Judd Legum1. Pretty much every right-wing politician will mark MLK Day with the same quote, stripped of all context
REMINDER: MLK SAID MORE THAN 35 WORDS
2. Yes, MLK said "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
But that doesn't mean MLK thought we should IGNORE race, as the modern GOP insists
3. Conservatives today are not required to agree with King and his ideals. But they should not falsify his legacy on the holiday that marks his birth or any other day.
4. To put it simply: King spoke frequently about racial inequality and the obligation to address racial injustice.
King's "dream" of a society where people could be judged on the "content of their character" was conditioned on economic justice for Black Americans.
5. Let's review some other things MLK Jr. said.
He died much too young at 39.
But he was able to leave behind a lot more than one sentence.
6. "It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds...
7. …And so we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice." -- MLK Jr. 1963
8. Was MLK Jr.'s "dream" fulfilled by the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964? He address that in a 1967 speech, shortly before his assassination:
Toward the end of that afternoon, I tried to talk to the nation about a dream that I had had...
9. ...and I must confess to you today that not long after talking about that dream I started seeing it turn into a nightmare…I watched that dream turn into a nightmare as I moved through the ghettos of the nation...
10. ... and saw my black brothers and sisters perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity, and saw the nation doing nothing to grapple with the Negroes’ problem of poverty."
11. The idea that today, MLK would advocate IGNORING racial and economic inequality is absurd
12. In 1965, Alex Haley asked MLK Jr. if he supported "a multibillion-dollar program of preferential treatment for the Negro."
MLK Jr. responded: "I do indeed. Can any fair-minded citizen deny that the Negro has been deprived?...
13. ..All of America's wealth today could not adequately compensate its Negroes for his centuries of exploitation & humiliation. It is an economic fact that a program... would certainly cost far less than any computation of two centuries of unpaid wages plus accumulated interest"
14. Did King reject the concept of "systemic racism," as many modern conservatives claim?
He address this on March 31, 1968, four days before his death...
15. "It is an unhappy truth that racism is a way of life for the vast majority of white Americans, spoken and unspoken, acknowledged and denied, subtle and sometimes not so subtle -- the disease of racism permeates and poisons the body politic." -- MLK Jr. 3/31/1968
16. That’s not a quote you’ll see many Republicans quoting on MLK Day.
But it is what MLK ACTUALLY BELIEVED
AJ ButterwickLetter From a Birmingham Jail sees to be a good summary.