I have been interviewed many times over the past year by all types of media near and far around two questions. What is Martin Luther King’s legacy? What is the status of race in America 50 years since Martin Luther King’s assassination?
As I have reflected on these questions, I have concluded that these two issues are related. About King’s legacy, I say it is not what he wanted it to be.
He is one of the most revered figures in American history. He has a holiday in his name, while George Washington and Abraham Lincoln have to share theirs. And he has a monument like Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. But this is not what he wanted.
More than anything he wanted his work to continue, and it has not. I was an acquaintance of MLK, and he was a big hero of mine; however, I have not yet visited the MLK monument in Washington, DC. Eventually, I will, but I am in no hurry.
You see, still ringing in my ears are words he spoke in a sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Sunday, December 22, 1963. I was there, and I have called his sermon that day the “I Have a Hope” sermon.
This Sunday was the one-month anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. In his sermon, King recalled sadly that on the day Kennedy was killed he received more death threats in one day than ever before. These threats had the usual refrain, “N—– you are next.”
He indicated that he thought the threats were real. Consequently, he did not expect to live much longer. But he assured us that his death was not a concern or a major pre-occupation.
His primary concern was that his work would continue. He implored us, “Don’t build any monuments to me. … If you have a minister at my funeral, ask him not to talk too long. … Don’t talk about all the honors I have received. Tell them about this great work we are engaged in.”
He said if he was not around to see it through “I have a hope that this work is continued.” His refrain was “I have a hope” that people of good will move this work forward.
But that did not happen. The work continued for only a bit and fizzled out. During nearly 40 years, beginning around the middle of the 1970s civil rights protests declined, and there was no national struggle.
While African Americans in many places have always carried on the racial progress fight, little was going on nationally until the Black Lives Matter Movement joined Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network in the national public arena.
Not carrying on the national movement as hoped for by MLK resulted in no real racial progress since his death 50 years ago. The data show that African Americans are no better off now than they were in 1968. The contention here is that we would be better off if MLK’s hope had been realized, and we had continued the struggle.
I will detail this lack of progress later.
