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J anuary 11, 1995 • T he P ortland O bserver
P age C2
4 4 1 am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire
hoses, snarling dogs, and even death. 1 am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure
the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. Therefore I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguer
and com m itted to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which ha not won the very peach and brotherhood which is the essence o
the Novel Prize. After contemplation I conclude that this award, which I receive on behalf o f the movement, is a profound recognition
that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and racial questions of our time - the need for man to overcome oppression
without resorting to violence. ”
. , ,
T
Martin f nthpr Kino Jr.
Happy 66th Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr.: How
Wonderful Yet Is His Spirit
Dedicated to a King
who had no throne
who had no crown
King returned to Memphis on April 3, 1968, to lead a peaceful
march of striking worker that would help boost his Poor People's
Campaign, a huge demonstration against poverty. Arriving with him
were (from left to right ministers Andrew Young and Palph
Abernathy and student activist Bernard Lee.
Continued from MLK front
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struggles ofthe city ' s sanitation work
ers was a notice to the nation and to
the world that he understood the real
priorities o f the game.
The establishment, too, under
stood the priorities and so they killed
him. The good Reverend must have
known quite well that [they] would
not let him live very long once he
began toplay the big economic cards.
Listen up, “ I have climbed the moun
tain top and I have seen the other
side". There will be the detractors for
all who dare to dream and it would
seem in this case but surely the most
fragile mentality must concede the
"self-evidence" o f these truths-an
the fact that his cohorts and his fam
ily carried the economic struggle to
new heights.
If one w ere not p erceptive
enough to gain an idea o f Dr. King's
goals from all the foregoing than
certainly there was his last book,
“ W here Do We go From here"
(1967). "W ithin the ranks o f orga
nized labor there are nearly two mil
lion Negroes. N ot only are they found
in large numbers as workers but they
are concentrated in key industries. In
the truck transportation, steel, auto
and food industries which are the
back bone o f the nation's economic
life. N egroes make up nearly 20 per
cent o f the organized work force.
Now, d o n 't you think the an
nouncement o f that fact by a strong,
fearless and intelligent black leader
would frighten the wits out o f the
establishm ent0 From the administra
tion and Washington think tanks to
the industry board rooms, and from
congress and the state houses to the
seats ofpow er with in the unions them
selves. And in the same book Dr.
King was forecasting displacement
o f the black worker by automation
and the immediate need to set up new
unions for the displaced and unski I led
black worker moving into the service
se c to r
(K in g
a n tic ip a te d
McDonalds).
Another consideration for an
effective evaluation o f Dr Kings
accomplishments and breadth of vi
sion is the sheer momentum o f his
initiatives as they were carried into
the year 1969 and far beyond The
SCLC was an Example (Southern
who had no castle
Christian Leadership Conference).
Under the presidency o f former King
a s s o c ia te . R ev R alph D avid
Abernathy, the organization concen
trated on ‘voter registration and edu
cation'. and the 'organization ofthe
working poor across the south ’, there
were some successes like that cited
by Reverend Andrew Young, the
success of the Charleston Hospital
W orker Strike' o f 1969.
But. then, there was the failure
o f Rev. Abernathy's "Poor Peoples
campaign.
Another former Dr. King asso
ciate came full stage in 1969. The
Rev. Jesse Jackson got his Operation
Breadbasket into high gear in 1969,
expanding its scope from simply ob
taining jobs for blacks to new levels,
first broached by Dr. King several
years earlier. In both the south and
the north. Rev. Jackson used the threat
ofboycotts to obtain agreements with
white merchants to store merchan
dise manufactured by black-owned
companies, to patronize black banks
to employ black bui Iding contractors
and to otherwise carry on ‘the work
o f the master' in achieving spectacu
lar economic successes. How soon
some o f us forget.
It could be asked where and how
we dropped the ball—if. in fact, that is
what has happened.. Some suggest
that African Americans (and con
comitantly white folks) have been
the victims o f right wing plots and
secret government agendas ranging
al I the wav to drug saturation o f black
communities. Whatever the case, it
is certain that we cannot persevere or
survive if we do not understand the
genius within our group and accu
rately define the agendas o f our best
and brightest.
The Reverend Martin Luther
King Jr. was a multifaceted genius
(as they used to say about the African
viziers and architects to the mighty
Pharaohs). He not only possessed the
spirituality and soul necessary to his
endeavors, but he had the intellect
and analytic ability to conceive, plan
and execute the objectives that spoke
o f his love for his people-better yet
for all mankind. Each year we seem
to miss him more and more as things
further disintegrate and his footsteps
are not filled Is there someone out
there w ho can dare us to dream again0
who had no ships
who had no armies
who had a Dream.
M a rtin
L u th e r
K in g
Jr.
1 9 2 9 -1 9 6 8
TOYOTA
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