MLK, Hero and Patriot

A statue of Martin Luther King on the facade of London’s Westminster Abbey. Martin Luther King, Jr., was born on January 15, 1929. He is honored with a Federal Holiday, the third Monday in January. His legacy and status as an American hero are secure.

Every year at this time we hear his famous “I Have a Dream Speech” which is a beautiful and powerful display of writing and oratory. However, it is a lengthy letter which he penned while in jail in Birmingham, Alabama, which for me best demonstrates the greatness of the man as a champion of social justice; displays his devotion to the United States of America; and proves him a great patriot.

“Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a political, philosophical, and theological tour de force loosely modeled in the tradition of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. It is also a reminder of the appropriateness of setting aside a national holiday for King. King was not just a great civil rights leader—he was devoted to the United States, a patriot—and he was an exceptionally astute observer of the political and social forces at work in our nation during the height of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.

The genesis of the letter was that King was jailed for organizing a civil rights demonstration, protesting segregation, without having obtained a parade permit. The absurdity was ignored by King. Not one to waste time, or become embittered or sarcastic, he arranged to get small scraps of paper, and eventually writing pads and a pen, and set to work on his letter. His immediate audience: a group of white southern clergymen who professed to share King’s desire for equal treatment of the races under law; but who felt that the time was not right, that demonstrations—even peaceful ones—would only irritate those Southerners who might be inclined to agree with King but who didn’t want to make too much trouble. These white ministers thought the battle should be fought solely in the courts, not on the streets.

However, King was writing not only to these clergymen, he was writing to all Americans—and to the world. Thus, as with the Declaration of Independence, King sets out an explanation for his actions. He sets forth grievances for injustices which had continued for centuries; he tells us how segregation warps the minds of black children: “…you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people…”; he states that it has created a class of blacks who simply feel inferior; he warns us of those who are beginning to work toward a separate black America, possibly borne through violence. He writes of the forces of “bitterness and hatred… expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad’s Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro’s frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible ‘devil.’”

Like Jefferson, King felt it was necessary and proper to explain what it was that brought him to his course of action. Unlike Jefferson and the Founding Fathers, who declared that a separate and independent state must be formed by breaking away from England, King declares in no uncertain terms that he has no desire to break away from the United States; that America is a great country founded on great principles. He believes that “[o]ne day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.”

King doesn’t want to separate from the nation that has turned a blind eye to a separate and unequal world for his race. Rather, King wants in. He wants in because his people have been here as long as the white race; he wants in because he has a common Judaeo-Christian heritage with his white countrymen; he wants in because America is his home as much as it is the home of any Southern aristocrat. King is hopeful. He refers to the South as “our beloved Southland” and declares: “Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”

In his letter, King demonstrates a rare intellect, making numerous references to the Old and New Testament, political and philosophical history, and giving us examples of injustice from the beginning of recorded time. Throughout all of it he knows that his readers cannot deny his arguments for three reasons: first, he is, of course, right in his convictions; second, in order to make his points he correlates his actions to actions taken by deeply revered political and religious individuals: how can you argue against Socrates, Jesus, St. Paul, Jefferson, and Lincoln? King references all of these men to support his argument. Third, in making his case for his fellow man, King does so by reminding America of all that is great in our history and all that will be great.

To me, for his love of country, particularly as expressed in “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” a love which led to incalculable personal sacrifice in order to make America a better nation, this is why there is a Martin Luther King, Jr. day. Mr. Tendy is supervisor of the Town of Putnam Valley.