The Radical King, words of Martin Luther King Jr., organized and edited by Cornel West

RATING:

3 stars

0 stars = good but not on the scale

1 star = perspective supplementing

2 stars = perspective influencing

3 stars = perspective altering

SHORT SUMMARY

What can I really say in 272 words?  Read this book.  It will change your perspective.

It’s an impossible task to summarize Dr. King’s words.  So instead of doing that, just some random thoughts:

-Cornel West has a theory that King has been mythologized and “Santa Claus-ified.”  To the point where his own words today have been scrubbed so clean that they have separated from the underlying message and can be used even by those, ignorantly or deliberately, who entirely ignore King’s larger points.  I have been guilty of that, quoting MLK because the words sound nice.  But this is the first time that I have truly listened to what he had to say.

-West’s thesis in putting together this collection is to demonstrate King’s “Gandhian” view of radical love–direct action to unconditionally oppose injustice while maintaining unconditional love for the active and passive oppressors instituting these injustices.

-King’s evolution on radical love ebbed and flowed with human feelings of victory and defeat.  His optimism is clear in many speeches, and his resignations also become clear too, particularly toward the end of his life.

-I’m now not surprised at how controversial King was during the Civil Rights Era.  He posed a threat to the status quo.  He lost his life because of that.  His movement represented a tangible mechanism to awaken the country’s collective soul, at a time in American History when society was most susceptible to awakening.  His message of economic and social transformation started with the struggle of African Americans, but if fully implemented, would have likely spoken for all Americans who had been subjugated or marginalized.

-Read this book.

LONG SUMMARY

This book is a compilation of excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches and personal records.  The King family is known for being incredibly protective of the copyrights for Dr. King’s speeches and texts.

In this book, Cornel West provides the introduction, but it’s King’s text and words that comprise the majority of story.  The King family granted special use of these copyrighted words.

I’ll try to summarize my thoughts as best I can.

Introduction

-The intro chapter comes from Dr. Cornel West.  He provides a over-arching dialogue of the importance of King’s words, not just from the traditional adoration that we put on him, but drills down further into what King’s cause really was about, and how his radical pursuit of racial and economic justice made him watched and feared by many of those in power, including the federal government.  West provides an interesting discussion of King’s faith, and how his interpretation of Christianity extends from traditional sources and also from Nietzche to Gandhi.  West concludes that his adoption of Gandhi’s edict of nonviolence and love for the oppressor but not the oppression was the final step in King’s evolution as a Christian civil rights leader.  This becomes clear in King’s Palm Sunday service on the life of Gandhi.

The violence of desperate men

*This chapter is from King’s memoir about the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  The memoir is called Stride Towards Freedom*

-The first chapter comprises excerpts from King’s writings during the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  It starts with a description of an event where King’s house in Montgomery was bombed in retaliation for the success of the boycott.  In this excerpt, King describes with humanity the newly dawned fear for his family and addresses the issue of violence and violent retaliation.  He goes so far to say that if he were to die, he instructs not a single person in his movement to raise a hand in violence.   Sadly, King’s admonition was not heeded, as the world bore witness to the riots following King’s assassination in 1968.

For me, one of the interesting parts of this writing is how fragile King believed the nonviolent ethos to be.  Shortly after the bombing, his supporters gathered in the streets, and King goes so far to say that if one of his supporters had so much as tripped on a brick, it would have lit a fire and possibly turned violent, because the atmosphere was a tinderbox waiting to explode.

It is also interesting to see King’s consistent belief in the presence of the Divine spirit in his midst.  He believed that Montgomery did not descend into chaos and bloodshed that night because the grace of God was with them.

King was later arrested for violating an obscure law against unlawful protests.  King’s trial was watched by people from around the country and the world.  King was convicted of the crime and was sentenced to prison.  His supporters wore pins that said “forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do.”

Palm Sunday Sermon on Gandhi

*This chapter is from King’s sermon on Palm Sunday 1959 in Montgomery*

-In 1959, 11 years after Gandhi was assassinated, and nine years before he himself would be too, King delivered a sermon on the life of Gandhi.

-In his sermon, King believes that Gandhi “more than anybody else in the history of the modern world had caught the spirit of Jesus Christ.”  King goes on to discuss the ultimate irony of how the most spirited Christian of the 20th century was not in fact even a Christian.  He goes on to quote scripture:  “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold.”  King’s belief is that Christ would have seen Gandhi in this light, not a member of the structures of his teachings, but a disciple in the spirit of them.

-King describes Gandhi’s evolution and development of the nonviolent protest philosophy.  Turn the other cheek.  Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.  Writings of Thoreau and Tolstoy who, according to King, informed Gandhi to learn a truth that oppression can be rejected while the oppressor can be loved.

-It seems like Dr. King was heavily influenced by Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance movement from an early age.  King quotes Christ:  “Greater works shall ye do” and extends that to Gandhi, saying that a non-Christian has extended the teachings of Christ more than anyone else.

-One haunting portion of the King’s sermon is his observation that though Gandhi was one of the greatest men in history, the world does not like people like him.  He says:  “And the final thing that I would like to say to you this morning is that the world
doesn’t like people like Gandhi. That’s strange, isn’t it? They don’t like people
like Christ. They don’t like people like Abraham Lincoln. They kill them.”  The prophetic nature of that statement is haunting.

–Here is a link to the Palm Sunday Sermon.  It’s worth reading.

Pilmgrammage to nonviolence

*From Stride Toward Freedom, The Montgomery Story. Also published in Christian Century Magazine in 1960.

-In this chapter, King provides a glimpse into his philosophical evolution, and his ultimate arrival to Gandhi’s Satyagraha philosophy.  King believes that it is this philosophy which is the most pragmatic and the most aligned with his Christian views to bring about change.

-He views Satyagraha as a social extension of what he previously believed to be a personal application of nonviolence.  Before Gandhi, King saw biblical decrees like “turn the other cheek” as applicable to only a personal philosophy, not one that could be extended to society at large.

-King goes through a discussion of why he disagrees with communism, mainly because it’s lack of belief in a God and a resulting lack of immutable moral anchors from which people can be exploited.

-One of the interesting things for me in this chapter was how King is so intensely intellectually curious.  He follows philosophical doctrines to their conclusions, thinks deeply about them, and then decides if he agrees or disagrees. based on his own experience, priorities, and perspectives.

-Kings interpretations of passivism: it’s not a passive resistance to power, it is an active resistance to power by choosing nonviolence and eliciting a transformation and moral awakening in the oppressor. In this regard, King views the oppressor and the oppressed as allies against injustice and that the oppressors are simply actors in enabling injustice.

-King saw passivism as a realistic passivism, not as a moral absolutism. That those who practice passivism should not assert moral superiority over those who they are resisting

-Personal idealism (“personalism”) – King says that this is the core of his philosophical belief. Gave him a grounding of a belief in personal spirituality.

-King leaves his doctoral studies believing that Nonviolent resistance was one of the core tools available for oppressed people.

-King ties the Sermon on the amount to Gandhian views of nonviolence. He believes he solidified this is a practical way during the Montgomery protests.

-Kings tenants of nonviolent resistance:

(1) Nonviolent resistance is not for cowards. If one resists because of cowardly acts, he quotes Gandhi as that it’s better to fight. “Not a method of stangnant passivity”- It’s not a passive method to resist evil, it’s an active, Nonviolent method.

(2) purpose is not to defeat opponent, but rather to win the friendship of their opponents and to awaken their morality. The goal is redemption and reconciliation between oppressor and oppressed.

(3) directed against the forces of evil, not against persons doing the evil.

(4) willingness to accept suffering without retaliation. Unearned suffering is redemptive for the nonviolent resistor. Quoting Gandhi: “Things of fundamental importance to people are not secured by reason alone, but have to be purchased with their suffering.”

(5) Nonviolent resistance avoids external violence but also internal violence of ones own spirit. Oppressed people cannot succumb to hate or bitterness. Have to cut off the chain of hate.

-King expouses in the words for love in Ancient Greek. Three words for love in Greek: Eros – romantic love; Philia – the love between friends, reciprocal love because one is loved; and Agape- means understanding, loving those who oppose us, redeeming goodwill for all men. King quoted 1 Corinthians 10:24 to define it in a biblical context. Response to a human need, not a reciprocal one. King quotes Agape as an active love that encourages community and sacrifice and forgiveness. And the focus on interrelatedness of humanity.

-Quotes Booker T Washington: “Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”

(6) Nonviolent resistance is based on the belief that the universe is on the side of justice. And it provides those who struggle with cosmic companionship.

Loving your enemies

*Revised his “loving your enemies” sermon during a stint in jail in Albany, Georgia, arrested for participating in peaceful protests during The Albany Movement*

-This excerpt is an extension of some of the themes noted above.  Namely the requirement and ability to love your enemies, even in the face of their oppression of you.  King talks about his agape philosophy again.

Where do we go from here

I’ve been meaning to write a summary about this excerpt for a long time.  I’ve listened to it about three times, and there is just so much in there that, more than enough to recap.  My main thoughts are below.

King writes that for all the scientific and technological advancements in the Western world, we suffer from a spiritual deficit.

King mentions the idea of indebtness to mankind.  We are already living in the red, owing a debt to people all around the world, every day, even as passive consumers in society, and we own this debt to people known and unknown, dead and living.

King also portends that spiritual bankruptcy and a moral slumber can bring about the end of western dominance.  He talks about the story of Rip Van Winkle–how before Rip Van Winkle went up to the mountain to slumber for 20 years, he stayed at an inn.  Before he went up, the sign on the inn had a picture of King George III.  While he slumbered, he slept through the American Revolution, and when he came down, George III was replaced by George Washington on that inn sign.  King uses this analogy to indicate how too many of us are asleep or passively indifferent during times that call for social revolution, and that it is important to “stay awake.”  Perhaps this is where the term “stay woke” originated?

King’s discussion on religon

Dr. King seems like he would be my kind of spiritual leader.  He unequivocally affirms his faith in Christ as a savior, as that is his personal belief and path towards redemption, but simultaneously he does not exclude other faiths from having their own access to the divine.  In this excerpt, King states his belief that God has revealed himself in different spiritual forms to all religions and spiritual seekers in the world, and that we cannot be so short sighted to see truth in only one doctrine.  It’s a very eastern view for a western Christian leader to have.

Tribute to DuBois

In an excerpt that King delivered after W.E.B. DuBois’ death, he mentioned something that stuck out to me.  King viewed DuBois as a defender of truth narrative of the black and African experience in North America.  His view was that DuBois preserved for historical accuracy the successes of black Americans during Reconstruction and postulated an argument that the promoters of systemic racism use techniques to erase history and identity as a way to control and subjugate those who are oppressed.  It is an interesting idea, the duality of the physical control of enslavement and systemic discrimination as well as the psychological control over history and identity.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

I summarized this one here.

The Drum Major Instinct – Sermon delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church

This speech, and the next one in the book (King’s “I have been to the mountaintop” speech) culminate the anthology.  They are two incredibly powerful speeches, both foreshadow his death and provide his own commentary on how he wants his life to be remembered.

The speech here is commonly referred to as the Drum Major Speech.  In this speech, MLK builds on a work titled the “Drum Major Instinct” by J Wallace Hamilton, and builds a spiritual case for channeling innate desires for self-interest and self-fulfillment towards actions that benefit service.  In this speech, King references Mark 10:35 and recounts to his congregation the story of John and James, and how they requested from Christ prominent positions with him during his reign as king of kings. I don’t really know this chapter and verse, but upon doing some research, the point of the verse is that while James and John asked Christ for the seat to his right and his left, Christ responds by saying, those seats are not his to give, that they will be given for whom the seats are prepared.

MLK’s point of this reference is to show that everyone has an interest to be a “drum major”–that is, to seek praise, to feel special, to feel worthy, to have power and if not power to have proximity to power.  This desire for recognition, to feel special, drives a lot of social ills.  People want to feel like a drum major, and will do a lot to tap into that.  They will lift themselves up to drum major status, at times, by pulling others down.  Groups will do that to other groups, races to other races, countries to other countries.  King says that it’s this drum major instinct that cause so many people to be “joiners”:

“And it’s really a quest for attention and recognition and importance. And they get names that give them that impression. So you get your groups, and they become the “Grand Patron,” and the little fellow who is henpecked at home needs a chance to be the “Most Worthy of the Most Worthy” of something. It is the drum major impulse and longing that runs the gamut of human life. And so we see it everywhere, this quest for recognition. And we join things, overjoin really, that we think that we will find that recognition in.”

So, King starts off with a critique of this internal instinct, but then later indicates that the instinct can be channeled towards service.  He references back the story in Mark, and says:

But let me rush on to my conclusion, because I want you to see what Jesus was really saying. What was the answer that Jesus gave these men? It’s very interesting. One would have thought that Jesus would have condemned them. One would have thought that Jesus would have said, “You are out of your place. You are selfish. Why would you raise such a question?”

But that isn’t what Jesus did; he did something altogether different. He said in substance, “Oh, I see, you want to be first. You want to be great. You want to be important. You want to be significant. Well, you ought to be. If you’re going to be my disciple, you must be.” But he reordered priorities. And he said, “Yes, don’t give up this instinct. It’s a good instinct if you use it right. (Yes) It’s a good instinct if you don’t distort it and pervert it. Don’t give it up. Keep feeling the need for being important. Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be first in love. (Amen) I want you to be first in moral excellence. I want you to be first in generosity. That is what I want you to do.”

And he transformed the situation by giving a new definition of greatness. And you know how he said it? He said, “Now brethren, I can’t give you greatness. And really, I can’t make you first.” This is what Jesus said to James and John. “You must earn it. True greatness comes not by favoritism, but by fitness. And the right hand and the left are not mine to give, they belong to those who are prepared.” (Amen)

And so Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important—wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. (Amen) That’s a new definition of greatness.”

The point that King is making is that the drum major instinct can and should be used.  It should not be ignored, but it should be channeled towards greatness, King’s intepretation of Christ’s definition of greatness–to serve and to be a drum major towards the causes of service.  He says that if he were to die, he would want to be remembered as a drum major in this regard:

“Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. (Amen) Say that I was a drum major for peace. (Yes) I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. (Yes) I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. (Amen) And that’s all I want to say.”

“I Have Been to the Mountaintop” – April 3, 1968, the day before MLK’s assassination

This speech was given at the Mason Temple Church of God in Memphis Tennessee the night before Dr. King was killed.

For whoever is reading this, you must read or watch this speech.  A summary will not give it justice.  The end of this speech is just unbelievable, his own prophecy for his death, and then taking into account his speech years earlier–the Palm Sunday Sermon on Gandhi’s life–provides a haunting and mythical moment in American history.

I can’t summarize this speech.  Instead, I’ll tell a story of how I listened to it.   I was out for a run on Saturday morning.  It was a 6am and the DC summer heat seemed to already tick up to about 90 degrees.   I had the speech playing through my Audible app.  It played for the duration of my run, and as I made my way down toward the Lincoln Memorial, I ran the steps and sat at the top to watch the sunrise.  The speech was winding down, and I listened to Dr. King’s final prophecy and testament.  And then I snapped the picture below, with the sunlight shining on the exact spot where Dr. King gave his “I Have A Dream” speech 55 summers ago.  It was one of those most transcendental moments of my life.