MLK JR DAY + a Playlist
Words by: Maggie Laubscher | Music by: Abby Yemm
Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
‘If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.’
--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., from his 1960 speech at Spelman College
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is an icon. Today, we want to pause and soak in all that he fought for. With 2020’s Black Lives Matter revolution, many of us went on a deep dive of learning and facing white supremacy. It’s something that was long overdue. It’s a lifelong education we need to continue. Hopefully today can be a reminder of that. It’s what MLK spoke about throughout his life as an activist. This is one quote that sticks out from MLK’s book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?
‘Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn.’ - Dr. King, dropping truths
MLK is remembered as an American and moral hero. Today, we celebrate his achievements and wisdom. Here are three ways we are doing so:
1) We Are Watching: MLK/FBI doc
This documentary just debuted on January 15th. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth your time. The doc presents a detailed, surreal account of the FBI’s intense surveillance of MLK. We are talking wiretaps, blackmail, secret informers, all of it. At one point before MLK’s death, the head of the FBI wrote in a memo, ‘We must mark him now as the most dangerous Negro in the future of this Nation. And we must use every resource as our disposal to destroy him.’
MLK/FBI also paints a clear picture of the systemic racism and white paranoia that fueled our government’s harassment. Depressingly, this is a sentence that could be written about today in many ways. The info in the doc isn’t new, but it is presented in a compelling, unified way that searingly hits home. Watch it here.
(image credit: MLK/FBI documentary website)
2) We Are Listening: ‘The Other America’ speech
This MLK speech speaks to our current climate - or maybe our forever climate? Ugh. The speech describes America as two countries, one where millions of young people grow up in the sunlight of opportunity and the other where millions of people find themselves living in rat-infested, vermin-filled slums. Listen to it here.
(image credit: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)
3) We Are Reading: Jenn M. Jackson’s MLK coverage
Jenn M. Jackson’s writing on MLK is clear and insightful. Jackson is an assistant professor at Syracuse University and her work focuses on Black politics. Her most recent article on MLK is from May 2020, titled ‘Martin Luther King Jr. Was More Radical Than We Remember.’ It’s a great read. Read it here.
(image credit: Reg Lancaster / Getty Images)
