As part of my post-MLK day civic engagement project, I watched Eyes on the Prize, an in-depth documentary series about the Civil Rights Movement from the mid-1950s to the beginning of the 1970s. The whole experience just left me speechless. I was amazed at how hostile the environment was that the African-Americans were trying to change, and especially at how so many people could have their rights violated and their lives ended because all they did was protest. I would say much of this shock stems largely from growing up and living in a society where contrasting expressed points of view are being more and more accepted by the day, thanks to everyone involved in this movement.
First, I cannot fathom how skin color determined one's status as an American citizen, and how the more "privileged" people could judge so easily and rashly. Martin Luther King Jr's ideas and actions were completely within US law and his US Constitutional rights as an American citizen. Yet every time he and his followers attempted to demonstrate their feelings on a particular subject, for some reason it was illegal. I mean, if a thousand Caucasians had decided to walk from Selma to Montgomery, they would not only have been allowed to walk, but they would also have been protected from traffic by the state police.
Secondly, I was a bit surprised and disappointed in the changes of the movement in the latter half of the 1960s. I must confess I didn't really know anything about the Black Panther Party, or the ideals that their followers embraced before I watched the documentary. But I was disappointed (as I suspect King had to be, at least a little bit) in the whole "Black Power" thing. The problem I had with it was that the idea still expressed division between the races, which ran counter to what I believe King was trying to accomplish. MLK believed in all people and all races coming together as one society (my interpretation of his message, anyway), and the Black Panther Party conveniently managed to forget that. While I agree with them that they needed to take some power back, since they've been suppressed as second-class citizens for so long, I oppose the racial division they seemed to support.
The other thing that bothered me was the "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, life for a life" attitude that the Black Panthers embodied. I understand the frustrations that mounted as more and more African-Americans continued to get killed by the white men in power merely for protesting for their rights as American citizens. But this attitude pretty much undid what had made the Civil Rights Movement successful to date. King almost always managed to find support with the federal government, possibly largely because of the non-violent means he pushed to achieve the ends. With the Black Panthers' rise in popularity, their means soon outweighed King's means as far as the people were concerned, thus neutralizing the movement's previous successes.
While watching the series, I learned much more about King than I had ever known in my life to date. At several points, I felt like I even knew him. He wasn't as great a man as people say; he was better. What we must not forget is that there were many other leaders that helped steer this revolution. He was one of many that organized the folk to stand up for their rights, and he only had his hand in several of the individual protests, especially in the early years. It is possible that the Montgomery Bus Boycott might not have been as successful had he not taken the reins of this particular event, but other people initiated it and called on him to speak to the people.
It seemed King's influence had been in decline in the later years, at least a couple years before his death. With the rise of the Black Panther Party catering to the impatience of the folk and the desire to have power now, King's idea of non-violence as a means to an end had become less appealing. In those last years, he was caught between a revolution that was moving away from him, and his ever-present conscience on new issues that seemed to spring up everywhere he turned. This especially rang true when he had to publicly decry the Vietnam War, even though he knew it meant separation from several high-powered allies, including President Johnson. Everything took its toll on him. By the time his life ended, he had to have looked at least 10 years older than he was. And as sad as I was to watch the video chronicling everything surrounding his death, I realized that he might have been relieved not to have to deal with this anymore.
In celebrating MLK day this year, I feel President Obama got it right: treating the holiday as a day of service. King didn't care for power; I imagine he even wouldn't care so much about having his own holiday. All King wanted was equality and justice. He wanted a world where everyone would treat each other well, especially serving those in need. It took forty years, but we're finally beginning to realize that part of the dream.