MLK Day and the African-American Experience

Martin Luther King day is suppose to be a moment when we reflect on the contributions made by Martin Luther King, Jr. It is that, but "_________ day" has always struck me as a problematic construction. I think MLK would point out, "What are you doing the other 364 days?" It is an easy criticism and I am not making it. The struggle to get an MLK day was hard, so its a celebration we should be proud to have. Indeed, I can point to the events organized by the Office of Multicultural Affairs at Rollins for proof of the commitment to celebrate the message and legacy of Martin Luther King.

Still, I'm an academic and with an election coming up this particular MLK day has me in a reflective mood. In an era of an African-American president, how do we judge the legacy of Martin Luther King? Is racism no longer the social ill it once was? It is clear that in many ways the struggles that animated the civil right movement in the twentieth century are not the same today. The evolution is worth considering as we celebrate MLK in 2012.

We live in a society with radically different expectations related to race. When W.E.B. Dubois addressed the question of social equality between blacks and whites in 1920, he made it clear that that social equality was the means to "associate with one's fellowmen." This simple goal, so easily achieved today, triggered violence against African-Americans throughout the United States. Indeed, the destruction of Rosewood, Florida in 1923 offers a vivid example of the threat of violence that defined the African-American experience for much of the twentieth century.



The struggle for racial equality associated with Martin Luther King began decades before King's appearance. The National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) legal strategy championed a systematic attack on Jim Crow segregation through a series of court cases that challenged segregation. Still, for all those efforts, King provided a much needed public face to the civil rights struggle. His emergence on the national scene with the Montgomery Bus Boycott was pitch perfect. A well educated, articulate religious leader from a good family, he spoke with reasoned eloquence about the need for social justice.



Still, the reality was that King became a public face for the civil rights movement in part because behind the scene struggles prompted a search for a "fresh face" to lead the boycott. He was untainted by the internal politics that the ongoing struggles for social justice produced. Far from absolute consensus, the struggle for equality required action, but that action was not always welcomed or the path to it clear. Conflict could and did abound happen on the way to social justice.




Martin Luther King was able, as leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Council, to bring together the grassroots efforts of individuals and organizations across the south. He was the group's public face and he became the person that many white Americans associated with struggle against segregation. In reality, groups such as NAACP, the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE), and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) worked in parallel with the SCLC and King. Sometime they agreed and worked together, sometime they disagreed and worked apart. The centrality of the church and the emphasis on nonviolent resistance personified by King gave the SCLC a moral certainty many white Americans found compelling. Even if they were not comfortable with racial equality in practice, they respected the moral message in principle. As a result moderate white Americans found it hard to reject calls for justice, especially when confronted with the massive, often violence resistance mustered by southerners against non-violent protesters.



It does nothing to diminish Dr. King to say he understood the media. We tend to ignore the fact that the Civil Right movement had high points and low points. During the low points, civil right activists planned their next action with an understanding that they needed to regain momentum or bring the public eye back to the struggle. Classic moments such as the Children's Crusade in Birmingham garnered negative reactions at the time because it put children in the midst of the action against Eugene "Bull" Connors, a segregationist renowned for his violence reactions. King's response to the criticism, his famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is a direct and articulated answer to the problem pose by struggling for social justice.

As celebrated as MLK is for his thoughtful message and nonviolent tactics, it is
perhaps equally important to King's success that he was often contrasted against an unsavory alternative. Malcolm X emerged as the equally articulate spokesperson for the Nation of Islam around the same time as Martin Luther King. Of course, Malcolm X message did little to comfort whites. Indeed, the contrast between the two often ignored the similarities in favor of sharp distinction on the question of violence. For many white Americans, Malcolm X, who advocated African-American self-defense and self-pride threaten them with violence with his every action and word.



The reality is more complicated. It is true that Malcolm X and Martin Luther King seem at odd in terms of the rhetoric. Yet, in practice King and X represented differing views on how to achieve the shared goal of African-American uplift.



Of course, the moderation of Malcolm X's views after his break from the Nation of Islam made this comparison problematic. The fact that both men continued to speak about the need to address poverty even as segregation was attacked by new legal standards further highlights the common themes in their individual messages. The death of both men prevented them from reconciling their message for the public. Indeed, by the 1970s the struggle for desegregation was in many ways overshadowed by the emergence of other social justice campaigns by disabled persons, women, gays and lesbians, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos in the United States. Race did not stop being a problem, it was joined with a long list of other social concerns. In this atmosphere the struggle to achieve equality has become more complicated.

What would MLK say about the state of the African-American experience today? I'm not sure. It is clear African-Americans still struggle in the United States. Despite the election of a black president, poverty, crime, and health care are still problems for African-Americans. The difference today is perhaps that racism is not as closely linked to other problems. An interlocking matrix of influences linked to race, class, and gender challenge modern society. In this atmosphere, can we be sure that racism is the cause of high rates of African-American incarceration or is there something to be said about the problem face by the working poor? In this analysis, working-class poverty is the problem, and African-Americans, who also face limitation because of racial stereotypes, face an amplified effect growing from the discrimination linked to race and limited opportunity associated with class.

This is a real question and something that scholars should be considering. I count myself lucky that I have colleagues such as Rachel Newcomb,Walter Greason, Vidhu Aggarwal, Jonathan Gayles, and Denise K. Cummings( to name just a few, so if I didn't name you, it not because I don't love you:-) who are engaged in the complex work of cultural analysis. In many ways, the efforts made by individuals and groups to understand and address the persistent obstacles to equality mirror Martin Luther King's efforts. At the time of his death, he was organizing his Poor People Campaign, a grassroots action to demand the government help Americans get jobs, health care, and decent housing. Perhaps this fact should animated our thinking about MLK day in 2012. The struggles that defined Martin Luther King's last days still vex us today.

Historical Perspective

This semester is moving along. I have the first exam to grade, a search committee to get through, and worries about next academic years to consider. Despite all of that, I'm gonna drop in on the Daily Buzz tomorrow and give some input on the Chris Matthews issue and the state of African-American marriage. Morning shows are perfect for inviting you and giving you just enough time for a soundbite. Still, as a friend one said to me, "You gotta take the information to the people."

In the case of the African-Americans and marriage, it a complicate problem. The fact of the matter is that marriage in the United State is not what it use to be. The societal restriction against divorce has lessen and as a result couples divorce at higher rates. When you factor in race, the numbers get worst, especially for African-Americans. Yet, the factor related to African-Americans marriage are not all unique to the black community. Since the 1960s, social commentators have pointed to female-head household as failure of the black family.

The causes and consequences single-family household are complicated. Conservatives point to disincentive associated with marriage and general family created by social welfare program. On the other hand, de-industrialization, suburbanization, and crime have led to problems as varied as high incarnation rate for African-American males to low educational achievement. This means young black men are not available to wed during prime marriage age. Added to that, the number of African-American men who drop out of school means there is an education deficit that affected social and economic opportunity. Consider the factors women use (regardless of race) when considering marriage: security and prospect of long terms support. In both cases African-American males often fail in the lowest percentile of any measure. Education also broadens the world view, which adds to possibility of marrying outside your racial group and pushes the median marriage age up. These factors combine to force African-American women to search longer for a suitable mate.

African-American Middle-class women (who tend not to marry outside their race) are further marginalize by stereotypes of beauty and behavior that continue to be produced by popular media. All these factors lead to troubling marriage pattern for African-Americans. Both Working-class and Middle-class African-Americans suffer from the cascading issues that undermine traditional marriage. The problem is amplified by media coverage that conflate issues related to class and race to individual moral failing and/or absence of personal responsibility.

I'm not going to solve the problem with two minute segments, but maybe I can try to clarify some of these issues.