January 16, 2019 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 11
Reads cont’d from pg 8
ter of American life was the belief
that ‘all men are created equal.’”
Beem argues that King led one of
the most successful, nonviolent re-
sistance movements in American
history.
Quoting historian August Mei-
er, Beem says, King succeeded be-
cause he was “a conservative mil-
itant.”
He was not a “conservative in
any political sense,” explains
Beem. King was a “democratic so-
cialist,” who opposed the Vietnam
War and also emphasized that rac-
ism in America meant the United
States was not living up to its own
ideals. In King’s words, American
culture was “the very antithesis”
of what it claimed to believe.“
“The American ideal “all men
are created equal” constituted
what King called a “promissory
note.” In each case, ordinary citi-
zens demanded that that promise
be honored. And through their
actions, the nation was made more
free and more just.
By framing the cause of civ-
il rights in words and ideas that
most Americans strongly identi-
fied with, King was able to appeal
to their innate patriotism. What’s
more, those who stood against
his cause were, by implication,
the ones who could be seen as
un-American.“
King fought on behalf of poor
people.
In fact, argues Joshua F.J. Inwood,
an ethicist at Pennsylvania State
University’s Rock Ethics Institute,
King’s later work related to ending
poverty, although that is “often ig-
nored.” Says Inwood,
“When King was assassinated
in Memphis he was in the midst of
building toward a national march
on Washington, D.C. that would
have brought tens of thousands
of economically disenfranchised
people to advocate for policies that
would ameliorate poverty. This ef-
fort – known as the “Poor People’s
Campaign” – aimed to dramati-
cally shift national priorities to
the health and welfare of working
peoples.“
King’s idea of love
What then was at the core of
King’s strategy?
Scholars argue that King strove
to bring people together. Howard
University’s Kenyatta Gilbert has
studied the preaching of Afri-
can-American ministers:
“King brought people of every
tribe, class and creed closer to-
ward forming “God’s beloved com-
munity” — an anchor of love and
hope for humankind.“
However, Joshuan Inwood ex-
plains, love for King was not a
“mushy or easily dismissed emo-
tion.”
King advocated “agape” – “a love
that demanded that one stand up
for oneself and tells those who op-
press that what they were doing
was wrong.”
Inwood writes that agape was at
the center of the movement King
was building. Agape made it a
“moral imperative to engage
with one’s oppressor in a way that
Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
IN MEMORIAM:
Civil Rights Trailblazer
Rev. Dr. Vernon Tyson
Dies at 89
showed the oppressor the ways
their actions dehumanize and de-
tract from society.”
Why this matters now
“Consider the following ques-
tion,” writes Western New En-
gland University historian John
Baick.
“What would Martin Luther
King be doing if he were alive to-
day? The Selma of 1965 no longer
exists. But the Selma, or Ferguson,
or Staten Island, or Cleveland of
2015 shows that history isn’t fin-
ished.”
In reviewing the film “Selma,”
Baick points out how King’s skills
at oratory were only one of many.
He explains,
King’s voice was only one of his
tools. There was his vision, his
ferocity, his strategic and tactical
organizing skills, and his willing-
ness to sacrifice.
Then there was King’s humility.
As Beem suggests, in another ar-
ticle. humility is a much-needed
virtue, while pointing to the “over-
whelming” scientific evidence on
human biases.
But humility, as he writes, also
“means that you aware of your
own failures, and are respectful of
those with whom you disagree.”
Beem explains that King ac-
knowledged his limited perspec-
tive.
In his letter from Birmingham
jail, he wrote,
“If I have said anything in this
letter that overstates the truth or
indicates an unreasonable impa-
tience, I beg you to forgive me.”
Rev. Dr. Vernon Tyson
By Stacy M. Brown,
NNPA Newswire Corre-
spondent
he Rev. Dr. Vernon
Tyson “hoped to
become a peace-
maker,” his son
Tim wrote in the 2004
biography, “Blood Done
Sign My Name.”
However, Tim Tyson
said, “Daddy wanted the
black freedom struggle
to behave itself in a way
that would help him re-
assure white people.”
In other words, Black
people who turned
radical in reaction to
the radicalism of white
T
supremacy during the
Civil Rights Movement,
“didn’t cater to my dad-
dy’s desires.”
Instead,
African
Americans had to con-
front “that hate in the
streets,” but also in
their own souls, “to cre-
ate a new black sense of
self.”
On Saturday, Dec. 29,
the elder Tyson, a re-
tired United Methodist
minister who worked
in churches throughout
North Carolina, died at
his Raleigh home.
He was 89.
See TYSON on page 12