And who was Martin King? In 1955 he was a big-dream utopian who euphemistically identified himself as an “anti-capitalist.” He was, in truth, a starry-eyed Marxist who only four years earlier had written this personal manifesto:
“…I am conviced [sic] that capitalism has seen its best days in American [sic], and not only in America, but in the entire world. It is a well known fact that no social institute [sic] can survive when it has outlived its usefullness [sic]. This, capitalism has done. It has failed to meet the needs of the masses.
“We need only to look at the underlying developements [sic] of our society. There is a definite revolt by, what Marx calls, ‘the preletarian’, [sic] against the bourgeoise [sic]…. What will eventually happen is this, labor will become so power [sic] (this was certainly evidenced in the recent election) that she will be able to place a president in the White House. This will inevitably bring about a nationalization of industry. That will be the end of capitalism. . . there is a definite move away from capitalism, whether we conceive of it as conscious or unconscious Capitalism finds herself like a losing football team in the last quarter trying types of tactics to survive.”
Martin King wrote this drivel at a time when communist totalitarians were condemning billions of people to lives of poverty, mediocrity and fear. The FBI had good reason to be concerned that someone who was so foolish as to embrace the false promise of Marxism might become the charismatic leader of millions of poorly educated and discontented black folks. Martin King was forever prattling about an imagined link between the needs of American blacks and the anti-colonial struggles of people in the Third World. King surrounded himself with dedicated Communists. King’s advisor Hunter Pitts (Jack) O’Dell was a veteran Communist Party organizer in New Orleans. Martin King’s advisor Stanley Levison was a financier for the Communist Party. King’s most trusted advisor and strategist Bayard Rustin began his activism with the Young Communist League.
All of these people understood the power of propaganda, invented history, staged events, deception and impersonation. Like their Soviet role models, these closeted communists sought to create power bases around cults of personality.
(exerpted from “Rosa Parks re-examined” by Thomas Clough of WeirdRepublic)
The barest essence of Capitalism is free commerce, conducted under rule of law, and that no individual has more rights under the law than any other.
A black man in that era, was not equal under the law here. At the same time, communist agents could point him to Moscow and tell him how free blacks were there. That they were integrated into universities. That they were equal under soviet law.
He would neglect to point out that the USSR essentially HAD no black population beyond a few students from Africa. He wouldn’t point out that equality under Soviet law was a worse life than 2nd class status here in America. He wouldn’t point out that Russian people never consider blacks their intellectual equals.
But in that era, asking a black man to celebrate capitalism when the biggest capitalist nation refused him equal legal status, was probably a bit much to ask. I say we know he was a flawed man, like most high end performers, that he was fighting for equality, and leave it at that. He was seduced twice. By women, and by socialists, but his goal was the end of 2nd class status. Both seductions hurt that goal.
And btw, Charleton Heston agrees with me that King was on the right side of the argument.