Don't Let Them Hijack Martin Luther King Jr.
Ronald Reagan and Dr. King probably would recoil at the hijacking of a holiday dedicated to non-violence and color-blindess in America for victimhood, reparations and "equity."
At least two terrible things happened this past week that dishonors the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today.
Yesterday was to have been his 94th birthday. Unfortunately, courtesy of a bullet from assassin James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968, at Memphis’s Lorraine Hotel, on a balcony outside room 306, King would never live to see his 40th birthday. Only two months later, Democratic Presidential candidate, US Senator, and former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy was felled by another assassin’s bullets in Los Angeles. It was a rough year, not to mention the riots at that summer’s Democratic National Convention during the height of the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War. The visuals were seared into my then-11-year-old brain.
But I never saw visuals like the following growing up in Oklahoma. It predates even this 66-year-old fossil. This is unimaginable to us today. But we need to remember that they existed.
King had already won a Nobel Peace Prize four years earlier, the youngest recipient in history. Yet, despite his death, his impact on American culture and history was beginning. Martyrdom does that sometimes.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, then led by J. Edgar Hoover, did its best to undermine King and his legacy, claiming the pastor was unfaithful to his wife and sympathetic to communism. None of that was ever proven, nor did it deter the power of his messages. It appears that the legacy of the FBI lives on but now targets a different class of “subversives,” such as people who protest at public school board meetings because they dare speak out against new forms of racism. Some things never change.
King’s messages were multi-faceted. First, America has a race problem. That much was obvious. President Ronald Reagan said a much on November 2, 1983, when he signed HR 3706, legislation to establish the third Monday of January as a new federal holiday.
Here’s part of what Ronald Reagan said in November 1983 when he signed the law making today a federal holiday (the first official holiday was in 1986).
Martin Luther King was born in 1929 in an America where, because of the color of their skin, nearly 1 in 10 lived lives that were separate and unequal. Most black Americans were taught in segregated schools. Across the country, too many could find only poor jobs, toiling for low wages. They were refused entry into hotels and restaurants, made to use separate facilities. In a nation that proclaimed liberty and justice for all, too many black Americans were living with neither.
In one city, a rule required all blacks to sit in the rear of public buses. But in 1955, when a brave woman named Rosa Parks was told to move to the back of the bus, she said, ``No.” A young minister in a local Baptist church, Martin Luther King, then organized a boycott of the bus company -- a boycott that stunned the country. Within 6 months the courts had ruled the segregation of public transportation unconstitutional.
Dr. King had awakened something strong and true, a sense that true justice must be colorblind, and that among white and black Americans, as he put it, “Their destiny is tied up with our destiny, and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom; we cannot walk alone.''
In the years after the bus boycott, Dr. King made equality of rights his life's work. Across the country, he organized boycotts, rallies, and marches. Often he was beaten, imprisoned, but he never stopped teaching nonviolence. “Work with the faith,” he told his followers, “that unearned suffering is redemptive.'' In 1964 Dr. King became the youngest man in history to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Indeed, Reagan had previously opposed creating a new federal holiday. Other Republicans, including the late Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), believed King was a Communist (never proven). So did US. Rep. William Dannemeyer (R-CA), primarily over costs. But that was all overridden. Reagan said this in 1986:
"This year marks the first observance of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a national holiday. It is a time for rejoicing and reflecting. We rejoice because, in his short life, Dr. King, by his preaching, his example, and his leadership, helped to move us closer to the ideals on which America was founded... He challenged us to make real the promise of America as a land of freedom, equality, opportunity, and brotherhood."
Reagan’s signing of the bill to create a new holiday in King’s honor was his first such bill. Less than a year later, he signed another bill creating a commission to promote the holiday. US Rep. John Lewis, a Civil Rights icon who represented Atlanta in Congress for over two decades, authored another bill promoting public service in conjunction with the holiday.
King also famously called for non-violence. “Work with the faith,” King famously said, “that unearned suffering is redemptive.”
That is powerful. Perhaps as powerful is what he didn’t say. King never claimed victimhood. He didn’t demand reparations. He didn’t seek special favors based on race. He didn’t demand an end to meritocracy or lower expectations based on race. He called for equality of opportunity, never “equity” or equal outcomes. And he didn’t seek to insulate people of color from any criticism.
Yet, that is how many are attempting to hijack King’s legacy and the holiday named in his honor. Forty-six years since the first holiday - nearly 50 years since President Reagan signed the bill to create it - Dr. King’s message of “color blindness” and “non-violence” is on life support, overshadowed by destructive, racist assertions of “white supremacy” and “white privilege.” Does that sound like something Dr. King would inspire, much less advocate today?
A good example of this absurdity is US Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-TX, and a bill she introduced earlier this month to outlaw, in effect, “hate speech that vilifies or is otherwise directed against any non-White person or group. . .” Read the bill for yourself. Hate speech is very broadly defined. It’s called the “Leading Against White Supremacy Act of 2023,” or HR 61. Fortunately, this bill will never see the light of day.
14th Amendment, call your office.
By the way, a “conspiracy to engage in a white supremacy inspired hate crime” shall have been found to exist if your comment “. . .was published on a social media platform or by other means of publication with the likelihood that it would be viewed by persons who are predisposed to engaging in any action in furtherance of a white supremacy inspired hate crime, or who are susceptible to being encouraged to engage in actions in furtherance of a white supremacy inspired hate crime.”
And then, in Virginia, we have the case of the soft bigotry of low expectations involving what used to be the best science the math high school in America. It has since been broadened to other high schools in one of the most populous and wealthiest counties in the United States, just outside Washington, DC.
The Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology and now other schools delayed informing students of their recognition for national merit-based awards until after deadlines for college scholarships had passed. Those of you whose children have taken and perhaps been awarded scholarships based on the PSAT will get this. FoxNews, citing Gov. Glenn Youngkin:
"We need to get to the bottom of what appears to be an egregious, deliberate attempt to disadvantage high-performing students at one of the best schools in the country," Youngkin said in a statement. "Parents and students deserve answers and Attorney General (Jason) Miyares will initiate a full investigation. I believe this failure may have caused material harm to those students and their parents, and that this failure may have violated the Virginia Human Rights Act."
The delayed notification was discovered by a parent whose son was not informed that he was among the nation's top 3% of students until teachers dropped certificates unceremoniously on students' desks about a month past special deadlines for National Merit Scholars.
Director of Student Services Brandon Kosatka allegedly told the parent when confronted about the issue that student leaders minimized the recognition to avoid hurting the feelings of students who failed to earn the honors.
The misconduct comes after Fairfax County Public Schools recently adopted a new strategy that aims to provide "Equal outcomes for every student, without exceptions."
This isn’t just wrong; it’s insane. You may ask, what does this have to do with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? Everything.
One does not level the playing field by sawing the legs off tall people. And it does not advance the cause of freedom by tying the hands of people who are gifted differently than others.
One reason Americans love professional sports is that it is a meritocracy. We get to see the best at work. For the same reason, we resent any effort to penalize the most talented among us because they are gifted more than others.
I’m a Washington Capitals NHL ice hockey fan. It would be like limiting how many minutes or shots the team’s captain, Alex Ovechkin, the NHL’s second-highest goal scorer in history, can take during each hockey game in ‘fairness’ to other, less-skilled or talented players. How does that incentivize the best in all of us? That’s not a game or sport I would watch.
The freedom to pursue excellence - regardless of race, color, or creed - inspires excellence in us all.
King’s legacy may soon find its way in the results of two US Supreme Court cases that were recently heard involving race-based admissions at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. We won’t know until summer, but we should all hope and pray that King’s legacy is reflected in the outcome.
For those who claim that children of color are trapped in underperforming schools, are you applauding the efforts of several governors in states like Arizona, Iowa, and elsewhere that give parents the resources and the choice to move their children to better schools, public or private?
The freedom to pursue excellence - regardless of race, color, or creed - inspires excellence in us all.
The hijacking of Dr. Martin Luther King’s holiday and legacy must be stopped. It’s not a “black” holiday any more than a holiday for victimhood, reparations, or equal outcomes. It is a day to celebrate our freedom and equality as children and creations of an Almighty Creator God and as a reminder that we must judge others on the content of our character, not the color of their skin.
I will spend much of my day reacquainting myself not just with speeches and words of Dr. King but of his great predecessor, Fredrick Douglass.
Recommended reading:
The Hypocrisy of American Slavery, Fredrick Douglass, 1852
What to the Slave is the Fourth of July, Fredrick Douglass, 1852
I Have a Dream, Martin Luther King Jr., 1963
Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr., 1963