a monstrosity." In spite of disagreements with his contemporaries, Garvey's leadership influenced next generation civil rights leaders such as Malcolm X.

"The Negro Race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education then, among Negroes, must first of all deal with the "Talented Tenth." It is the problem of developing the best of this race that they may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of the worst."

W.E.B. DuBois

WEB DuBois, In reference to his disagreement with Marcus Garvey, DuBois once wrote,

"Garvey is, without doubt, the most dangerous enemy of the Negro race in America and in the world. He is either a lunatic or a traitor."

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X

These two men were the leaders of the Civil Rights movements. King was a Christian minister who promoted racial injustice with a message of peace for a future of equality in America. Malcolm X was a Muslim minister accused of preaching violence but was also staunch advocate for African-American rights by any means necessary. He founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Both men were assassinated and are considered martyrs for the civil rights fight in America.
Reflection: Since their time, most African-Americans have come to embrace both men as leaders of the movement and appreciate them with all their differences for leading the charge for equality for African-Americans. If they had not been assassinated, however, would their legacy be as strong? Do people always have to die to propel a movement forward? What would be their platform if they were still alive today?

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. and Rev. Al Sharpton

These two men came during the transition from Civil Rights to where we are today. Jesse Jackson founded the Rainbow/PUSH coalition and ran for the democratic nomination for president in 1984 and 1988. Al Sharpton was and still is primarily an activist and community leader and was also a democratic candidate for president in 2004.

Reflection: These men continued the "civil rights style" advocacy after the civil rights movement of the 60's. They transitioned more into the political arena over the past few decades but their relevance as leaders has been questioned as a new generation of African-Americans have been born. Gen X and Gen Y were not alive during the movement and have faced a different set of issues and have created a different style of advocacy and progress. What should the role of Jackson and Sharpton be now? We all have a place in our culture, how should we embrace these two men in 2009? President Barack Obama and Michael Steele

President Barack Obama is the first African-American president. He has made history.

Reflection:  Should he be held to different standards as president? by society as a whole? by African-Americans? Whether you support him or not, his impact on today's society is unquestionable. Should he be considered a black leader such as Booker T., Martin or Garvey when he has not proclaimed himself as such? Could it be that he is actually such a leader but doing it his own way...an African-American man who happens to be the leader of the free world? By just doing his thing, his leadership and success is an example that even though the struggle is still there, we can still be who we want to be.

Michael Steele is the current chair of the Republican National Committee. Elected after six rounds of voting, he became the 1st African-American chairman of the RNC. His prior political offices include Lieutenant Governor of Maryland and Chairman of GOPAC and Chairman of the Maryland State Republican Party. Here are 10 more things you may or may not know about Michael Steele.
Reflection: Two points to make before discussing the afam issue here. Note that I am deliberately using token as a verb not a noun to focus on the act, process and theory as opposed to the individual person.This brings us to my second point. Just because I am bringing up the issue of tokenism should not imply that the skills of the new leader of the RNC are in question.
Amid my first reaction to the news of Michael Steelee as the newly elected head of the RNC, my chief concern/question is this: Is the Republican party is so lacking of diversity that is continues to result to tokenism? The Republicans seemed to use Steele's RNC speech a few years ago was the answer to Obama's DNC speech. They hoped that Palin would be the answer to Clinton. Now again it seems that Steele is being used as the anti-Obama and also as the true token - "see we have a black man too, and we let him lead us!" Is it all staged? Did the previous RNC chair excuse himself from the race due to pressure to let a black man lead? Just another day of pulling the token to up the political ante?  It is yet to be seen if Steele will allow himself to be played as a pawn in the "anti-Obama" role or if he will demonstrate true leadership in his convictions as an African-American individual whether I agree with his position or not.