[“Dear politicians/political influencers: When you tweet about
my father’s birthday, remember that he was resolute about
eradicating racism, poverty, and militarism. Encourage and enact
policies that reflect his teachings.”]
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THIS MLK DAY, WE MUST REMEMBER HIS ANTI-WAR—AND
ANTI-CAPITALIST—LEGACY  
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Rann Miller
January 13, 2024
The Progressive
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_ “Dear politicians/political influencers: When you tweet about my
father’s birthday, remember that he was resolute about eradicating
racism, poverty, and militarism. Encourage and enact policies that
reflect his teachings.” _

,

 

The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was born Michael King Jr. on
January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. His father, Michael King Sr.,
when inspired by a visit to sites associated with the German
protestant reformer Martin Luther, changed his name to Martin Luther
King Sr. and his son’s to Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. would become a scholar, a minister of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, and an activist on behalf of not only Black
people but all of the oppressed. His efforts resulted in landmark
legislation: the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of
1965. Immediately after King’s assassination, the Congressional
Black Caucus, civil rights activists, and Coretta Scott King,
Martin’s widow, campaigned to create a federal holiday to honor his
work.

The maestro Stevie Wonder
[[link removed].] even
composed “Happy Birthday,” which appeared on his _Hotter Than
July
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released in 1980, as both an ode to King and to campaign for the
holiday.

Despite a filibuster
[[link removed]] by
ultra-conservative Senator Jesse Helms and the budgetary concerns of
Ronald Reagan, MLK Day was signed into law on November 2, 1983. It was
first observed on the third Monday of January, 1986. In 1994,
President Bill Clinton signed
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King Holiday and Service Act—sponsored by Senator Harris Wofford,
Democrat of Pennsylvania, and Representative John Lewis, Democrat of
Georgia—as a challenge to Americans to honor the work of King by
volunteering.

In King’s final speech, he beseeched American lawmakers and
political leaders to “be true to what you said on paper” and
uphold the values and promises made in the nation’s Constitution. So
on the day we recognize King’s birthday, it seems all too fitting to
ask, are current political leaders meeting that standard? And, if not,
when will politicians meet the challenge of honoring the words and
work of King with their legislation and executive action? When will
our courts honor the words and work of King through their
interpretations of the law? 

The MLK Day of Service, which was presumably genuinely meant to
promote goodwill and service to one’s fellow human through
volunteerism, has morphed into a day that reduces King’s work
against racism, capitalism, and militarism to philanthropy and one-off
volunteerism rooted in a pseudo-humanitarianism disconnected from
public policy.

White conservatives are largely at fault. They’ve worked tirelessly
to render MLK Day powerless in confronting and combating what
King called
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“three evils of society”: racism, extreme materialism, and
militarism. Each year, these same politicians post a picture of King
with a quote, echoing the sentiment of Ronald Reagan signing the
holiday into law: providing themselves with a political pretext to
silence the mounting criticism of their positions on civil rights.

In a letter
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Meldrim Thomson Jr., the then-governor of New Hampshire, a
conservative Republican who said King was “a man of immoral
character” with communist ties, Reagan responded by saying:

_“On the national holiday you mentioned, I have the reservations you
have, but here the perception of too many people is based on an image,
not reality. Indeed, to them, the perception is reality. We hope some
modifications might still take place in Congress.”_

These ongoing attempts by conservatives to remold King’s legacy are
rooted in cognitive dissonance. They feign a reverence for King’s
words and mission as they labor to enact inhumane immigration
policies
[[link removed]], roll
back
[[link removed]] health
care protections, undermine
[[link removed]] Black
history and the teaching of it, and erode
[[link removed]] the Voting
Rights Act
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which King was instrumental
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pushing for.

They manipulate King’s words as a way to extol colorblindness, in
addition to hard work
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Liberals, too, are at fault.

Like white conservatives, white and Black liberals post a picture and
a quote each year to celebrate King. But while liberals’ approach to
domestic politics often more closely aligns with King’s views, their
approach to foreign policy often differs little from conservatives and
bears no resemblance to what King advocated for
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Liberals are complicit in underwriting the illegal occupation of
Syria [[link removed]], supporting
an invasion of Haiti
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renewing a spy program
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harms people of color, harboring a racist approach
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Venezuela, and the continued unlawful detainment of prisoners
in Guantanamo Bay
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Both political factions are guilty of indiscriminate military
spending, including the recent $886 million
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bill, while soliciting funds
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war in Ukraine and genocide in Gaza beyond the federal funds already
allocated for Ukraine
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Would any liberal politician quote King’s _Beyond Vietnam
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where he said, “War [is] an enemy of the poor”?

Certainly not our current President. On the viability of the U.S.
funding both the Ukrainians and Israelis simultaneously, Joe Biden had
this to say during a _60 Minutes_ interview
[[link removed]] in 2023: 

_“We’re the United States of America for god’s sake, we’re the
most powerful nation, not in the world but in the history of the
world. We can take care of both of these and still maintain our
overall international defense.”_

If it’s true that the United States is the most powerful country in
the world with the ability to fund a war and a genocide, why not fund
people instead of wars? Why not forgive student loans, provide
universal child care for all working families, make election day a
paid federal holiday, protect the right to vote for all, take health
insurance out of the hands of the free market, mandate a baseline
universal income, and provide reparations to African Americans for the
unpaid wages owed to our ancestors? Where is the political will to
accomplish these things? Where is the moxie, the brashness, the
swagger? 

Instead, the United States does the work of neocolonialism and white
settler domination. It does so under the guise of promoting democracy
around the world, guided by what the Reverend Munther Issac
[[link removed]] called
the “theology of empire,” while calling itself exceptional
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For anyone desiring to truly honor and celebrate both the words and
work of King this year, and every year, here’s how:

Don’t just read King’s quotes. Read his works: _Why We Can’t
Wait_ [[link removed]] and _Where
Do We Go from Here
[[link removed]]_.
Find other texts on King written by authors like Taylor Branch
[[link removed]], Peniel
Joseph
[[link removed]], Jonathan
Eig [[link removed]],
and Lewis Baldwin
[[link removed]].
Read King’s speeches
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challenge yourself to change your lens of the world to reflect the
world he relentlessly pushed us towards.

After reading King, research social justice organizations in your area
dedicated to supporting marginalized communities, and then join one.
Give them the sacrifice of your time and the very best of your
talents. Contact your local, state, and federal representatives and
demand that they pass legislation to support poor and historically
oppressed communities. Be an informed voter every election year and
hold who you vote accountable with your advocacy.

Living out the meaning of King’s words will change the world. One
day of service will not. As for politicians, I leave you with the
words
[[link removed]] of
Bernice King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s youngest daughter:

_“Dear politicians/political influencers: When you tweet about my
father’s birthday, remember that he was resolute about eradicating
racism, poverty, and militarism. Encourage and enact policies that
reflect his teachings.”_

_Rann Miller is an educator and freelance writer based in New Jersey.
He is the author of Resistance Stories from Black History for Kids
(Bloom Books for Young Readers, March 2023). Follow Rann on Twitter
@RealRannMiller._

_A voice for peace, social justice, and the common good! Since
1909, The Progressive magazine has aimed to amplify voices of
dissent and voices under-represented in the mainstream, with a goal
of championing grassroots progressive politics._

* Martin Luther King Jr.
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* anti-war
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* economic justice
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* Militarism
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* Civil Rights
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* Racism
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