Linda Sargent Wood
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195377743
- eISBN:
- 9780199869404
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377743.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision of a beloved community made another holistic declaration. “In a real sense all of life is interrelated,” he contended, as he sought to unite race‐divided America. ...
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Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision of a beloved community made another holistic declaration. “In a real sense all of life is interrelated,” he contended, as he sought to unite race‐divided America. Influenced by the black church, the Social Gospel, and personalism, and living in a time when racism was challenged at home and abroad, when decolonization opened up political opportunities, and economic prosperity created new possibilities, King worked to unite all races and classes and to bring an end to discrimination, poverty, and war. His holism had two pivotal points: affirming the dignity of the individual and caring for the collective well‐being. Recognizing our common humanity, he thought, promised healing and a worldwide “brotherhood” that was more than a sum of its parts or a negation of the customs of segregation. His notion of an organic society knit together in agape love helped initiate sweeping changes in America's political and social fabric. Boycotts, marches, and speeches led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Seeing King as a holist, as a crusader for unity in a divided world, sheds new light on his place and power.Less
Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision of a beloved community made another holistic declaration. “In a real sense all of life is interrelated,” he contended, as he sought to unite race‐divided America. Influenced by the black church, the Social Gospel, and personalism, and living in a time when racism was challenged at home and abroad, when decolonization opened up political opportunities, and economic prosperity created new possibilities, King worked to unite all races and classes and to bring an end to discrimination, poverty, and war. His holism had two pivotal points: affirming the dignity of the individual and caring for the collective well‐being. Recognizing our common humanity, he thought, promised healing and a worldwide “brotherhood” that was more than a sum of its parts or a negation of the customs of segregation. His notion of an organic society knit together in agape love helped initiate sweeping changes in America's political and social fabric. Boycotts, marches, and speeches led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Seeing King as a holist, as a crusader for unity in a divided world, sheds new light on his place and power.
Dell Upton
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300211757
- eISBN:
- 9780300216615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300211757.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines the popularity and the contentiousness of monuments that celebrate the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., including his bronze statue in Birmingham, Alabama. King holds a special ...
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This chapter examines the popularity and the contentiousness of monuments that celebrate the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., including his bronze statue in Birmingham, Alabama. King holds a special place in the popular imagination despite the efforts of both historians and of former participants to demonstrate that the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s was much broader and more varied than what he did and said. Statues that celebrate King have been a source of acrimony owing to their representation of the man. For whites and politicians of all stripes, King's image should be an agent of social “integration.” In contrast, many African Americans view King as a champion and intercessor. The discussion on which King will be celebrated in the public landscape is often framed as a debate over the monuments' physical and spiritual likeness to their original. This chapter also considers the King statue at Rocky Mount, North Carolina and the memorial in Washington, DC, suggesting that both structures reflect white supremacy that continues to haunt the South's memorial landscape.Less
This chapter examines the popularity and the contentiousness of monuments that celebrate the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., including his bronze statue in Birmingham, Alabama. King holds a special place in the popular imagination despite the efforts of both historians and of former participants to demonstrate that the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s was much broader and more varied than what he did and said. Statues that celebrate King have been a source of acrimony owing to their representation of the man. For whites and politicians of all stripes, King's image should be an agent of social “integration.” In contrast, many African Americans view King as a champion and intercessor. The discussion on which King will be celebrated in the public landscape is often framed as a debate over the monuments' physical and spiritual likeness to their original. This chapter also considers the King statue at Rocky Mount, North Carolina and the memorial in Washington, DC, suggesting that both structures reflect white supremacy that continues to haunt the South's memorial landscape.
Sarah Florini
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781479892464
- eISBN:
- 9781479807185
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479892464.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Chapter 3 examines roles of memory and history in the network, exploring how participants in the network resist dominant historical narratives and reassert accounts of the past that highlight ongoing ...
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Chapter 3 examines roles of memory and history in the network, exploring how participants in the network resist dominant historical narratives and reassert accounts of the past that highlight ongoing racial oppression and resistance. It looks at how the This Week in Blackness podcast Historical Blackness uses history as a resource for reinterpreting the present in ways that undermine dominant racial discourses, as well as at complex ways the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. is deployed for neoliberal political ends. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how King has been invoked to condemn the tactics of the Movement for Black Lives and how the movement has reclaimed and re-remembered King in ways that position its participants as the inheritors of his legacyLess
Chapter 3 examines roles of memory and history in the network, exploring how participants in the network resist dominant historical narratives and reassert accounts of the past that highlight ongoing racial oppression and resistance. It looks at how the This Week in Blackness podcast Historical Blackness uses history as a resource for reinterpreting the present in ways that undermine dominant racial discourses, as well as at complex ways the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. is deployed for neoliberal political ends. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how King has been invoked to condemn the tactics of the Movement for Black Lives and how the movement has reclaimed and re-remembered King in ways that position its participants as the inheritors of his legacy
Korie L. Edwards
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195314243
- eISBN:
- 9780199871810
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195314243.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The concluding chapter ends the book with a discussion on the implications of the book's findings for developing racially integrated religious organizations that truly epitomize Dr. Martin Luther ...
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The concluding chapter ends the book with a discussion on the implications of the book's findings for developing racially integrated religious organizations that truly epitomize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream for a cooperative, egalitarian, multiracial religious community.Less
The concluding chapter ends the book with a discussion on the implications of the book's findings for developing racially integrated religious organizations that truly epitomize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream for a cooperative, egalitarian, multiracial religious community.
E. James West
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252043116
- eISBN:
- 9780252051999
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252043116.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter explores how internal and external tensions influencing Ebony’s depiction of black history fed into the struggle to establish a national holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during ...
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This chapter explores how internal and external tensions influencing Ebony’s depiction of black history fed into the struggle to establish a national holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the 1970s and 1980s. Against this backdrop, Bennett and other Ebony contributors struggled to negotiate the continued importance of the magazine’s black history content in a changing cultural and political climate. For some, the King Holiday represented an opportunity to reflect on the activist’s legacy as a ‘hero to be remembered.’ For others, it was a chance to reiterate the political application of the black past and its role in the ongoing struggle for black liberation.Less
This chapter explores how internal and external tensions influencing Ebony’s depiction of black history fed into the struggle to establish a national holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the 1970s and 1980s. Against this backdrop, Bennett and other Ebony contributors struggled to negotiate the continued importance of the magazine’s black history content in a changing cultural and political climate. For some, the King Holiday represented an opportunity to reflect on the activist’s legacy as a ‘hero to be remembered.’ For others, it was a chance to reiterate the political application of the black past and its role in the ongoing struggle for black liberation.
Janet L. Abu-Lughod
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195328752
- eISBN:
- 9780199944057
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195328752.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
One might use the military phrase “low-intensity war” to describe the interim period between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s in Chicago, during which there were forays and retreats but few confrontations ...
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One might use the military phrase “low-intensity war” to describe the interim period between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s in Chicago, during which there were forays and retreats but few confrontations involving great violence. On the West Side, the very poor Second Ghetto was absorbing into its ancient housing stock and its newer public housing projects minorities who could not afford the better housing and more organized community on the South Side. It was chiefly on the West Side that low-intensity warfare would be transformed into open hostilities after the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., in April 1968. The signs of dissent were already apparent in the years before that massive response. While reactions of despair and anger triggered demonstrations in virtually all areas of Chicago where blacks lived, only in the West Side Second Ghetto did events spin out of control in arson and looting.Less
One might use the military phrase “low-intensity war” to describe the interim period between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s in Chicago, during which there were forays and retreats but few confrontations involving great violence. On the West Side, the very poor Second Ghetto was absorbing into its ancient housing stock and its newer public housing projects minorities who could not afford the better housing and more organized community on the South Side. It was chiefly on the West Side that low-intensity warfare would be transformed into open hostilities after the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., in April 1968. The signs of dissent were already apparent in the years before that massive response. While reactions of despair and anger triggered demonstrations in virtually all areas of Chicago where blacks lived, only in the West Side Second Ghetto did events spin out of control in arson and looting.
Daniel S. Lucks
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813145075
- eISBN:
- 9780813145310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813145075.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Vietnam so dominated the public discourse that King could not escape it. Throughout 1966, King expressed his disapproval of the war in carefully chosen venues, such as the African American press and ...
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Vietnam so dominated the public discourse that King could not escape it. Throughout 1966, King expressed his disapproval of the war in carefully chosen venues, such as the African American press and his regular sermons at Ebenezer Baptist Church. In early 1966, King went to Chicago to tackle racism in education, housing, and employment and to ameliorate the blight of the urban ghettos. His frustration with urban political machines in the North matched his dismay over the war's deleterious impact on the poverty program. When he addressed groups of young black men, the issue of the war was paramount. In early 1967, on his way to Jamaica for a sabbatical, he happened to be looking through a magazine that contained gruesome pictures of Vietnamese children with napalm burns, and he felt compelled to speak out. On April 4, 1967, King delivered a withering attack on American policy in Vietnam at Riverside Church in New York City. His long-awaited opposition to the war provoked a spate of criticism, most notably by the liberal establishment. These attacks haunted King, but his eloquent denunciation of the war was a pivotal event of the 1960s.Less
Vietnam so dominated the public discourse that King could not escape it. Throughout 1966, King expressed his disapproval of the war in carefully chosen venues, such as the African American press and his regular sermons at Ebenezer Baptist Church. In early 1966, King went to Chicago to tackle racism in education, housing, and employment and to ameliorate the blight of the urban ghettos. His frustration with urban political machines in the North matched his dismay over the war's deleterious impact on the poverty program. When he addressed groups of young black men, the issue of the war was paramount. In early 1967, on his way to Jamaica for a sabbatical, he happened to be looking through a magazine that contained gruesome pictures of Vietnamese children with napalm burns, and he felt compelled to speak out. On April 4, 1967, King delivered a withering attack on American policy in Vietnam at Riverside Church in New York City. His long-awaited opposition to the war provoked a spate of criticism, most notably by the liberal establishment. These attacks haunted King, but his eloquent denunciation of the war was a pivotal event of the 1960s.
Edmund F. Kallina
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034850
- eISBN:
- 9780813038599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034850.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
As the presidential debates ended in rancor over Cuba, another event that attracted relatively little attention at the time influenced the presidential race and symbolized a rising issue that would ...
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As the presidential debates ended in rancor over Cuba, another event that attracted relatively little attention at the time influenced the presidential race and symbolized a rising issue that would loom large in American politics in the 1960s. The event was the jailing of Martin Luther King Jr. The subsequent turmoil over it infused civil rights into the presidential campaign and offered a portent of things to come.Less
As the presidential debates ended in rancor over Cuba, another event that attracted relatively little attention at the time influenced the presidential race and symbolized a rising issue that would loom large in American politics in the 1960s. The event was the jailing of Martin Luther King Jr. The subsequent turmoil over it infused civil rights into the presidential campaign and offered a portent of things to come.
Lisa M. Corrigan
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496827944
- eISBN:
- 9781496827999
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496827944.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter examines Martin Luther King, Jr.’s production of the “beloved community” that he wanted to produce through direct action protests in places like Birmingham, Selma, and Chicago. It ...
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This chapter examines Martin Luther King, Jr.’s production of the “beloved community” that he wanted to produce through direct action protests in places like Birmingham, Selma, and Chicago. It evaluates how hope, disappointment, indignation, and despair framed King’s direct action and the SCLC’s intimate relationship with the black middle class, the White House, and white liberals. After John F. Kennedy’s assassination, King’s faith and optimism were shaken and his language about emotion shifted as he was forced to reconsider and respond to the use of rage as a black political emotion because the decade gave way to a more militant black posture about the white political and emotional inadequacies. Corrigan argues that white failure to perform intimate citizenship limited the civil rights movement and fueled rhetorical expressions that engaged a very different emotional repertoire for both whites and blacks. Many of King’s discourses, especially in relation to Birmingham, focused on the relationship between hope and despair as he attempted to translate black feelings about civil rights to white publics as the crisis of hope deepened in 1963.Less
This chapter examines Martin Luther King, Jr.’s production of the “beloved community” that he wanted to produce through direct action protests in places like Birmingham, Selma, and Chicago. It evaluates how hope, disappointment, indignation, and despair framed King’s direct action and the SCLC’s intimate relationship with the black middle class, the White House, and white liberals. After John F. Kennedy’s assassination, King’s faith and optimism were shaken and his language about emotion shifted as he was forced to reconsider and respond to the use of rage as a black political emotion because the decade gave way to a more militant black posture about the white political and emotional inadequacies. Corrigan argues that white failure to perform intimate citizenship limited the civil rights movement and fueled rhetorical expressions that engaged a very different emotional repertoire for both whites and blacks. Many of King’s discourses, especially in relation to Birmingham, focused on the relationship between hope and despair as he attempted to translate black feelings about civil rights to white publics as the crisis of hope deepened in 1963.
Michael K. Honey and David H. Ciscel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813037950
- eISBN:
- 9780813043111
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813037950.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and the successful sanitation workers' strike in Memphis in 1968, economic progress for the city's African Americans has been sporadic, uncertain, ...
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Since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and the successful sanitation workers' strike in Memphis in 1968, economic progress for the city's African Americans has been sporadic, uncertain, and disappointing. Globalization and the collapse of unionized manufacturing jobs all but eliminated a traditional source of relatively high-wage employment for non-skilled workers. The low-wage service sector, with its patterns of temporary and intermittent employment, has trapped African Americans in economic insecurity and powerlessness. At the same time, the collapse of the labor movement has crippled a once-potent agent of positive change. Although African Americans have made great strides in gaining political power, King's hopes that the civil rights gains of the 1960s would pave the way for a more egalitarian society remain unfulfilled. Unionization of the city's growing sectors of transportation, health care, and service industries would go a long way toward fulfilling King's 1968 call for economic equality.Less
Since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and the successful sanitation workers' strike in Memphis in 1968, economic progress for the city's African Americans has been sporadic, uncertain, and disappointing. Globalization and the collapse of unionized manufacturing jobs all but eliminated a traditional source of relatively high-wage employment for non-skilled workers. The low-wage service sector, with its patterns of temporary and intermittent employment, has trapped African Americans in economic insecurity and powerlessness. At the same time, the collapse of the labor movement has crippled a once-potent agent of positive change. Although African Americans have made great strides in gaining political power, King's hopes that the civil rights gains of the 1960s would pave the way for a more egalitarian society remain unfulfilled. Unionization of the city's growing sectors of transportation, health care, and service industries would go a long way toward fulfilling King's 1968 call for economic equality.
John Coffey
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199334223
- eISBN:
- 9780199369393
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199334223.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion, Political History
Following emancipation, there was a marked divergence between black and white discourses. For African Americans, the Exodus story still functioned as a narrative frame through which to interpret ...
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Following emancipation, there was a marked divergence between black and white discourses. For African Americans, the Exodus story still functioned as a narrative frame through which to interpret their travails following the failure of Reconstruction. Some sought the Promised Land through migration to Kansas or the North, though the major mobilization of Exodus rhetoric would occur during the civil rights movement, especially in the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. When Barack Obama ran for the presidency in 2008, he depicted African Americans as standing on the verge of Canaan. White statesmen over the course of the twentieth century were far less likely to cite the Exodus story, but traces of deliverance politics can still be found in their foreign policy pronouncements, as they yoked together Providence and liberation in time-honored fashion. By the twenty-first century, the Religious Right and the Religious Left were struggling for ownership of the Exodus narrative.Less
Following emancipation, there was a marked divergence between black and white discourses. For African Americans, the Exodus story still functioned as a narrative frame through which to interpret their travails following the failure of Reconstruction. Some sought the Promised Land through migration to Kansas or the North, though the major mobilization of Exodus rhetoric would occur during the civil rights movement, especially in the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. When Barack Obama ran for the presidency in 2008, he depicted African Americans as standing on the verge of Canaan. White statesmen over the course of the twentieth century were far less likely to cite the Exodus story, but traces of deliverance politics can still be found in their foreign policy pronouncements, as they yoked together Providence and liberation in time-honored fashion. By the twenty-first century, the Religious Right and the Religious Left were struggling for ownership of the Exodus narrative.
Amanda Porterfield
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195131376
- eISBN:
- 9780199834570
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195131371.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Disillusion with American culture became widespread during the Vietnam War as protesters condemned the immorality of the war and the military industrial establishment that supported it, and ...
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Disillusion with American culture became widespread during the Vietnam War as protesters condemned the immorality of the war and the military industrial establishment that supported it, and supporters of the war condemned the protesters. A sense of moral and spiritual disenchantment accompanied these culture wars, along with widespread criticism of American claims to being a nation chosen by God. In addition to describing the end of “victory culture,” and the dismantling of stereotypical distinctions between good cowboys and bad Indians, this chapter points to the important contributions made to American society by the civil rights movement. This discussion of civil rights focuses on the influence of the school of religious thought known as personalism on Martin Luther King Jr. and its linkages to long‐standing American trends of religious individualism.Less
Disillusion with American culture became widespread during the Vietnam War as protesters condemned the immorality of the war and the military industrial establishment that supported it, and supporters of the war condemned the protesters. A sense of moral and spiritual disenchantment accompanied these culture wars, along with widespread criticism of American claims to being a nation chosen by God. In addition to describing the end of “victory culture,” and the dismantling of stereotypical distinctions between good cowboys and bad Indians, this chapter points to the important contributions made to American society by the civil rights movement. This discussion of civil rights focuses on the influence of the school of religious thought known as personalism on Martin Luther King Jr. and its linkages to long‐standing American trends of religious individualism.
David A. Varel
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781469660967
- eISBN:
- 9781469660981
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469660967.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter tracks the most momentous years of Reddick’s life as he became a professor of history at Alabama State College in Montgomery and emerged as a major leader within the southern civil ...
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This chapter tracks the most momentous years of Reddick’s life as he became a professor of history at Alabama State College in Montgomery and emerged as a major leader within the southern civil rights movement. He helped guide and document the Montgomery Improvement Association during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and he then did the same for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, serving as a founding member of its nine-member executive committee and as the organization’s official historian. Reddick also became a close mentor to Martin Luther King Jr. during these years, and he wrote the first biography of King, Crusader Without Violence (1959), helped King write a memoir on the boycott, Stride Toward Freedom (1958), and traveled with King and his wife Coretta Scott King to India. After supporting the local student sit-in movement in 1960, Alabama Governor John Patterson had him fired from Alabama State College, thus symbolizing his significant stature within the civil rights movement.Less
This chapter tracks the most momentous years of Reddick’s life as he became a professor of history at Alabama State College in Montgomery and emerged as a major leader within the southern civil rights movement. He helped guide and document the Montgomery Improvement Association during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and he then did the same for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, serving as a founding member of its nine-member executive committee and as the organization’s official historian. Reddick also became a close mentor to Martin Luther King Jr. during these years, and he wrote the first biography of King, Crusader Without Violence (1959), helped King write a memoir on the boycott, Stride Toward Freedom (1958), and traveled with King and his wife Coretta Scott King to India. After supporting the local student sit-in movement in 1960, Alabama Governor John Patterson had him fired from Alabama State College, thus symbolizing his significant stature within the civil rights movement.
Daniel S. Lucks
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813145075
- eISBN:
- 9780813145310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813145075.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Martin Luther King's tortuous odyssey from civil rights activist to antiwar spokesman is explored in detail in chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 5 describes how LBJ's powerful and eloquent speech on the ...
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Martin Luther King's tortuous odyssey from civil rights activist to antiwar spokesman is explored in detail in chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 5 describes how LBJ's powerful and eloquent speech on the Voting Rights Act moved King and set the stage for his anguished response to the war. The narrative traces King's long-standing commitment to peace and his belief that the civil rights struggle was a global fight against colonialism and imperialism. The intent is to debunk the idea of King as a convenient hero. King was always a radical. A few weeks after the Watts riots, King spoke against the carnage in Vietnam and called for a cease-fire and China's acceptance into the United Nations. This provoked a fusillade of criticism from the liberal establishment. Reeling from these attacks, King confessed to his aides that he didn't have the stamina to be both a civil rights leader and an antiwar activist. Meanwhile, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI was wiretapping King's conversations, which only fed LBJ's paranoia that King was indeed a communist. For the next few years, King muted his opposition but continued to anguish over the war.Less
Martin Luther King's tortuous odyssey from civil rights activist to antiwar spokesman is explored in detail in chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 5 describes how LBJ's powerful and eloquent speech on the Voting Rights Act moved King and set the stage for his anguished response to the war. The narrative traces King's long-standing commitment to peace and his belief that the civil rights struggle was a global fight against colonialism and imperialism. The intent is to debunk the idea of King as a convenient hero. King was always a radical. A few weeks after the Watts riots, King spoke against the carnage in Vietnam and called for a cease-fire and China's acceptance into the United Nations. This provoked a fusillade of criticism from the liberal establishment. Reeling from these attacks, King confessed to his aides that he didn't have the stamina to be both a civil rights leader and an antiwar activist. Meanwhile, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI was wiretapping King's conversations, which only fed LBJ's paranoia that King was indeed a communist. For the next few years, King muted his opposition but continued to anguish over the war.
Dell Upton
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300211757
- eISBN:
- 9780300216615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300211757.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter focuses on the monuments in Birmingham's Kelly Ingram Park that serve as a testament to the city's civil rights struggles. Among the many monuments in Kelly Ingram Park are two statues: ...
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This chapter focuses on the monuments in Birmingham's Kelly Ingram Park that serve as a testament to the city's civil rights struggles. Among the many monuments in Kelly Ingram Park are two statues: one of Martin Luther King Jr. and another based on Bill Hudson's photograph of Walter Gadsden and Officer Dick Middleton and his dog Leo, taken on May 3, 1963. Each park entrance is marked by the inscription “Place of Revolution and Reconciliation.” This chapter considers Kelly Ingram Park's role in Birmingham's racial struggles, with particular emphasis on African Americans' resistance against the city's system of racial apartheid. It also examines how the tensions between black moderates and black activists in Birmingham, their joint goal of eliminating segregation, and the visibility of national developments in the early 1960s complicated the city's demonstrations of 1963 and shaped the future memorial landscape.Less
This chapter focuses on the monuments in Birmingham's Kelly Ingram Park that serve as a testament to the city's civil rights struggles. Among the many monuments in Kelly Ingram Park are two statues: one of Martin Luther King Jr. and another based on Bill Hudson's photograph of Walter Gadsden and Officer Dick Middleton and his dog Leo, taken on May 3, 1963. Each park entrance is marked by the inscription “Place of Revolution and Reconciliation.” This chapter considers Kelly Ingram Park's role in Birmingham's racial struggles, with particular emphasis on African Americans' resistance against the city's system of racial apartheid. It also examines how the tensions between black moderates and black activists in Birmingham, their joint goal of eliminating segregation, and the visibility of national developments in the early 1960s complicated the city's demonstrations of 1963 and shaped the future memorial landscape.
D'Weston Haywood
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469643397
- eISBN:
- 9781469643410
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469643397.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter reinterprets Robert F. Williams as a new kind of black male publisher, who challenged the civil rights establishment and the mainstream black press. Northern black papers had often ...
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This chapter reinterprets Robert F. Williams as a new kind of black male publisher, who challenged the civil rights establishment and the mainstream black press. Northern black papers had often challenged southern black papers to be as militant as they were, but Williams, a publisher based in the South, accepted this challenge, prompted by escalating racial violence in the South following the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. Lacking the commercial resources of the mainstream black press, Williams used a mimeograph machine to publish The Crusader to address these issues and promote a vision of black manhood rooted in black self-defense against the non-violent strategy promoted by Martin Luther King, Jr. Williams came to believe in “print and practice,” and issued a challenge to mainstream black newspapers to do the same, which helped expose the black press for not being as militant as it had long claimed to be. Many black newspapers now sided with nonviolent activists, elevating Martin Luther King especially, a move that helped usher in the decline of mainstream black newspapers and the rise of radical ones.Less
This chapter reinterprets Robert F. Williams as a new kind of black male publisher, who challenged the civil rights establishment and the mainstream black press. Northern black papers had often challenged southern black papers to be as militant as they were, but Williams, a publisher based in the South, accepted this challenge, prompted by escalating racial violence in the South following the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. Lacking the commercial resources of the mainstream black press, Williams used a mimeograph machine to publish The Crusader to address these issues and promote a vision of black manhood rooted in black self-defense against the non-violent strategy promoted by Martin Luther King, Jr. Williams came to believe in “print and practice,” and issued a challenge to mainstream black newspapers to do the same, which helped expose the black press for not being as militant as it had long claimed to be. Many black newspapers now sided with nonviolent activists, elevating Martin Luther King especially, a move that helped usher in the decline of mainstream black newspapers and the rise of radical ones.
Lisa M. Corrigan
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496827944
- eISBN:
- 9781496827999
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496827944.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter examines the ways in which Black Power activists used memories of King’s assassination as an instrumental as well as an affective rhetorical resource to help shape the memory and ...
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This chapter examines the ways in which Black Power activists used memories of King’s assassination as an instrumental as well as an affective rhetorical resource to help shape the memory and direction of the Black Power movement after 1968. It argues that King’s murder provided context and clarity for the Black Power movement, justifying a more militant and assertive identity for black activists working in opposition to an increasingly hostile federal government even as these intellectuals expressed their closeness with King. King’s death was an instance of cruel optimism that calcified an affective and rhetorical shift from black optimism to black pessimism because his assassination was a chronopolitical moment that not only ended integration politics but that fundamentally stopped time and also spurred more riots. For Black Power activists, King’s assassination confirmed both the impotence and duplicitousness of the federal government, particularly in the Johnson Administration and King's own class politics and militancy on Vietnam near the end of his life, shaped in part by the Black Power movement, allowed Black Power leaders to mobilize King's memory in the service of Black Power philosophy and tactics.Less
This chapter examines the ways in which Black Power activists used memories of King’s assassination as an instrumental as well as an affective rhetorical resource to help shape the memory and direction of the Black Power movement after 1968. It argues that King’s murder provided context and clarity for the Black Power movement, justifying a more militant and assertive identity for black activists working in opposition to an increasingly hostile federal government even as these intellectuals expressed their closeness with King. King’s death was an instance of cruel optimism that calcified an affective and rhetorical shift from black optimism to black pessimism because his assassination was a chronopolitical moment that not only ended integration politics but that fundamentally stopped time and also spurred more riots. For Black Power activists, King’s assassination confirmed both the impotence and duplicitousness of the federal government, particularly in the Johnson Administration and King's own class politics and militancy on Vietnam near the end of his life, shaped in part by the Black Power movement, allowed Black Power leaders to mobilize King's memory in the service of Black Power philosophy and tactics.
Alton Hornsby
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813032825
- eISBN:
- 9780813038537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813032825.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter discusses the emergence of a new black American political influence in the political scene of Atlanta. This chapter begins with a chronicle of the political career of William Berry ...
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This chapter discusses the emergence of a new black American political influence in the political scene of Atlanta. This chapter begins with a chronicle of the political career of William Berry Hartsfield who saw the relevance of the abolishment of the Democratic white primacy and the potential impact and influence of the black voters. Following his instinct regarding the growing political influence of the blacks, Hartsfield became a champion for blacks and granted the long-desired access to law enforcement for blacks. This hiring of black policemen and officers led to an increase in the number of registered black voters who as a result had a decisive influence in elections. With their significant increase in the number of voters and their rapidly growing influence and decisive role in elections, some blacks used this to get involved with politics through which they gained significant governmental seats. While their political achievements were a source of pride, these achievements did little to improve the lives of the blacks. As the bleak situation of the blacks proliferated after their growing political influence, the blacks pushed for the abolishment of racial discrimination and the creation of equality. With the pending decision of the Supreme Court on the abolishment of segregation schemes, the blacks, particularly black leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., gained strength to forward the cause and the welfare of the black community.Less
This chapter discusses the emergence of a new black American political influence in the political scene of Atlanta. This chapter begins with a chronicle of the political career of William Berry Hartsfield who saw the relevance of the abolishment of the Democratic white primacy and the potential impact and influence of the black voters. Following his instinct regarding the growing political influence of the blacks, Hartsfield became a champion for blacks and granted the long-desired access to law enforcement for blacks. This hiring of black policemen and officers led to an increase in the number of registered black voters who as a result had a decisive influence in elections. With their significant increase in the number of voters and their rapidly growing influence and decisive role in elections, some blacks used this to get involved with politics through which they gained significant governmental seats. While their political achievements were a source of pride, these achievements did little to improve the lives of the blacks. As the bleak situation of the blacks proliferated after their growing political influence, the blacks pushed for the abolishment of racial discrimination and the creation of equality. With the pending decision of the Supreme Court on the abolishment of segregation schemes, the blacks, particularly black leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., gained strength to forward the cause and the welfare of the black community.
Herbert Robinson Marbury
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479835966
- eISBN:
- 9781479875030
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479835966.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter looks at the Civil Rights Movement both as an ideological trajectory and a chronological rubric, analyzing the interpretive work of two figures: Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., the U.S. ...
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This chapter looks at the Civil Rights Movement both as an ideological trajectory and a chronological rubric, analyzing the interpretive work of two figures: Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., the U.S. congressional representative from Harlem and pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church; and Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil rights leader from the South. It begins with Powell's sermon on Exodus 32 entitled, “Stop Blaming Everybody Else,” delivered in 1953 at a critical juncture in his career and in the formation of black political identity. His pillar of fire politics takes up the exodus story to focus the black community on both the ravages of McCarthyism and the responsibilities of citizenship. The chapter then examines two sermons of Martin Luther King, Jr., “Death of Evil Upon the Seashore,” and “Birth of a New Nation,” delivered in 1955 and 1957 respectively. Both sermons take the book of Exodus to deploy King's pillar of cloud politics.Less
This chapter looks at the Civil Rights Movement both as an ideological trajectory and a chronological rubric, analyzing the interpretive work of two figures: Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., the U.S. congressional representative from Harlem and pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church; and Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil rights leader from the South. It begins with Powell's sermon on Exodus 32 entitled, “Stop Blaming Everybody Else,” delivered in 1953 at a critical juncture in his career and in the formation of black political identity. His pillar of fire politics takes up the exodus story to focus the black community on both the ravages of McCarthyism and the responsibilities of citizenship. The chapter then examines two sermons of Martin Luther King, Jr., “Death of Evil Upon the Seashore,” and “Birth of a New Nation,” delivered in 1955 and 1957 respectively. Both sermons take the book of Exodus to deploy King's pillar of cloud politics.
Harvard Sitkoff
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813125831
- eISBN:
- 9780813135526
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813125831.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter discusses a meaningful and readable account of Martin Luther King Jr.'s career for the present generation. It tries to depict him in all of his humanness and not as the icon most know ...
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This chapter discusses a meaningful and readable account of Martin Luther King Jr.'s career for the present generation. It tries to depict him in all of his humanness and not as the icon most know and consider him to be. It also depicts King's core religious beliefs as the key to his politics, links his greatness to his rhetoric, indicates the long-standing radicalism of his calling, and, above all, emphasizes his relevance to today's world.Less
This chapter discusses a meaningful and readable account of Martin Luther King Jr.'s career for the present generation. It tries to depict him in all of his humanness and not as the icon most know and consider him to be. It also depicts King's core religious beliefs as the key to his politics, links his greatness to his rhetoric, indicates the long-standing radicalism of his calling, and, above all, emphasizes his relevance to today's world.
