It looks like simply yesterday we had been welcoming in a brand new yr, and now we’re on the eve of getting into into April – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Month.
When did this occur, you ask? A couple of days in the past. I declared it and made it so. No congressional approval vital. No scholarly debates engaged. No peer overview printed. I simply tapped into my divine, co-creating energy and declared, “April is now the official month that every one the world will have a good time, analysis, wrestle with, debate, interact and honor the drum main artist previously referred to as Michael.
You’re welcome.
Why April, you say?
January weary
Let’s see… Black folks fought and lobbied to make MLK’s birthday a nationwide vacation; an effort that did come to move. And I’m not going to rain on that parade by mentioning that simply days earlier than then-President Ronald Ray-Gun signed that MLK Day invoice into regulation (Nov. 2, 1983), he ordered U.S. troops to invade the island (i.e. Black) nation of Grenada (Oct 25, 1983)… for being Black! However since then, each third Monday of January, MLK Day is noticed, and the times surrounding it are stuffed with parades, BBQs, oratory contests and so many dream-themed conferences – “Has the Dream Been Realized,” “Are You Dwelling the Dream,” “How Does the Dream Look in (insert yr),” “Dream On”… and on and on.
Perhaps at some point Blackfolk will begin placing extra meat on the January MLK Day bone, and see it as a chance to push previous the generic, “social construction” (i.e. white-washed) model of MLK, and have interaction in his evolving challenge positions. If not, there’s at all times April.
February… nah
With February, Black Historical past Month, MLK once more takes middle stage, however not in a approach that actually honors the person and his mission. And everyone knows, central to the woeful approach our story has been and continues to be offered in Ok-12 (actually Ok-School) school rooms, is the woeful, whitewashed model of MLK that we get fed; i.e. Dr. King that has been stripped of his denunciation of the U.S. military-industrial complicated, racist wars, capitalism, white liberals and his personal dream’s naïveté. Even Black Ok-12 college students who solely know the MLK they’ve been “taught” each February, know they’ve been hoodwinked, bamboozled and short-changed on the subject of MLK and BHM, usually. We are able to and should do higher.
We’ve March-ed sufficient
Although MLK mentions in March drastically lower in comparison with the primary two months of the yr, come Bloody Sunday (March 7, 1965) and the Selma to Montgomery march anniversaries, we as soon as once more get a snippet or two of MLK through a 15-second video clip or a social media put up out of your Black-Black buddy who at all times reminds you of Black-Black historic moments. However after that, excluding Black August and the commemoration of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, many don’t hear or converse a phrase about MLK till January of the following yr.
And that’s a disgrace for a lot of causes. However I’m sticking to why April, of all months, can’t move with out the deepest of dives into MLK.
Why April?
You wanna speak anniversaries? On April 4, 1967, MLK publicly introduced his opposition to the conflict in Vietnam. Some students contend that transfer served because the nail of MLK’s coffin. The announcement, which got here on the urging of his spouse, Coretta, jeopardized any working relationship he had with associates in excessive locations (i.e. the White Home). It additionally had numerous Blackfolk within the motion criticizing MLK for spreading his message too skinny and threatening to piss off motion donors. And there have been many in most people who voiced that MLK was stepping out of his place, and wanted to remain in his civil rights lane. And people red-blooded “mericans” who had already labeled MLK a “commie” noticed his denunciation of the conflict as additional proof of his “un-merican” methods.
However wait; there’s extra. On April 3, 1968, the night time earlier than MLK was murdered, he gave what may need been his most necessary speech – “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” – and never only for the ultimate chorus.
In that speech, MLK put the non secular and patriotic hypocrisy of this nation on blast, saying:
All we are saying to America is, “Be true to what you mentioned on paper.” If I lived in China and even Russia, or any totalitarian nation, possibly I may perceive the denial of sure primary First Modification privileges, as a result of they hadn’t dedicated themselves to that over there. However someplace I learn of the liberty of meeting. Someplace I learn of the liberty of speech. Someplace I learn of the liberty of the press. Someplace I learn that the greatness of America is the correct to protest for proper.
On that April 3, 1968 night MLK additionally issued a name for Blackfolk to “purchase Black,” early, usually and unashamedly. Furthermore, MLK instructed these gathered “We should redistribute the ache.”
Sure, MLK mentioned that, although he credited Jesse Jackson with the expression.
However he was saying, for too lengthy, Blackfolk alone have been feeling the ache of this racist nation’s racism and delusion of the parable of white supremacy, and it was time that whitefolk, enterprise house owners, elected officers, and so on. come get a few of this ache… within the type of financial boycotts and different types of financial coercion in help of the putting Memphis sanitation employees and Black employees and Black folks usually.
That’s what MLK did in April. Sadly, April wasn’t achieved with MLK. On April 4, 1968, he was murdered. Assassinated. Killed. I used to be initially going to call this piece, “Let’s By no means Overlook They Killed MLK for Protesting for Peace,” as a result of the truth that he was assassinated appears to be slipping out of our collective consciousness. That truth will get talked about much less and fewer because the years go by. And we overlook this truth to our personal peril.
We overlook the potential value of standing on enterprise for our God and our folks; for our rules; for a transgenerational motion that’s larger and better than our private selves. And we overlook MLK, realizing this potential end result, continued to evangelise reality to energy. And in that forgetting, we miss the instance and customary we who have a good time MLK (and different freedom fighters) are known as to emulate. We overlook that it’s not sufficient to have a good time the dedication and sacrifices of MLK, Malcolm X, Gloria Richardson, Joanne Robinson, Ella Baker, Assata Shakur, Walter Rodney, Medgar Evers, Bobby Hutton, Fred Hampton, Jesus, Yaa Assantewaa, Gullah Jack, David Walker, Edward Wilmot Blyden, Dr. Edith Irby Jones, Walter Sisulu, Amy Jacques Garvey, and so on. We’re known as to, anticipated to, required to do our half in our day and time, as effectively.
For these causes, I imagine April is the month we have to dedicate to going all the best way in on MLK, not simply to rightfully honor our ancestor, however to empower us to be the drum majors we should be immediately.
