The Martin Luther King Thread

yeah this is just a breathtaking piece of work, the thing that made me really go "wow this dude can WRITE"

― tebow gotti (k3vin k.), Monday, 16 January 2012 21:09 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

feel like i'm jumping in to see your praise & raise you hyperbole but yeah i think this is one of the greatest things ever written; seem to recall one of the two lawyers who were fighting the recent Californian gay marriage case calling it one of the best documents humankind has produced. it's also very romantic to be able to suffix this guy can write w/'-in the margins of spare newspaper pages while in prison'. his supreme patience, perfervid desire to actually connect, & willingness to engage with people whose acts ought by any logic ought not to have been dignified with a response, is inspirational.

in case anyone never read it

http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

i'm reading the "autobiography" right now and it's good! straight from the man himself

Nope, kev! I've been lazy about reading the Branch one.

schlump otm

tangentially related, today the rainbow center at my school screened a doc about this guy (http://rustin.org/); couldn't catch it, but i'm gonna check for a book on him from the library. seems like a bro

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/rfk-announcing-death-of-martin-luther.html

The Taylor Branch books are my favorite books about anything ever.

mlk3 spoke in SA, we had over 100k march again this year
proud of my city

holy shit at the us steel vs. morbs upthread

I'm on the fence about every use of Dr. King's image these days. I think that there are a lot of issues he would weigh in on, but probably not clearly aligned with a lot of groups that exist in 2012. I also think that people think "if he were alive today, he would.." while thinking of him the way he was when he was assassinated, but.. he'd be over 40 years older!

yeah -- "If he were alive" questions are deadwood.

http://i.imgur.com/ms3AB.png

Papa John's is one to talk about longevity and quality.

lol

Dennis Perrin ‏@DennisThePerrin
Isn't it cute when liberals try to drag radical visionaries down to their level?

cute as a button

Would we be calling MLK a sellout by now, had he not been killed?

not if he was marching against Bam today, no

what are the chances that you think that would happen morbs

good

he marched "against" LBJ

ghost MLK actually likes drones, hate you tell you, morbs

but the beauty is WE'LL NEVER KNOW

bye

(Bam will live to be 90 on the Supreme Court, bcz the good die young)

Isn't it cute when Morbs tries to drag radical visionaries down to his level?

if hilter were alive today he would support obama

I am basing this off a hitler personality model that I have constructed w/ a huge set of hitler data

he would love obama

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbABaBFfo9k

I believe all people are nice, even thought they get mad sometimes. My personal hero is someone who never got mad, who always turned the other cheek: the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

just seems sort of crass to imply what a dead person would do or think, instead of saying that you found them inspirational and this is what /you/ think, partially due to their influence

last I checked MLK Jr. had a daughter who's using her name to advocate against rights for gay people

kids are the worst.

itt white people speculate on the potential futures of america's civil rights greats

As they do.

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/601251_10151623235194056_1126994918_n.jpg

via Pee-Wee Herman, of course

i remember my HS history teacher telling us he thought MLK would've eventually run for president had he lived. i think the odds of that were pretty low but tbh i wish i lived in the parallel universe where it happened.

US Air Force:

"Dr. King would be proud to see our Global Strike team - comprised of Airmen, civilians and contractors from every race, creed, background and religion - standing side-by-side ensuring the most powerful weapons in the US arsenal remain the credible bedrock of our national defense. . . Our team must overlook our differences to ensure perfection as we maintain and operate our weapon systems. . . Maintaining our commitment to our Global Strike team, our families and our nation is a fitting tribute to Dr. King as we celebrate his legacy."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/22/martin-luther-king-military-weapons

went to a screening of 'king: a filmed record' tonight. easily one of the best documentaries i've ever seen -- a fucking incredible experience.

really, like, if you're a human being, you gotta see this.

I have seen it. Coulda done w/out the actor readings, though.

Would we be calling MLK a sellout by now, had he not been killed?

― mh, Monday, January 21, 2013 11:11 AM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not if he was marching against Bam today, no

― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Monday, January 21, 2013 11:12 AM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what are the chances that you think that would happen morbs

― iatee, Monday, January 21, 2013 11:12 AM

maybe not good; he'd be in Guantanamo

Poor hypothetical 84-year-old political prisoner.

Anyone seen the documentary Eyes on the Prize? Made by PBS in 1987 when most of the participants were alive.

Yeah, I remember that being pretty great. Wasn't someone supposed to do Parting the Waters, or did that happen already?

of course i saw eyes on the prize! i'd like to see it again though, that was a long time ago. it's REALLY weird to think that more time has passed since that documentary was aired than had passed between it and the events it was talking about.

It works in part because it's a 6-hour series (and only covers up to '65).

I've checked out the first two parts. An excellent companion to the Taylor Branch books.

There's an Eyes On The Prize II that goes to the 1970s (I think). Long unavailable, though. First aired in 1988.

agreed about the actor readings -- pretty dated and kinda embarrassing.

I'd like to see all the footage of King speaking and marching that is extant. Filmed Record has that angry white Chicago mob in it, right?

Speaking of actors, Variety piece on the showbiz contingent at the March.

The 50 or so actors and performers who attended — Sammy Davis Jr., Marlon Brando, Lena Horne, James Garner, Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier, Diahann Carroll to name a few — were “partly responsible for bringing a relaxed and peaceful ‘county fair’ mood to the huge demonstration,” as Variety’s Mike Mosettig, then just 21 years old, wrote. But Mosettig, now a producer for PBS, also noted that Harry Belafonte, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, read a statement from the show biz that warned of “artistic sterility” if all Americans aren’t given freedom and discrimination didn’t come to an end. Without that, Belafonte read, “growth of the artist is seriously menaced.”

...Garner, in his autobiography, said that the FBI called each celebrity one by one the night before, warning them to stay away, “saying they couldn’t guarantee our safety.”

There also was disagreement among the show biz contingent on exactly what they should do and say once they got there. Before they left Los Angeles on a chartered plane, Garner wrote, then Screen Actors Guild president Heston presided over a planning meeting where Brando held up a cattle prod that had been used against demonstrators in Gadsden, Alabama.

“Marlon wanted us to chain ourselves to the Lincoln Memorial,” Garner wrote. “Chuck didn’t like that. He said we should play by the rules and threatened to bail out of the march if we did any ‘militant’ stuff. Marlon shut up and we did it Chuck’s way.”...

Josephine Baker “disavowed for one day her pledge never to return to the U.S. and flew in from Paris,” Variety reported. Wearing a blue uniform of the free French, she praised the racially mixed crowd for being “together as salt and pepper just as you should be. You are a unified people at last.” Dick Gregory quipped to the estimated 200,000 gathered, “The last time I saw this many of us, Bull Connor was doing all the talking.”

http://variety.com/2013/voices/columns/when-marlon-brando-marched-with-charlton-heston-how-variety-covered-the-march-on-washington-1200589376/

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/04/06/heston_brando_gallery__589x400.jpg

Garner, in his autobiography, said that the FBI called each celebrity one by one the night before, warning them to stay away, “saying they couldn’t guarantee our safety.”

lolololololol

Filmed Record has that angry white Chicago mob in it, right?

yes -- one of the most chilling things i've ever seen. there's a clip from MLK saying it's worse than anything he encountered in the south.

nippers like me should watch this meet the press clip to have it brought home just how condescendingly concern-trolling the enlightened yankees were re: MLK; every single question (that isn't about noted COMMIE! bayard rustin) is about how Well Don't You Think There's Likely To Be A Lot Of Violence? Don't You Think You're Pushing Too Hard? Shouldn't You Allow The Country Time To Get Used To The Advances We've Already Made?