The prophetic anger of MLK

[LiveLiberally]

After 1965, the civil rights leader grew angrier over America's unwillingness to change.

By Michael Eric Dyson

April 4, 2008

"ON THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, few truths ring louder than this: Barack Obama and Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. express in part the fallen leader's split mind on race, a division marked by chronology and color.

Before 1965, King was upbeat and bright, his belief in white America's ability to change by moral suasion resilient and durable. That is the leader we have come to know during annual King commemorations. After 1965, King was darker and angrier; he grew more skeptical about the willingness of America to change without great social coercion.

King's skepticism and anger were often muted when he spoke to white America, but they routinely resonated in black sanctuaries and meeting halls across the land. Nothing highlights that split -- or white America's ignorance of it and the prophetic black church King inspired -- more than recalling King's post-1965 odyssey, as he grappled bravely with poverty, war and entrenched racism. That is the King who emerges as we recall the meaning of his death...."

Link to rest of editorial: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-dyson4apr04,0,1840793.story

[noel711]

1. "No, we can't have that anger from the pulpits...

no, it must be bigotry...
How can we sit in those pews for years,
and listen to that?"

Those words echo from years ago, and resound again today.
Dr. Martin Luther King begat REv. Jeremiah Wright,
yet his legacy is continually vilified...

Shame on us for how little movement we've had on Sunday mornings,
and from day to day.

[balantz]

2. K&R

[babylonsister]

3. No wonder, and rec'd. nt