Posted on 12/29/2002 3:10:55 PM PST by Austin Willard Wright
King had his problems but the early stages of his movement deserve the applause of conservatives. He was a "doer" who used the tools of the market to fight segregation. BTW, he voted for Eisenhower in 1956. It is true that he became more statist later but he was never a communist. He could have chosen better associates at times but he tended to rely on people who got things done. Had conservatives embraced his brave on the ground fight against state-enforced segregation from the beginning, they could have filled these roles and could have shaped his movement from within. They failed to do this and now have little cause to complain.
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Yes! Regardless of King's faults, real or imagined, just as Jefferson's words ring of truth in the Declaration, so do Kings from his Wash. DC speech.
In other words, what a known liar says about himself is suspect. For example I doubt "King in the original" has anything to say about his "open bed policy." But his chief lieutenant, Ralph Abernathy, had a whole lot to say about it.
As to King's accomplishments, he did lead the way to ending Jim Crow and that was a good thing.
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New Link: Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
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Yes, Bro. Rev. Dr. Ralph Abernathy (Kappa Alpha Psi) did speak out about this. He even called Je$$e a liar in public about King dying in his arms.
Rev. Dr. Ralph David Abernathy
March 21, 1926 - April 17, 1990
Birth of Tha SYNDICATE, the philosophical heir to William Lloyd Garrison.
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King was a flawed man but nobody who studies him can avoid the conclusion that he was brilliant and thoughtful. He was a giant in this respect compared to Jackson, Sharpton, etc. The King of the 1950s, as reflected in this quote, had fundamentally libertarian inclinations on many basic issues. He went off the deep end in the 1960s and led the crazy, statist Poor Peoples Movement (aptly described a sa beg in) but this does not undermine his earlier accomplishments.
As I recall it, this was a major point of discussion between the different factions within the "movement" in the 60's, both before and after King's death. Generally speaking the CORE people(and in Chicago the "Al Raby" people) held to moral absolutes. Certainly that was true of the CORE people I knew in Chicago and Mississippi.
The SNCC people (and in Chicago, many of the Alinsky people) were much quicker to take the attitude later expressed as "whatever it takes".
The movement was not monolithic. In Chicago Leon Depres was the only White liberal Democrat to support the movement. While numerous White Republican State Reps actively supported it. The Democrat machine actively opposed it. Even the Blacks in the Democrat machine blocked renaming South Parkway to Martin Luther King Drive for over 10 years after his death.
But nationally, the image of Nixon adopting the "Southern Strategy" of Howard Phillips and Pat Buchanan set the stage for the next 30 years. Look where Howard Phillips and Pat Buchanan are now in relationship to the Republican Party. Nobody bent principle for political expediency more than those three.
Now somebody pass me the teflon.
Where did you get that?
Thanks for posting this. Sometimes have wondered what would have happened if MLK had lived. Bet Jesse Jackson would not have become as powerful as he once was based on his lies.
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