While we are at it—remembering the real Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—let’s go further. At the time of his death, King was a democratic socialist—a bad thing for much of establishment America. King understood that the term was problematic and tended not to say it publicly, although he pushed the principles of democratic socialism.
A critical difference between a liberal and a progressive, or democratic socialist, is how they see society, A liberal reformer believes that the fundamental structures of American society are sound, but just in need of some adjustment here and there. A democratic socialist knows that our society needs restructuring. As Dr. King preached, “The Movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society.
Presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, a leader of CORE and SNCC at the University of Chicago and arrested for his activism in the early 1960s, is one of the best known democratic socialists today. For him, democratic socialism is the fight for economic freedom — one that ensures health care, a living wage, a full education, housing, and a clean environment.
In a major speech last June, he said, “We must recognize that in the 21st century, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, economic rights are human rights. That is what I mean by democratic socialism…as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Call it democracy or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all of God’s children.’”
In early 1968, King told journalist David Halberstam, “For years I labored with the idea of reforming the existing institutions of society, a little change here, a little change there. Now I feel quite differently. I think you’ve got to have a reconstruction of the entire society, a revolution of values.”
In 1966 King told his staff:
“You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry. Now this means that we are treading in difficult water because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong with capitalism. There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.”
While he did not use the term “democratic socialism” publicly, MLK did propose changes to society as informed by that orientation. As Michael Eric Dyson put it in his book, I May Not Get There with You, published in 2000, King’s “demands for a ‘revolution of values’ and society-wide economic change were driven in part by his democratic socialist principles.”
King’s Poor People’s Campaign, in which I was involved, was an expression of democratic socialism. Complaining that poverty was too high in this the wealthiest nation in the world, Dr. King announced the Poor People’s Campaign on December 4, 1967, “The Southern Christian Leadership Conference will lead waves of the nation’s poor and disinherited to Washington, D. C., next spring to demand redress of their grievances by the United States government and to secure at least jobs or income for all.”
An essential aspect of the Campaign was to petition the government to pass an Economic Bill of Rights as a step to ease the poverty burden. Democratic socialism, indeed.
