The Best of "The Way I See It" and Other Political Writings (1989-2010). Jamala Rogers

      Jamala speaks at rally held by progressive organizations

      as an alternative to the annual Dr. Martin Luther

      King march and commemoration. (1995)

      Another Dimension of Dr. King

      January, 1996

      “...These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born....We in the West must support these revolutions...”

      These are the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Yes, you heard me. Our non-violent, turn-the-other-cheek King asked us to support revolution in the world. This is another side of Dr. King that rarely gets attention and as with other world leaders, the focus on their lives is narrow and one dimensional. We rarely get to see their growth and development over a period of time.

      We know that Dr. King was a very young man when he was thrust into the position of heading up the Montgomery bus boycott, a campaign that marked his initiation into the civil rights movement. As an inexperienced organizer, he had to learn what it would take to make change in the South.

      As King organized poor, black people to take power on the various fronts, he began looking beyond the surface to find out how such conditions were created, perpetrated and maintained. His analysis of the root causes of exploitation and oppression took him directly to the system of capitalism. King discovered that racism and classism were essential to maintaining profits and control.

      Like Malcolm X, King really got into trouble when he began making the connections between the United States’ role and the suffering and underdevelopment of the Third World. He began looking at the struggle of African Americans as part of a world-wide struggle for equality and self-determination. His last writings affirmed that he truly grasped why the lives of poor people of color would continue to deteriorate until they understood the source of the problem. He told us about that in From Chaos to Community.

      There are some folks who want to keep serving us the limited vision of Dr. King and we shouldn’t let them. Hail him up, sing praises unto him, put him on calendars - just remember the real essence of his beliefs. Remember that King was growing in his knowledge about power relations, although he may not always have had the right tactic for a particular struggle. He was the epitome of a great leader because he was a great learner.

      As we ready for the many activities to celebrate the birth of a King, I would like people to appreciate the two things that I admired most about him. One was his activism and two, his unselfish commitment to the struggle for human rights.

      There are many who claimed to have walked with Dr. King during those tumultuous times of the Civil Rights Movement. There are many who observe his birthday in a number of ways. The real question is - do people carry out Dr. King’s ideals every day? Are they actively involved in challenging the white power structure as he did, in order to uplift a race of second-class citizens? Yes, King was non- violent, but he was an activist.

      Dr. King’s genuine commitment helped him to keep his “eye on the prize.” You’d better believe there were plenty of times that he was bribed with big dollars to stop what he was doing. Unlike too many of our so-called leaders, money was not a motivating factor for Dr. King. To his death, he and his family lived moderately, but comfortably. He did not drive a fancy car, or wear fancy clothes. He did not walk with the people in his overalls one hour and then go to an extravagant life in the suburbs in the next hour. He paralleled his life, more than most, to the legendary man referred to as Jesus Christ.

      Let January 15th serve as a time of renewal and re- dedication to the REAL philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He correctly told us that “anybody can be great because everybody can serve.” By doing so, we can take our cities from “chaos to community.”

      Rethinking the King

      February, 2001

      St. Louis boasts of having one of the biggest commemorations in the country for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is also one of the oldest celebrations. The annual march is a time for rejuvenation and re-commitment. A time for networking and organizing. A time for raising the issues of the day and setting a course for the year. I’ve always maintained that if the thousands of people who march each year honored Dr. King’s legacy by engaging in some meaningful action the other 364 days, St. Louis would be a different place.

      We are often led to Dr. King’s most famous “I Have a Dream” speech. His eloquence, whether one agrees with his views or not, remains uncontested. I think he is one of the greatest orators of modern times. I prefer to lift up his less than famous, but most poignant, speech delivered to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1967. Dr. King attempted to answer the question “Where do we go from here?” also the title of his must-read book. The message is just as compelling and relevant today as it was then. Time is overdue to teach our children about the whole King, particularly as his last writings reveal his growing and changing insights into the America he had experienced and studied.

      This last presidential speech begins with the inequities in society that have blacks getting half the good things that whites enjoy as full-fledge citizens, and twice the bad. King spoke of the disparities in employment, health, income, housing, education, etc. More than three decades later, the plight of African-Americans doesn’t appear to have changed much. Dr. King goes on to do more than describe a bad situation.

      First, he acknowledges that we “must massively assert our dignity and worth” and “stand up amidst a system that oppresses us.” We must be proud of our heritage and our contributions. This may seem like a simple task, if you discount the fact that only 135 years ago, we were chattel slaves. It is a condition that more than hovers over us like an unwanted shadow. It permeates every aspect of our lives, from self-image to relationships. Dr. King correctly insisted that at the core of any freedom movement must be an offensive against “cultural homicide.” Today, we can add cultural suicide to our destruction, as we allow and promote abounding images that degrade and corrupt us as a people. The boob tube, with its negativity toward blacks in the news, sit-coms and music videos, literally spits at us 24-7.

      Dr. King went on to talk about the need for full employment, for economic and political power. He also affirmed his non-violent philosophy, but who knows? If he had lived long enough, this country’s continued violent response to our existence might have changed King’s views on this. All bullies must have their day.

      Now, like then, there is no “time for romantic illusions and empty philosophical debates about freedom. It is a time for action.” The strategy for the transformation of this society is still the task before us all.

      Reclaim the Dream

      January, 2008

      For years now, I have been sweetly singing the same refrain - sometimes it became a rant – and that is those of us who really understood Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream were falling down on the job. We had let our guard down. We had ceased to be vigilant, not only in protecting the dream but in carrying out the dream that has now become an extraordinary legacy. Worse, we are bestowing honors in the name of Dr. King on destroyers of the dream. Many in the social justice movement feel the same way.

      There