Remembering Dr. King on His National Holiday
A "Creative Extremist" and the Injustices Related to His Murder
It is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the United States, which is as apposite an occasion as any to re-share what I have written about his murder and its long aftermath as well as share a favorite passage of his writing.
Dr. King is a towering hero in American history. In my view, his murder is unsolved. His accused assassin might have been guilty, but the State of Tennessee did not prove it, there is reasonable doubt about his guilt, and the State violated its own law when it did not grant him the trial he requested. Decades later, thwarting Judge Joe Brown’s efforts to test the alleged murder weapon to see if test bullets fired matched the bullet extracted from Dr. King was another inexcusable injustice. I find these injustices at least as important an issue as the identity of Dr. King’s killer or killers, as it involves systemic, culture-wide injustices involving government and media. (The media’s dereliction in this case and others is an ongoing theme of much of my writing.) My 2015 piece can be read here:
The following is one of my favorite passages of King’s writings. One of his most important, valid, and salient views is evaded by those who both celebrate King and excoriate “extremism”, regardless of its specifics and content. This is another contradiction that cannot be elided forever; contra Kant, Hegel, and the other progenitors of modern culture, contradictions only exist in human minds, not in reality.
“The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides—and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: ‘Get rid of your discontent.’ Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist. But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.’ Was not Amos an extremist for justice: ‘Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.’ Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: ‘I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.’ Was not Martin Luther an extremist: ‘Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.’ And John Bunyan: ‘I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.’ And Abraham Lincoln: ‘This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.’ And Thomas Jefferson: ‘We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . .’ So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime—the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.”
“Letter from Birmingham Jail”, April 16, 1963