40 years

On April 4th 1968, at 6:01 pm central time, Martin Luther King, Jr. was fatally shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The details of his assassination remain unclear and conspiracy theories abound.

There is no question that Martin Luther King, Jr. was an incredible man and an inspirational leader who put himself on the line in standing up for his ideals. However, I often become frustrated by the way that the popular media has chosen to characterize King because it represents such a small part of who he actually was, and the views he had embraced toward the end of his life. By deifying King, we tend to forget his humanity, and we overlook critical aspects of his life and worldview that made him who he was.

Martin made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, during the advent of the Civil Rights Movement. At the time, he was the spokesman for nonviolent action and civil disobedience, and this unprecedented speech catalyzed an entire segment of American society to actively work for change in the way that Black Americans were treated. To this day that speech remains one of the most uplifting and highly acclaimed pieces of oration in history, and for many good reasons.

However, as the Movement laboured on, and Martin routinely and systematically saw his friends and colleagues dehumanized and even beaten, his anger at the injustice of the situation grew and his views began to trend more toward those of his more militant contemporaries. He had begun to embrace the idea that change needed to happen, and that it may not be possible to bring about such change peacefully.

This morning on the Today Show, Michael Eric Dyson, a man whom I respect highly for his honest analysis of racial issues in America, discussed the "forgotten" legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.. He made a couple of points that I found particularly interesting:

First, he drew the comparison between Martin Luther King, Barack Obama, and Reverend Jeremiah Wright, stating that, over his lifetime, King was a combination of the two other men. Dyson cited the fact that, prior to his death, King was in the process of preparing a speech entitled "Why America may go to hell".

And yet, 40 years later, when Jeremiah Wright utters similar sentiments (albeit in a tone more likely to alienate potential allies than foster any sort of unity) he is lambasted for weeks. Dyson also made the point that if YouTube had existed while Martin was alive, he would be deeply vilified for the beliefs that he expressed toward the end of his life.

All of this serves as a reminder that we must exercise extreme caution in judgment when distilling the entire life's work of any individual down to one or two provocative soundbites -- regardless of whether those snippets shine a positive or negative light on the speaker.

Here is a link to an interview with Michael Eric Dyson about Martin Luther King, Jr. that further explains the need for all of us to fully understand King's evolution of thought and question the "flawless" and "sanitized" versions that the media commonly presents us with. If this "more palatable" version of King becomes the accepted standard of what a Black man should be, I think that's a dangerous position because it places expectations on our young black men that even King himself couldn't live up to.

Ten years ago, I took a road trip to Memphis so that I could be there for the 30th anniversary of King's death. I went alone, and I remember being surprised by how few other people were there. I'm glad that this anniversary is garnering more attention, and I suspect that it is partially due to the fact that we may see our nation's first Black president elected later this year.

In the 40 years since Martin Luther King was murdered, enormous changes have been made regarding race relations in the United States. And yet significant disparities in opportunity and achievement still exist between white Americans and those of colour. We still have a long way to go. But we also need to pay due respect to the strong Black leaders who had the courage, determination, and conviction to begin the long and difficult journey toward equality.

To Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis, Elaine Brown, Rosa Parks, Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and countless others who've made their mark both prior to the official movement, and into today. Thank you. We will do all that we can to make further progress and ensure that we never forget where we came from.