Portland observer., January 23, 2002, Page 5, Image 5

M
January 23,2002
a r t in
L
uther
K
in g
J
r
.
Page A5
2 00 2 s p e c i a l e o i i i o n
Mt. Hood
Community
College salutes
the contributions
African-Americans
have made to
our community
and looks
forward to the
achievements of
tomorrow.
The Martin Luther King
You Don’t See On TV
Calling attention to the abysmal living conditions o f Chicago's poor and
making a constructive effort to improve them, King and his wife join a group
of activists in cleaning up a building in a west side ghetto. Dr. King fostered
the Movement to End Slums, which helped with repairs and assisted rent
strikes against slumlords in 1966.
Marcia Graves
by J eff C ohen and N orman S oi . omon
MHCC
Com puter Services
“The celebration o f black history can give
blacks a sense o f the positive achievements of
their people, and provide self-confiAence and
self pride which are essential to any program of
assertiveness. In fact, u positive identity or
enhanced self-concept is critical for the
academic, social and personal success o f Blacks
everywhere. The knowledge and dissemination
of African history would, besides building self­
esteem among blacks, assist in the elimination
o f prejudice among other races."
‘ February celebrates the
month in which ive bear
witness to the progress,
richness, and diversity of
African American achieve­
ments. We as a race have
made many positive strides
and have contributed much to
this country."
R e g i s t r a t i o n f o r s p r i n g t e r m b e g i n s M a r c h *1 *1.
F O R M O R E IN F O R M A T IO N C A L L 5 0 3 - 4 9 1 - 6 4 2 2
MT. HOOD COMMUNITY COLLEGE
2 6 0 0 0 S.E. STARK STREET GRESHAM, O R E G O N
" K n o w le d g e fo r S u c c e ss"
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It’s becom e a TV ritual: Every year in
m id-January, around the tim e o f M artin
Luther K in g ’s birthday, w e get perfunc­
tory netw ork new s reports about “the
slain civil rights leader.’’
The rem arkable thing about this annual
review o f K in g ’s life is that several years
— his last years — are totally m issing, as
if flushed dow n a m em ory hole.
W hat TV view ers see is a closed loop
o f fam iliar file footage: King battling d e­
segregation in B irm ingham (1963); recit­
ing his dream o f racial harm ony at the rally
in W ashington (1963); m arching for vot­
ing rights in Selm a, A labam a (1965); and
finally, lying dead on the motel balcony in
M emphis (1968).
A n alert view er m ight notice that the
chronology ju m p s from 1965 to 1968. Yet
King d id n ’t take a sabbatical near the end
o f his life. In fact, he w as speaking and
organizing as diligently as ever.
Almost all o f those speeches were filmed
or taped. But th ey ’re not show n today on
TV.
W hy?
It’s because national news m edia have
never come to terms with what Martin Luther
King Jr. stood for during his final years.
In the early 1960s, when King focused
his challenge on legalized racial discrimina­
tion in the South, m ost major m edia were
his allies. Network TV and national publi­
cations graphically showed the police dogs
and bullwhips and cattle prods used against
Southern blacks who sought the right to
vote or to eat at a public lunch counter.
But after passage o f civil rights acts in
1964 and 1965, K ing began challenging
the nation’s fundam ental priorities. He
m aintained that civil rights law s were
em pty w ithout “hum an rights” — includ­
ing econom ic rights. For people too poor
to eat at a restaurant or afford a decent
home, King said, anti-discrimination laws
were hollow.
N oting that a m ajority o f Am ericans
below the poverty line w ere white, King
developed a class perspective. He d e­
cried the huge incom e gaps betw een rich
and poor, and called for "radical changes
in the structure o f our society” to redis­
tribute w ealth and power.
‘T ru e com passion,” King declared,
“is m ore than flinging a coin to a beggar;
it com es to see that an edifice w hich
produces beggars needs restructuring.”
Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon are
syndicated columnists and authors o f
“Adventures in Medialand: Behind the
News, Beyond the Pundits. ”
Unintentionally,
“There is nothing more dangerous
than to build a society, with a large
segment of people in that society,
who feel that they have no stake in it;
who feel that they have nothing to
lose. People who have a stake in
their society, protect that society,
but when they don’t have it, they
unconsciously want to destroy it. ”
through a lack of
understanding,
we don’t value
the gifts that give
us life... the
trees, the air, the
water.
They speak to us,
they sustain us,
but we don’t hear
and continue the
violence against
-M artin L uther K ing , J r .
^
ourselves.
We must protect
I
Charles Jordan, Exec. Director of PP&R
our legacy.
DR. MARTIN LUTHER
K IN G !
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