TODAY’S BIBLE VERSE
But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream. Amos 5:24 the freedom struggle for civil and political rights, he wrote, “when Negroes looked for the second phase, the realization of equality, they found that many of their white allies had quietly disappeared.”
He blamed a bloody Vietnam War abroad and economic and racial injustice at home for the growing tension and violence. He also blamed the failure of too many whites to understand the history of slavery and racism and root causes of poverty and unemployment in black and brown communities.
He thought only a national economic justice agenda could stem the tide of riots and death in the streets during the inner city rebellions of that era.
He called for a program “that will drive the nation to a guaranteed annual income,” and jobs at livable wages. Civil rights reforms were not enough. He called for a “true revolution of values” that would allow Americans to make common cause with the poor people of Latin America and the rest of the world.
“We’ve got to begin to ask questions about the whole society,” he said. “We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life’s marketplace. But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”
During the hard year of 1968, King pressed forward for a new kind of coalition beyond the labor–civil rights nexus, a multi-racial freedom movement that would demand that money spent on militarism and war be spent for housing, health care, education, and decent jobs at union wages.
He called for “a radical redistribution” of wealth and power. His new movement would demand jobs or inof
Adapted from “TO THE PROMISED LAND: Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice“by Michael K. Honey. Copyright © 2018 by Michael K. Honey. With permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.