This Posting appeared in the South Bend Tribune, January 31, 2010
VIEWPOINT By PAUL C. MISHLER
This month when we honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., we rightly remember his role in leading the movement that dismantled legal racial segregation. Indeed, in honoring him we are also honoring the thousands of activists — black and white, in the North and in the South — who joined together to challenge a system of racist discrimination enforced by economic structure and terrorist violence that outlasted slavery by 100 years. King, and those he inspired and led, are truly worthy of honor and remembrance. Yet in our honoring and remembering King and the civil rights movement, we have had a tendency to forget that King's vision was larger than the non- violent dismantling of racial segregation. And as inspiring as the conclusion to his speech at the 1963 march on Washington, it is worth remembering other aspects of that day and that speech, as well as King's career after that bright day in Washington. The march on Washington had two demands. The first, for freedom, was the demand for an end to racist discrimination and oppression.
The second was for jobs.
The March on Washington was a "March for Jobs and Freedom." Not only was King committed to a struggle for economic as well as legal justice, the two men who were the working organizers of the march were veterans of the intersection of the labor movement and the civil rights movement. Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph knew, as King knew, that legal equality without economic justice would be seriously handicapped. Today, in the midst of an economic crisis that has laid waste to the hard work of millions of Americans of all backgrounds, African Americans still suffer almost double the unemployment of white Americans. The industries with the highest concentration of African Americans have suffered the largest layoffs, and the communities in which African Americans live have already faced persistent economic crises, even when times were better for white working Americans. Celebrating the end of legal segregation is worthwhile only if we recognize that effort as the beginning of a struggle to undo the legacy of slavery — it has moved from the legal/political front to the economic one. Only when African Americans (as well as all others) have good work at good wages can we truly commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream. To look at that part of King's legacy, we have to look at what he said as he set the context for his inspiring dream. The first part of the speech was a thorough criticism of the politicians who, knowing that segregation had to go, were dragging their feet, appeasing the segregationist elected officials of the South, and telling the African-American community to soften its demands and to move more slowly. And in 1963 there was a Democratic Congress, and a Democrat in the White House. These people were "friends" of the civil rights movement, but that only made King's anger stronger. After Lyndon Johnson was elected in 1964 (he had already filled out Kennedy's term after the assassination), the civil rights movement had the most supportive president ever. Johnson was passionately committed to civil rights, and had pushed for the passage of both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. He publicly placed the federal government on the side of the movement. And yet ...
On April 4, 1967 (ironically one year to the day before he was shot), Martin Luther King spoke at the Riverside Church in New York City and, against the advice of many of his friends and advisers, publicly condemned the war in Vietnam, and Johnson's actions in expanding that war. King was attacked by many who wanted him to stay away from foreign policy, and who were afraid that raising the issue of the war would alienate important Democrats who were now on the side of civil rights. King would not back down. Today, after a long period we have a president whose election signifies the important victories won in those early days of the civil rights movement. We have in Barack Obama an African-American president who during his campaign called upon King's vision, and the vision of so many of the activists for social justice who had looked to King for leadership in vision almost 50 years ago. And today unemployment is rising, wars that were begun under the previous administration are ongoing, leading to devastation here and abroad, and the largest banks are about to give away millions in bonuses to their executives while hardship is common for millions of Americans. What would King do today? When King was assassinated in Memphis in 1968, he was in the midst of mobilizing support for African-American workers who wanted a union. They wanted what many workers want today — a voice at work and the possibility of leading a life where hard work is rewarded. Today, perhaps, King would call upon our politicians — even those who claim to be friends of working people and advocates of peace — to live up to their pronouncements. We still lack, and we still demand, what King stood for in 1963 and in 1968. We want freedom, we want jobs, we want peace, and we want justice and dignity when we are at work.
Paul C. Mishler is an associate professor of labor studies at Indiana University South Bend and a member of St. Joseph Valley Jobs with Justice.
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