A King for Our Times

 A King forOur Timesby Davarian Baldwin | special to NewBlackMan
On Sunday, October 17, 2011, Dr. Martin Luther KingJr. stood, arms crossed, gazing out over the Tidal Basin on the National Mall.Once again he was surrounded by tens of thousands of people. Only this time, hewas 30 feet tall, ensconced in granite, and etched with quotes from hishistoric speeches. All had gathered for thededication of the long awaited monument for civil rights icon Martin LutherKing. Yet it's important to note that likeSisyphus pushing that boulder up a hill only to watch it roll back down, King'smonument dedication seemed destined to never happen. For decades the memorialfaced struggles with funding. Once plans moved forward many then grumbled aboutthe "political correctness" of placing a civilian, a common man, "who happenedto be African American," next to presidents. Finally, once the date had beenset, the monument dedication had to be rescheduled because of the howling windsof Hurricane Irene. So in a way that best commemorated the legacy of King, hismemorial faced a range of struggles and still…overcame.
Under clear blue skies it was apparent King had onceagain drawn a cross section of Americana to the seat of national governance. Inattendance were Civil Rights stalwarts who had walked next to King, some nowmoving much more slowly and aided by wheelchairs or walkers. The sun-kissedcrowd was a mix of young, old, some in strollers, some having no idea who Kingwas, staring behind searching eyes only knowing that they were told they wereattending an historic event. And to be sure, it was an historic event…for anumber of reasons. Notably, an African American president presided over theproceedings from the podium while the distinguished Princeton Universityprofessor and public intellectual, Cornel West looked on from the audience. Ina way, King had put a momentary hiatus on what had been months of politicaldisagreements (some say more ego-driven than ideological) between these twoprominent African American men, both inheritors of King's dream. But more importantthan who they were, it is equally telling to track where these two men were"coming from" on that clear and sunny day.
Obama had just come from a "beatdown" by Republicanrepresentatives over the defeat of his long-term health care insurance plan. Heeven not-so-subtly referenced the "Occupy" events taking the nation by storm:"I believe he [King] would remind us that the unemployed worker can rightlychallenge the excesses of Wall Street without demonizing all who work there."While West left the dedication and headed straight away to an Occupy D.C. eventwhere an estimated 250 people set up camp on the steps of the Supreme Courtbuilding. He was summarily arrested for occupying public space to reportedlydenounce the court decisions that have opened the door to greater corporateinfluence on governmental decisions. Many scoffed at the very audacity of Westor anyone, but especially Obama, "highjacking" the memorial dedication andmentioning in the same breath King and the more than 200 Occupy protest eventsthat spread from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to the Saskatchewan province in Canada.These caretakers of "The Dream" emphasize the "King qualities" of silentsuffering in the face of violent attacks, attempts to connect with a largermoral conscience, and a "rights-based" appeal through official politicalchannels. Therefore, mention of King in the same discussion of the Occupyevents is dismissed as sacrilegious.
In a sense, once the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and theVoting Rights Act of 1965 were passed, King's relevance seemed to also pass.Therefore, the current struggles over health care, unemployment, the corporatecontrol of government, the protests of various interest groups work againstKing's grander appeals to an American "we." But then those of us with anyhistorical memory or those invested in social justice, scratch our heads andwonder precisely who is this King that has been memorialized in granite and ina sense frozen in time; caricatured at the "I Have a Dream" moment of his life andconfined to the "content of our character" phrase for at least the last thirtyyears. What do we lose in the struggle to make the American public feel that a Kingmemorial dedication stands in opposition to our current economic climate? We losea King for our times.
We lose the 1967 King, who at Riverside Church in NewYork City defied the Civil Rights establishment to make links between what hesaw as a colonial war in Vietnam with a failure to achieve racial equality andsocio-economic justice at home. We lose the King who was assassinated inMemphis, Tennessee organizing primarily Black garbage workers fighting forbetter wages and racial dignity as part of his larger Poor People's campaign.We lose the King who said Progress is meaningless when the economy expands andstock values rise but millions of people remain unemployed or underpaid,without health care, a pension or economic security. We lose a King whodescribed American capitalism as "socialism for the rich and free markets forthe poor;" who linked urban poverty with suburban plenty. We lose a King thatwould comfort and rest beside those occupy protestors, as they sleep under thestars in open air encampments. We lose a King for our times.
Now I am not one who peddles in useless speculationsabout how King would vote or which political position sitsthatone day all of God's children will have food and clothing and materialwell-being for their bodies, culture and education for their minds and freedomfor their spirits.
In my mind, this is the King for our times. This isKing the Christian preacher and the world citizen. This is the King who openlyadmired American presidents and Trinidadian Marxist C.L.R. James. This is theKing who made appeals to Civil Rights but when faced with urban northernpoverty strangling black communities that had rights, he expanded his politicalvision to something greater. This is a King who saw the redistribution of statepower and economic wealth as part of the American Creed. This is the King whounderstood social justice as an act of love and not mere sentiment. Perhaps ifcitizens had listened to all King had to say we wouldn't be faced with such adaunting task ahead. And therefore as we dedicate a memorial to Dr. MartinLuther King Jr. let nobody turn us around, let no one tell us who he is. Kinglives in our current struggles and remains a drum major for justiceunfulfilled. We need his full legacy now, more than ever before.
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Davarian L. Baldwin the  Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studiesat Trinity College. Baldwin is the author of Chicago's New Negroes: Modernity, the Great Migration, and Black UrbanLife (UNC, 2007). He is also co-editor, with Minkah Makalani, of the essaycollection Escape From New York! The'Harlem Renaissance' Reconsidered (forthcoming from the University ofMinnesota Press). Baldwin is currently at work on two new projects, Land of Darkness: Chicago and the Making ofRace in Modern America (Oxford University Press) and UniverCities: How Higher Education isTransforming the Urban Landscape.