Martin Luther King, Jr., Shape-Shifter

Last updated on: January 17, 2017 at 8:25 pm by Libby Anne

Martin Luther King, Jr., Shape-Shifter 2017-01-17T20:25:29-04:00 Libby Anne

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

According to the Washington Post:

Ohio’s governor says Americans shouldn’t focus so much on the highest-level people when there are ways to tackle many societal problems at the local and individual levels.

Republican Gov. John Kasich (KAY’-sik) spoke Monday in Atlanta at the King Center on the holiday honoring its namesake, Martin Luther King Jr.

Kasich says King got the attention of people in power through a “bottom-up” approach worth emulating. Kasich says efforts such as addressing drug use and improving education need people committed at the community level.

I agree that action at the community level is important on any issue, including things like drug use and education. But I am all sorts of tired of seeing the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., used in convoluted and ahistorical ways. King was a radical. He was widely disliked, not just in the South but by whites nationwide. Simply inviting him to visit your town could mean putting your life at risk.

But can we talk about bottom-up for a moment? Because it wasn’t the local cops who protected the Little Rock Nine or flanked Ruby Bridges as she walked to school through screaming mobs. It was federal marshals who did this—because the local cops refused. The local cops were on the other side of the picket lines. When King came to Chicago, he was attacked by white mobs hurling projectiles at him. He wanted to end housing discrimination in the city. The city’s white residents objected—strongly. What does working bottom-up mean in a context like this, exactly? Daley only came to the negotiating table to end the explosive protests. Ultimately, the challenges King faced in Chicago led to the creation of the Fair Housing Act, a federal law.

I worry that using King’s memory to underscore an argument that “Americans shouldn’t focus so much on the highest-level people” because “there are many ways to tackle many societal problems at the local and individual levels” obscures the role federal intervention played in achieving the objectives of the civil rights movement. While King engaged in community activism, fixing problems at the local level isn’t always an option—it was the local level that was a problem. The most lasting successes of the civil rights movement were put in place by federal legislation or Supreme Court decisions, not through changing the minds of local whites.

In his remarks, Kasich participates in a line of conservative thought that that downplays the importance of federal intervention in favor of local solutions, but the successes of the civil rights movement—the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act—were imposed top down. Without federal intervention, it is probable change would have happened much more slowly, if at all.

I’m completely behind Kasich arguing, say, that local and state officials matter, and that voters should pay attention to more than just federal races. Amen. I’m totally with Kasich in arguing that we need community commitment to things like drug abuse prevention and quality public education. Absolutely. It’s downplaying the role top-down intervention played in the civil rights movement on Martin Luther King Jr. Day that bothers me, especially in the wake of the gutting of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Interestingly, there were other civil rights figures who focused on bottom-up change, arguing that top-down change was unhelpful, or that it would never happen. These individuals tended to argue for finding strength in community, for solving your problems yourself, without asking the government to do it for you (so to speak). But these civil rights figures are the ones white people erased in their ironic eagerness to make King the non-confrontational face of the civil rights movement.

They’re the scary ones.

I’m not trying to pick on Kasich here. He was the only Republican presidential candidate who refused to fall in line behind Trump and I don’t think he was trying to silence anyone. My concern is less with Kasich than it is with a general pattern of remembering Martin Luther King Jr. Day in a way that erases important aspects of the civil rights movement. It’s worth paying attention to what the civil rights movement tells us about the limits of local action in defense of minority rights, and the need for federal intervention. If we have a federal justice department that signals an unwillingness to review cases where white police officers shoot unarmed black men, how far will local action by Black Lives Matter get in fixing endemic police bias?

The more common erasure, of course, comes from those portraying King as a moderate, non-divisive civil rights figure when he was anything but. All in all, I’m starting to think that official Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations should consist of nothing more than reading King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail out loud.

[Note: This post was edited for clarity.]

Politics

Uncategorized

race

Previous Post

January 17, 2017

What Spiritual Warfare Has in Common with New Ageism

Next Post

January 18, 2017 DeVos on Accountability and the Right to an Education

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Atheism Evangelicalism/Fundamentalism Family Feminism Homeschool Meta Parenting Patriarchy Politics Purity Quiverfull Social Justice Uncategorized Worthwhile reads

Select a Month February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the major prophet during King Hezekiah's reign in Judah?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Isaiah Ezekiel Daniel Jeremiah