Weekend Read: We need Dr. King's radical vision. We don't need a convenient hero.
It was storming the night Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his听final speech听in Memphis, a storm so thunderous it made him jump at the pulpit.
It was storming again on the 50th anniversary of that , the night we arrived in Memphis to take part in the National Civil Rights Museum鈥檚 ceremony outside the Lorraine Motel, where King was assassinated in 1968.
King鈥檚 name rang out loudly from the balcony where he was shot.听
But in their heartfelt tributes, few mentioned the names of , the two sanitation workers whose deaths on the job sparked the strike that brought King to Memphis.听
The sanitation workers鈥� demands for better pay and safer working conditions dovetailed with King鈥檚 growing recognition that .
In 2018, however, the very same racism and economic injustice that brought King to Memphis in 1968 are still present. Were he to return to Memphis now, this week, he would have a familiar sight:
鈥淚 think he'd see a city that hasn't learned its lesson. I think he'd see a city that still shuns unions and union organizing. I think he'd see a city that's still divided, still very separated by race and certainly by class. And I think he'd wonder what we did with his sacrifice.鈥�
Today, we need King鈥檚 radical message just as badly as we did in 1968. But too often, we bathe his memory in a glow of nostalgia that threatens to relegate the injustices he fought to the past, as though the struggle is over.
鈥淎s long as we can be shot in our own backyards, as long as we鈥檙e on the lowest economic rung, as long as we鈥檙e the ones who fill up prisons, the struggle goes on,鈥� from that infamous balcony.
, who has worked with us on Teaching Tolerance initiatives, was even stronger:
鈥淚n life, King spoke inconvenient truths. But in death his life and deeds have been misinterpreted for the sake of creating a convenient hero. As long as black children go to sleep hungry at night, as long as black children are dying at the hands of police in our streets, we cannot afford the luxury of a convenient hero.鈥�
We couldn鈥檛 agree more.
The Editors.
P.S. Here are some other pieces we think are valuable this week:
- by Denene Miller for The New York Times
- 听by Tiffany Stanley for听The Washington Post
- by Hannah Dreier for听ProPublica
- 听by Wendi C. Thomas for听The New York Times
人兽性交鈥檚 Weekend Read听is听a weekly summary of the most important news reporting and commentary from around the country on civil rights, economic and racial inequality, and hate and extremism.听Sign up to receive the Weekend Read听every Saturday morning.
