What a legacy! It has been 56 years since the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and still his spirit and legacy live on. In some ways some of the power of that legacy can be measured in negative terms, by the backlash of racism that has resulted from his influence on racial equality and social justice. By confronting this nation with the realities of second-class citizenship that is afforded our black population, actually, often almost no rights of citizenship for many, he forced us to confront the consequences of our actions as a society.
It is not hard to see the forbearance required for most blacks to live within such a reality. It should not be a surprise that their tolerance has an end and erupts in protest and sometimes violence, it should be a surprise that it does not occur more often. How would we respond to such conditions?
But, in the face of that reality, Martin Luther King, Jr. preached non-violence, understanding; that violence would only give justification to violent responses from the white society as it insisted that the black society was incapable of civility and only dealt with pressure through violence and hence, only a violent response would be understood. But Martin Luther King, Jr, in the tradition of Gandhi, understood that non-violence requires a higher standard of human courage than violence ever could. He understood that this tactic would eventually force the society to confront the issue and deal with it, much as the English were forced to in India.
What is that legacy?
The legacy to about empowering black citizens, but it also includes other disenfranchised and therefore voiceless people in this nation. And he did this from a solid democratizing base of non-violence since violence can so easily justify a violent response, which can be deadly to a minority trying to make its voice heard.
He was not afraid of leadership, of being the lightning rod for opposition as well as a rallying point for supporters. His movements were open and accepting, always looking for help from any quarter, but especially from whites who agreed about the voicelessness imposed by the existing racism.
Dr. King based his principles on Christianity and on equality of all peoples but accepted other faiths as equals in the fight for human rights.
His other legacy was courage, the courage to stand up and be heard even when things got ugly and the courage to sacrifice, even his life as it turned out.
He would be 95 now and his legacy lives on with those issues front and center in our national debate. However. we are still in the midst of that painful transition away from those old racist patterns. Those old patterns and systems, like any old systems that have had power, are still fighting tooth and nail to retain power and often seem like they would rather destroy the entire society, than give up power. (You might recognize this dynamic in many of the Trump supporters.). Part of that resistance is about having to recognize the errors in thinking and mistakes in policy that have been made in the past. Only then can we begin to make corrections. If we insist on justifying our past errors, policies and patterns, we cannot find corrective solutions.
Ultimately, Dr. King's legacy is that of a humanizing and democratizing voice trying to find peaceful solutions to inequality in this nation. (I might add that we have a horrible history of assassinating those who speak with democratizing and humanizing voices.). Martin Luther King, Jr. was a powerful voice for human rights, for peace, for simple human goodness, for the unity of the human race, calling on our better angels in the knowledge that only human cooperation can bring us to the path of redemption as human beings.
As I said earlier, "What a legacy!"
