Page 12 The Skanner January 13, 2016
Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Transformative Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 2016
A
s we prepare to
celebrate the 87th
birthday of Dr.
Martin
Luther
King, Jr., as part the offi-
cial federal holiday cel-
ebrations, I believe it is
very important to focus
Benjamin F.
Chavis, Jr.
NNPA
President
and CEO
on how Dr King’s
legacy today is still
relevant and trans-
formative for all
people who cry out
for freedom, jus-
tice, equality and
empowerment.
Dr. King’s vision went
beyond changing laws
and winning victories
against the forces of in-
justice and repression.
Social change for Dr.
King was not an abstrac-
tion or just a dream or
an unreachable goal, but
it was a realistic, achiev-
able and tangible out-
come of the struggle for
freedom and equality:
“The Beloved Communi-
ty.”
In his own words, King
emphasized, “The non-
violent resister must of-
ten express his protest
through noncooperation
or boycotts, but nonco-
operation and boycotts
are not ends themselves;
“
But today we must also
assert in King’s trans-
formative tradition that
“All Black Lives Matter!”
In other words, yes we
have to stand up effec-
tively against police
brutality and prosecuto-
rial misconduct. Yes, we
urgently have to reform
the criminal justice sys-
tem in its totality. Yet, we
must also stand up effec-
tively with our activism
to stop the self-destruc-
tive violence and mur-
ders that too many of us
perpetrate on each other
in our own families and
communities.
Reconciliation for Dr.
King was not reconcil-
ing or compromising to
roots power to promote
social change. We could
use that kind of grass-
roots power today to get
a massive voter turnout.
Dr. King was in com-
plete solidarity with the
poor and marginalized,
but yet determined to
end poverty and injus-
tice wherever those evils
were manifested.
Thus, we should also
revisit Dr. King’s eco-
nomic justice demands.
It is my opinion that if
Dr. King were alive today
he would be encouraging
“principled youth en-
trepreneurial develop-
ment.” Participating in
the U.S. economy as busi-
ness owners that help to
Martin Luther King, Jr. was in complete
solidarity with the poor and marginalized,
but yet determined to end poverty and injus-
tice wherever those evils were manifested
they are merely means to
awaken a sense of moral
shame in the opponent.
The end is redemption
and reconciliation. The
aftermath of nonviolence
is the creation of the be-
loved community, while
the aftermath of violence
is tragic bitterness.”
Today, in the bold tra-
dition of Martin Luther
King, Jr., we salute the
Black Lives Matter move-
ment. It is being led by
young, gifted, talented
and courageous activists,
who are using nonvio-
lent civil disobedience
anew to challenge racial
injustice and the wanton
police violence and mur-
ders that have become
too frequent against
Black Americans and
others.
leave injustice or racial
bigotry in place. Howev-
er reconciliation was the
active and involved pro-
cess that resulted in spe-
cific social transforma-
tion that inured benefits
to all people. The success
of the Civil Rights Move-
ment under Dr. King’s
leadership not only ben-
efited Black America, but
also the success of this
movement for change
provided benefits to all
people.
In my younger years, I
personally worked with
Dr. King, Golden Frinks
and Milton Fitch in the
North Carolina SCLC. I
witnessed firsthand how
Dr. King transformed
and inspired the con-
sciousness of people to
believe and exert a grass-
financially sustain our
communities should be a
priority.
In his last public speech
on April 3, 1968 on the
night before his tragic as-
sassination in Memphis,
Tennessee, without fear
Dr King asserted, “The
nation is sick; trouble is
in the land, confusion
all around…But I know,
somehow, that only when
it is dark enough can
you see the stars. And I
see God working in this
period of the twentieth
century. Something is
happening in our world.
The masses of people are
rising up. And wherev-
er they are assembled
today, whether they are
in Johannesburg, South
Africa; Nairobi, Kenya;
Accra, Ghana; New York
City; Atlanta, Georgia;
Jackson, Mississippi; or
Memphis, Tennessee, the
cry is always the same:
‘We want to be free.’”
We want to be free. We
want an end to racial in-
justice and all manifes-
tations of inequity and
inequality. But we realize
from the living legacy of
Martin Luther King, Jr.
that we all should remain
vigilant and active.
Let’s keep Dr. King’s
transformative
legacy
alive and vibrant with re-
newed energy and sup-
port.
Dr. Benjamin F. Cha-
vis, Jr. is the President
and CEO of the National
Newspaper
Publishers
Association (NNPA) and
can be reached for nation-
al advertisement sales
and partnership propos-
als at: dr.bchavis@nnpa.
org; and for lectures and
other professional consul-
tations at: http://drben-
jaminfchavisjr.wix.com/
drbfc.