First question MLK was asked on Meet The Press: "Aren't sit-ins hurting the negro cause?"

[Waiting For Everyman]

17. They shouted slanderous lies at the crowd.

Lies, is that how to build a successful movement? What reaction did they expect?

They called a crowd of white progressives / liberals, "white supremacist liberals". That is not accurate, that is a lie -- an ugly, nasty, slanderous lie at that.

I was 13 when MLK gave his "I have a dream" speech, and I followed all the events in the years afterward. I don't remember him ever shouting lies at a crowd. If you look at film of the 1963 March on Washington crowd, there are a LOT of whites there (roughly 20%). He didn't tell them to shut up and they're part of the problem.

What he did do, is describe a better society, and lead concrete steps toward achieving it. That inspired people, and they followed of all colors. It's the "vision thing", that's what is entirely lacking here. People are motivated by that, not by being berated, and having their past efforts for equality whatever they may be, counted for absolutely nothing.

Wouldn't the natural impulse be to say to themselves after that, fine do it yourself then. What is so surprising about that? If that's the end BLM is trying to achieve, the Seattle Two are doing a good job of it.

They aren't demonstrating to me that Black Lives Matter to them, because they're doing everything they can to strip away the only white allies they have. That tells me they don't really care about effecting any change, regardless of their words. People encouraging this are encouraging that same failure, so how much do they really care as well?

I see it as an attempted psychological manipulation game, and not much more. I don't see it preventing one police shooting. Not now, not ever.


ABC footage without commentary (Burt Lancaster's words about 11 min. in are interesting)...

Narrated, with background on the event...

See the difference?

Extended cell footage showing how patient this crowd tried to be...

Still think the Seattle Two's protest was very much like MLK's? I sure don't.