Posted on 04/29/2015 2:15:00 PM PDT by MacNaughton
Playboy (Alex Haley): Along with the other civil rights leaders, you have often proposed a massive program of economic aid, financed by the Federal Government, to improve the lot of the nation's 20,000,000 Negroes. ... A nationwide program such as you propose would undoubtedly run into the billions.
King: About 50 billion, actually — which is less than 1 year of our present defense spending. It is my belief that with the expenditure of this amount, over a 10-year period, a genuine and dramatic transformation could be achieved in the conditions of Negro life in America. I am positive, moreover, that the money spent would be more than amply justified by the benefits that would accrue to the nation through a spectacular decline in school dropouts, family breakups, crime rates, illegitimacy, swollen relief rolls, rioting and other social evils.
Playboy (Alex Haley): Do you think it’s realistic to hope that the Government would consider an appropriation of such magnitude other than for national defense?
King: I certainly do. This country has the resources to solve any problems once that problem is accepted as national policy. An example is aid to Appalachia, which has been made a policy of the Federal Government’s much-touted war on poverty; 1 billion was proposed for its relief – without making the slightest dent in the defense budget. Another example is the fact that after WWII, during the years when it became policy to build and maintain the largest military machine the world has ever known, America also took upon itself, through the Marshall Plan and other measures, the financial relief and rehabilitation of millions of European peoples. If America can afford to underwrite its allies and ex-enemies, it can certainly afford, - and has a much greater obligation, as I see it – to do at least as well by its own no-less-needy countrymen.
Playboy (Alex Haley): Do you feel it’s fair to request a multibillion-dollar program of preferential treatment for the Negro, or for any other minority group?
King: I do indeed. Can any fair-minded citizen deny that the Negro has been deprived? Few people reflect that for 2 centuries the Negro was enslaved, and robbed of any wages – potential accrued wealth which would have been the legacy of his descendants. All of America’s wealth today could not adequately compensate its Negroes for his centuries of exploitation and humiliation. It is an economic fact that a program such as I propose would certainly cost far less than any computation of unpaid wages plus accumulated interest. In any case, I do not intend that his program of economic aid should apply only to the Negro; it should benefit the disadvantaged of all races.
Playboy (Alex Haley): If a nationwide program of preferential employment for Negroes were to be adopted, how would you propose to assuage the resentment of whites who already feel that their jobs are being jeopardized by the influx of Negroes resulting from desegregation?
King: We must develop a Federal program of public works, retraining and jobs for all – so that none, white or black, will have cause to feel threatened … together, they could exert massive pressure on the Government to get jobs for all. Together, they could form a grand alliance. Together, they could merge all people for the good of all.
Playboy (Alex Haley): If Negroes are also granted preferential treatment in housing, as you propose, how would you allay the alarm with which many white homeowners, fearing property devaluation, greet the arrival of Negroes in hitherto all-white neighborhoods?
Playboy (Alex Haley): We must expunge from our society the myths and half-truths that engender such groundless fears as these. In the 1st place, there is no truth to the myth that Negroes depreciate property. The fact is that most Negroes are kept out of residential neighborhoods so long that when 1 of us is finally sold a home it’s already depreciated. In the 2nd place, we must dispel the negative and harmful atmosphere that has been created by avaricious and unprincipled realtors who engage in “blockbusting.”
If we had in America really serious efforts to break down discrimination in housing, and at the same time a concerted program of Government aid to improve housing for Negros, I think that many white people would be surprised at how many Negroes would choose to live among themselves, exactly as Poles and Jews and other ethnic groups do.
Playboy (Alex Haley): One of the most controversial issues of the past year, apart from civil rights, was the question of school prayer, which has been ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court. [Alabama Gov. George] Wallace, among others, has denounced the decision. How do you feel about it?
Playboy (Alex Haley): I endorse it. I think it was correct. Contrary to what many have said, it sought to outlaw neither prayer nor belief in God. In a pluralistic society such as ours, who is to determine what prayer shall be spoken, and by whom? Legally, constitutionally or otherwise, the state certainly has no such right. I am strongly opposed to the efforts that have been made to nullify the decision. They have been motivated, I think, by little more than the wish to embarrass the Supreme Court. When I saw Brother Wallace going up to Washington to testify against the decision at the Congressional hearings, it only strengthened my conviction that the decision was right.
Hmmm...this changes my opinion about Dr. King. Seems that he was a proponent of government handouts, and not so much of a “character” person after all.
I don’t think he’d approve of violence of any type, but it sure seems like the color of one’s skin seems to make them more “equal” than others in his eyes.
MLK Jr. -- pass.
Playboy Mag. -- get lost.
A trifecta of cultural infection.
King got his wish. Billions have been handed out to the Negroes.
And look at how much worse off they are. Look at how much worse off America is.
Tell this to the former, Caucasian residents of many black ghettos in virtually every major city in America.
OTOH, his comments on school prayer were interesting... Though, even a broken clock...
MLK was just another leftwinger, but unfortunately such mythology has been built up around him that many conservatives have unquestioningly accepted it.
King was very much in favor of reparations. He also called our troops in Vietnam war criminals, and he said that the US was the biggest purveyor of violence in the world.
He would fit in nicely with Sharpton, Jackson, and Obama.
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