The Future Of Dr. King’s Legacy

Folk singer Joan Baez joins King in escorting children to their newly integrated school in Grenada, Mississippi in 1966. (Courtesy Photo)

My grandmother was in junior high school when Dr. King was murdered. She remembers riding the bus home from school in Washington D.C, along H Street when rioters began hurling bricks through the bus windows. The bus driver demanded that all passengers exit the bus; H Street was on fire. 

My grandfather said that he had to walk about four miles from school to his home, and he remembers rioters burning down many businesses and buildings in the Northeast quadrant of Washington D.C. 

My mother’s generation saw the Martin Luther King holiday petitioned for and signed into federal law under the Reagan administration in the mid-1980s.

Decades later, I and other young people feel disconnected from the history of Dr. King because it was such a long time ago when he was active in the Civil Rights Movement. To this day however, young people  are experiencing police brutality, social issues and more. 

Police wrongfully kill African Americans. In several cases the police get away with murder, and the victims never recieve justice. This used to happen a lot during the Civil Rights Movement. It was worse back then because the justice system was discriminatory and racist towards African Americans; especially in the south. Not much has changed since then. Many of these types of cases may make it to the courts and in the media, but the victim does not always get justice.

Long after Dr. King’s death, the government has still not addressed the constant existence of poverty. In 1967, Dr. King started the Poor People’s Campaign because he saw that many poor African Americans at that time did not have access to schools, jobs, food and more. This issue continues today, but in a different way. Many predominantly Black neighborhoods in America have access to foods but there aren’t many healthy options. These areas where there aren’t any good grocery stores, are called food deserts. Foods rich in salt, sugar and fat tend to cause obesity, and diabetes. Many Black people suffer from diabetes, sometimes without knowing it.  

In this day and age voting rights continue to be an issue in many Black communities. Everyone in America has the right to vote, but many people make it difficult for African Americans to vote.In  2020 the postmaster removed many of the mailboxes in African American cities and towns to discourage African Americans from voting by mail or even voting at all. Republicans also tried to argue that mail-in voting was fraudulent.

Congress was fighting to pass the Freedom To Vote John R. Lewis Act. The purpose of this bill is to ensure free and fair elections and prevent voter suppression. The Democrats in Congress have tried to pass this bill by using a NASA bill, that had already been considered by Democrats and Republicans as a vehicle to speed up the consideration of the Voting Rights bill in the Senate.

Since the NASA bill had already been considered by the Senate and House of Representatives, it required a simple majority to be passed. Despite the Democrats’ efforts, the voting rights legislation was blocked by Republicans.

Meanwhile, young people continue to protest nonviolently in the streets. Dr. King has been credited with the concept of protesting nonviolently. He wrote that activist Mahatma Gandhi was the first person to transform Christian love into a powerful force for social change. He called it “[t]he method to social reform that I had been seeking.” 

Dr. King refused to use violence as a tactic during the Civil Rights Movement. Nonviolent protest brought the world’s attention to police officers’ abuse, especially since television broadcasting was new.

Dr. King’s method of protesting has influenced how people demonstrate. These days, Black Lives Matter protestors continue to fight for the end of police brutality against African Americans. They nonviolently march down the streets, but instead of being sprayed with fire hoses, they are attacked with teargas and in some cases bullets.

Dr. King’s assassination was a tragedy. Many people think that the actual killer of Dr. King was never caught, or that James Earl Ray was wrongly convicted of Dr. King’s murder. This catastrophic event caused grief across the world. 

Dr. King counts among a string of leaders, including Medgar Evers, President John F. Kennedy, U.S Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, and many others who were assassinated. It was a terrible time of unrest with issues of the Vietnam War also in full swing.

Even though Dr. King lived more than 50 years ago, it doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything to remember him, or learn more about him. We should still listen to his speeches, read about him, and watch documentaries about him. We should also make an effort to find small ways to help end police brutality among young people. As we march down Black Lives Matter Plaza we need to remember Dr. King who also nonviolently marched. 

Sources

https://www.afscme.org/about/history/mlk/mountaintop

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther-King-Jr/Challenges-of-the-final-years