Martin Luther King Jr: Not Just A “Harmless Icon”

On January 15th, 1929, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King was born. 95 years later and 56 since his death, his legacy has been dulled by deliberate attempts to restrain his revolutionary rhetoric.

“During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly

hounded them, received their theories with the most savage malice, the most

furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. After

their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons, to canonize

them, so to say, and to hallow their names to a certain extent for the ‘consolation’

of the oppressed classes and with the object of duping the latter, while at the

same time robbing the revolutionary theory of its substance, blunting its

revolutionary edge and vulgarizing it.”

Vladimir Lenin’s words aptly describe MLK’s legacy as it has been tampered with by American society. TIME furthers that “it has become more comfortable to celebrate the civil rights movement of the 1960s as if its leaders were uncontroversial except among a small racist minority.” MLK should be celebrated as a disruptive force for change, rather than a passive figure known for superficial platitudes. His methods of direct action and his critique of capitalism have been swept under the rug. Students are taught that “the time is always ripe to do right,” but not that “we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.” In so doing, society has reduced MLK to an inspirational speaker with a penchant for memorable quotes. This is demonstrated quite clearly by the beautiful, but insipid engravings at the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington DC.

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”

Most Americans are familiar with this famous line, engraved on the North Wall of the memorial. It is presented, however, desperately out of context. The more complete quote lies in his letter from Birmingham Jail:

“[The greatest impediment to equality is] the white moderate who is more

devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the

absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who

constantly says, ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your

methods of direct action’; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable

for another man's freedom.”

In context, these words are tangible, and meaningful, and remain pertinent nearly 60 years on. However, efforts to be uncontroversial select for benign adages, eroding his “revolutionary message” and rendering Martin Luther King a grand pontificator rather than one of the 20th century’s true heroes.