Friday, December 9, 2016

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE: EDUCATION AND SOCIAL ACTION

"Education without social action is a one-sided value because it has no true power potential. Social action without education is a weak expression of pure energy. Deeds uninformed by educated thought can take false directions. When we go into action and confront our adversaries, we need to be armed with the same knowledge as they.... "Many thousands of Negroes who have already found intellectual growth and spiritual fulfillment on this path know its creative possibilities. They are not among the legions of the lost, they are not crushed by the weight of centuries. Most heartening, among the young the spirit of challenge and determination for change is becoming an unquenchable force." P.182-183, "Where We Are Going," WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE: CHAOS OR COMMUNITY by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1967) [Parenthetically, what Dr. King said was once "thousands" is now to be numbered in the tens of millions of black Americans in 2016 who have, themselves, by faith and work, overcome racial oppression, via education and social action. Sadly as many, perhaps, remain in the "legion of lost," he described !]