This past Monday we celebrated Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Some of us volunteered, some of us marched and protested, some of us went to work as usual, and some of us like me took the day off, it was a holiday. I did give thanks to God for sending King and asked for him to send someone else to finish King’s work.
We all have different ways we spend holidays, but the King Day is special for most Blacks, and especially for those of us with some knowledge of history and what the Civil Rights struggle was all about.
Even though he was the recognized leader, as quiet as it’s kept most Blacks did not follow King nor were they involved in the Civil Rights struggle for economic and social justice for Blacks.
There were a large number of Blacks who called Dr. King an Uncle Tom, butt kissing Black man. Then there were those who called him a radical troublemaker, but a large percentage just didn’t care.
They felt King and his followers were getting Black folks killed, maimed, causing them to lose their jobs, all for nothing. Everybody knew Blacks would never be able to be equal to Whites, especially throughout the South.
It’s odd that growing up in the South, then moving to the North the different attitudes of Blacks in these areas. Many southern Blacks respected King and the struggle but were afraid of what he could start by upsetting Whites. We knew that almost every White man in the South owned a gun and knew how to use them and many if not most would have no problem using it on an uppity Black. That’s the real reason the Civil Rights struggle in the South was Non-Violence. Violence would have given Whites the excuse to purge Blacks from the face of America. Remember the Indians? There were lots of killings even with the non-violent movement; just imagine what it would have been like if King had listened to Malcolm X and others.
I found Blacks in the North simply didn’t understand how could any group of people just take the abuse they took? You took it or you died. Remember the opening of “The Butler” movie when the butler mother was raped and his father killed for confronting the White rapist?
With the large pockets of poverty throughout this country, North, South, East, West, have things really gotten any better for Blacks? Yes, it has. We have a long, long way to go, but things are much better.
First there are far more job and educational opportunities.
Even though there has been a national outrage over the shootings of young Black males by White police officers throughout this country at least there’s protest. Before the Civil Right Struggle this was a common thing throughout the South and if you protested you ended up hanging from a tree and nothing was done about it. On the whole we no longer have to live in fear and the knowledge that the White man could do anything he wanted to you, your wife, daughter, sister, brother and nothing would be done about it. That reality no longer exists in the South or North.
Young people as they did back doing the King era, are saying that we aren’t going to tolerate the killings of our young Black males by White Police officers, nor are we going to tolerate the killings of our young Black males by other Black males. “Our Lives Matter Too.” And the beauty of this is that they aren’t being gunned down, dogs and water hoses are not being turned on them, and on the most part they are peaceful protests, with the exception of New York City, and Ferguson, Mo., the police are showing a great amount of respect and restraint.
One only has to listen and read the yearly reports by the local and national Urban League, or the recent report by Dean Larry Davis at Pitt to understand that Blacks are still way, way behind Whites in this country economically.
Marching and protests are good to stop the violence. It also brings attention to the lack of programs to help our kids in education, and employment. But we must go beyond this. We must identify the positive programs and ideals and the people out there that are fighting to combat poverty, the lack of education, the mentoring programs, the training programs, and the motivational programs.
We as a community can’t get caught up in late breaking news in which everything is negative, who killed whom, who left their baby in a car, who beat up whom, who robbed whom, or what entertainers and athletes are doing? Yes, there’s a place for this, but what about the positive programs and people helping others.
If we are going to move forward we need to make sure no one is left behind. This is the true Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dream, as well as all our ancestors, who fought, suffered, and died so we could stand up like proud men and women.
King always put God first. We need to bring God back into our lives and families. With God comes respect and pride in others and ourselves.
(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier.)
