DR. KING STILL COMMUNICATES
Rushing to "integrate into a burning house," @ MLKJR, rather than us patiently restoring our house, was the extremest of follies , after 1968.
This thought recurred to me upon beginning the reading of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s final book, THE TRUMPET OF CONSCIENCE (1967). He was our "philosopher-king" @ Plato's REPUBLIC, whom we thought that we knew, so well, that we soon neglected to read his words. Reading enriches hearing.
Reading facilitates our personal reflections and review. Reading enables accuracy in quoting and in citing, especially if one is reading what is worthy, informative, rich and true; and that which fortifies , strengthens, refreshes the soul!
Dr. King wrote:
"Our freedom was not won a century ago, it is not won today; but some small part of it is in our hands, and we are marching no longer by ones and twos but in legions of thousands, convinced now it cannot be denied by any human force....
"Negroes were outraged by inequality; their ultimate goal was freedom. Most of the white majority were outraged by the brutality; their goal was improvement, not freedom nor equality. When Negroes use public facilities, register to vote in some areas of the South, find token educational advancement, again in token form find new areas of employment, it brought to the Negro a sense of achievement, but it brought to the whites a sense of completion. When Negroes assertively moved on to ascend the second rung of the ladder, a firm resistance from the white community developed. This resistance characterized the second phase which we are now experiencing. In some quarters it was a courteous rejection, in others it was a stinging white backlash. In all quarters unmistakably it was outright resistance....
"The decade of 1955 to 1965 with its constructive elements misled us. Everyone underestimated the amount of violence and rage Negroes were suppressing and the amount of bigotry the white majority was disguising ....
"A million words will be written and spoken to dissect the ghetto outbreaks, but for a vivid and perceptive expression of culpability I would submit two sentences written a century ago by Victor Hugo:
"'If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.'
"The policy-makers of the white society has caused the darkness: they created discrimination; they created slums; they perpetuate unemployment, ignorance, and poverty. It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes, but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society. When we ask Negroes to abide by the law, let us also declare that the white man does not abide by law in the ghettos. Day in and day out he violates welfare law to deprive the poor of their meager allotments; he flagrantly violates building codes and regulations; his police make a mockery of law; he violates laws on equal employment, education and civic services . The slums are the handiwork of a vicious system of white society; Negroes live in them, but they do not make them, any more than a prisoner makes a prison....
"In using the term 'white man' I am seeking to describe in general terms the Negroes' adversary. It is not meant to encompass all white people. There are millions who have morally risen above prevailing prejudices. They are willing to share power and to accept structural alterations of society even at the cost of traditional privilege. To deny their existence as some ultranationalists do is to deny an evident truth. More than that, it drives away allies who can strengthen our struggle . Their support not only serves to enhance our power, but in breaking from the attitudes of the larger society it splits and weakens our opposition. To develop a sense of black consciousness and peoplehood does not require that we scorn the white race as a whole. It is not the race per se that we fight but the policies and ideology that leaders of that race have formulated to perpetuate oppression."
P. 4-10
Friday, July 6, 2018
DR. KING STILL COMMUNICATES
DR. KING STILL COMMUNICATES
Rushing to "integrate into a burning house," @ MLKJR, rather than us patiently restoring our house, was the extremest of follies , after 1968.
This thought recurred to me upon beginning the reading of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s final book, THE TRUMPET OF CONSCIENCE (1967). He was our "philosopher-king" @ Plato's REPUBLIC, whom we thought that we knew, so well, that we soon neglected to read his words. Reading enriches hearing.
Reading facilitates our personal reflections and review. Reading enables accuracy in quoting and in citing, especially if one is reading what is worthy, informative, rich and true; and that which fortifies , strengthens, refreshes the soul!
Dr. King wrote:
"Our freedom was not won a century ago, it is not won today; but some small part of it is in our hands, and we are marching no longer by ones and twos but in legions of thousands, convinced now it cannot be denied by any human force....
"Negroes were outraged by inequality; their ultimate goal was freedom. Most of the white majority were outraged by the brutality; their goal was improvement, not freedom nor equality. When Negroes use public facilities, register to vote in some areas of the South, find token educational advancement, again in token form find new areas of employment, it brought to the Negro a sense of achievement, but it brought to the whites a sense of completion. When Negroes assertively moved on to ascend the second rung of the ladder, a firm resistance from the white community developed. This resistance characterized the second phase which we are now experiencing. In some quarters it was a courteous rejection, in others it was a stinging white backlash. In all quarters unmistakably it was outright resistance....
"The decade of 1955 to 1965 with its constructive elements misled us. Everyone underestimated the amount of violence and rage Negroes were suppressing and the amount of bigotry the white majority was disguising ....
"A million words will be written and spoken to dissect the ghetto outbreaks, but for a vivid and perceptive expression of culpability I would submit two sentences written a century ago by Victor Hugo:
"'If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.'
"The policy-makers of the white society has caused the darkness: they created discrimination; they created slums; they perpetuate unemployment, ignorance, and poverty. It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes, but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society. When we ask Negroes to abide by the law, let us also declare that the white man does not abide by law in the ghettos. Day in and day out he violates welfare law to deprive the poor of their meager allotments; he flagrantly violates building codes and regulations; his police make a mockery of law; he violates laws on equal employment, education and civic services . The slums are the handiwork of a vicious system of white society; Negroes live in them, but they do not make them, any more than a prisoner makes a prison....
"In using the term 'white man' I am seeking to describe in general terms the Negroes' adversary. It is not meant to encompass all white people. There are millions who have morally risen above prevailing prejudices. They are willing to share power and to accept structural alterations of society even at the cost of traditional privilege. To deny their existence as some ultranationalists do is to deny an evident truth. More than that, it drives away allies who can strengthen our struggle . Their support not only serves to enhance our power, but in breaking from the attitudes of the larger society it splits and weakens our opposition. To develop a sense of black consciousness and peoplehood does not require that we scorn the white race as a whole. It is not the race per se that we fight but the policies and ideology that leaders of that race have formulated to perpetuate oppression."
P. 4-10