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Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Black Lives Matter activists aim to 'reclaim' MLK as radical

The civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr. famously pursued equality through peaceful protest, but many 21st century activists have said they want to "reclaim" him under a different image: as a forceful "radical."

The Chicago branch of Black Lives Matter pushed the #ReclaimMLK hashtag on Twitter, claiming Martin Luther King Day would allow activists to "engage about the real radical King they don't want you to know about!"

"We do King a disservice when we try to tell a flat story of turning the other cheek," said 31-year-old Charlene Carruthers, national director of the Black Youth Project 100 in Chicago. "It was never simply that."

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3 comments:

Unknown said...

Well, he WAS radical. He was arrested 30 times and was considered a troublemaker in his day. It's only in the decades since his assasination that his legacy has been watered down.

"First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but 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 cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

- Martin Luther King Jr. "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" 1963

Anonymous said...

He was a conservative Republican and his children still vote Republican because they know the truth.

Anonymous said...

MLK would denounce Black Lies Matter.