The King We Knew
How The Post saw the civil-rights icon
This is one of those rare years in which the official celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life falls on his actual birthday, Jan. 15. It will also mark, in April, the 50th anniversary of his assassination.
That a half-century has passed since King was cut down by an assassin’s bullet underscores how young he was — just 39 at his death — when he commanded the nation’s attention.
Not to mention that his considerable achievements — from the Montgomery bus boycott to the Poor People’s Campaign — spanned just 13 years.
Yet despite the worldwide acclaim for this champion of human rights and unwavering apostle of nonviolence, “not until he was gone did many Americans realize just how desperately we needed his presence,” as The Post wrote following his death.
In the period before his death, we added, King had become “a lonely pilgrim, derided and disowned by many, alternately branded an ‘impractical visionary’ and a ‘ dangerous agitator.’ ”
Yet “suddenly, in the horror of that murderous moment in Memphis, millions saw more clearly than ever before the special role he had achieved in divided, troubled America.”
Those words still ring true today, underscored by the fact that America is a far different place — if still an imperfect one — than it was in 1968.
An African-American has served two terms as president of the United States — something King likely thought even his children would never see.
Blacks have served at the top levels of the Cabinet, on the Supreme Court, in the halls of Congress and as state governors. Race is no longer a barrier to elective office, let alone to voting, one of King’s key struggles.
These gains are directly attributable to the movement for which King was the most prominent public face. Indeed, as we wrote in 1964, when he was awarded New York City’s Medallion of Honor, “few men have so swiftly shaped the course of events; few have so deeply stirred multitudes.”
And he did so through moral power, an appeal to faith, a call for civil disobedience of unjust laws and a plea for full equality.
King accomplished his goals not through coercion but persuasion — which in turn inspired “children still unfettered by the prejudice of their elders.”
If Dr. King demonstrated anything, The Post wrote back then, it was that “the bless- ings of liberty are not lavishly and indiscriminately bestowed on the land, but are instead the painfully earned reward of a vigorous, vigilant citizenry.”
And though he never wavered from the course of nonviolence, despite a rising tide of militancy, Dr. King “never equated that credo with passivity.”
Indeed, The Post added, “it was militancy, not meekness, that characterized his journey; it was the example of his own valor under fire that stirred so many of the best young spirits of our time — white as well as black — to enlist in his cause.”
That same militancy undoubtedly would have left Dr. King dismayed by conditions today and not only by the injustices that remain.
He would be pained by the fact that while young African-Americans are no longer barred from schools, they are too often denied a quality education — and so drop out or graduate without the knowledge and skills needed to become fully productive members of society.
We suspect he’d also be distressed by today’s hypersensitivity and growing political correctness that have made honest dialogue and discussions of race and other issues nearly impossible.
And despite the many advances, he would surely be pained by the fact that we have yet to fully realize his dream of a time when people would be judged solely “by the content of their character” and “not on the color of their skin.”
For King’s was a universal message of equality and dignity: “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred,” he warned.
So we honor Dr. King for the goals he pursued and largely achieved — and for a vision the nation still strives to fully realize.
Yes, in the 50 years since his death, scholars have found that he had flaws and frailties. To err is human.
As his memory grows more distant, we also tend to idealize his crusade — forgetting the issues that made him even more controversial: his opposition to militarism and denunciation of America as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”
Ultimately, though, Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy is that he managed to combat injustice by appealing to Americans’ highest aspirations and to offer them, as The Post wrote a half-century ago, “a leadership of generous and genuine hopes.”
That is why the nation rightly celebrates him today.