Martin Luther King was more than a 'black' leader
Cynthia Tucker - Universal Press Syndicate

11.20.06 - Maybe, just maybe, the entire nation is finally ready to embrace a truth that has been clear for quite some time: The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was not a black hero; he was an American hero. The movement that he led gave America the moral authority to present itself to the world as the standard-bearer for justice and human rights.

The civil rights leader, whose achievements are heralded around the world, is joining the ranks of American presidents and battlefield heroes on the National Mall in Washington. Decades after the idea was proposed by members of King's college fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, a memorial saluting King's life and work will be built along the edge of the Tidal Basin, halfway between the memorials to Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

As President Bush eloquently put it last Monday (11/13) during the groundbreaking ceremony: "It will unite a man who declared the promise of America and the man who defended the promise of America with the man who redeemed the promise of America."

Even as philanthropists continue to raise funds to build the monument in Washington, Atlanta has just begun planning for a museum that will highlight King's contributions to America and the world. With the purchase of a cache of King's papers this year, the city, at long last, has the momentum to raise funds for a first-class museum that could cost as much as $100 million.

Local leaders, too, have been careful to emphasize King's place among the broader pantheon of men and women who have dedicated their lives -- and sometimes given their lives -- to the cause of equality and justice. Former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, once a lieutenant to King, recently told a group of tourism leaders that "I'm [not] interested in a civil rights museum that starts in the '60s and ends in 2000." Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin has spoken of the planned facility as a "human rights museum."

In the decades since King's death, America has managed to segregate him and commemorations of his achievements. Even as the face of the nation's economic and political leadership changed, even as men and women such as Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Oprah Winfrey showed the power of the transformation King helped to bring about, many white Americans have refused to see King as anything other than a "black leader."

Now seems an excellent time for the entire nation -- black, white and brown -- to claim King's legacy. We Americans have been only too happy to note our success in assimilating ethnic minority groups into the nation's economic, social and cultural mainstream, a track record that stands apart from much of the rest of the world.

Even countries in Western Europe, especially France, struggle with an underclass composed disproportionately of darker-skinned immigrants who are barely represented in the professions. By contrast, the United States boasts a growing black middle class that includes not just entertainers and athletes but also college professors, physicians, attorneys and entrepreneurs.

But many Americans seem to forget that this transformation did not come about on its own. Someone had to fight for it. If King and his followers had not stood against the harsh tyranny of Jim Crow, it's quite unlikely that Condoleezza Rice, born in Birmingham, Ala., would be secretary of state.

If not for all those forgotten folk who bravely faced dogs and fire hoses, it's quite unlikely that Mississippi State University, in the heart of the Old Confederacy, would have a black football coach, Sylvester Croom.

And if black Americans were still treated as second-class citizens, President Bush would hardly be in a position to denounce authoritarian states that limit the rights of their citizens.

King deserves to be remembered among those great Americans who helped us to become that "shining city on a hill." His work left this a better country for all its citizens -- not just those who happen to be black.

----------------------

I'm having a major problem with this story. Can MLK not be Black and an American as well as a hero? Why shouldn't White Americans not be able to respect that King was a leader that was also Black and not just an American? I have a feeling that Ms. Tucker will be getting an email from me.

I have been away from the forums for awhile, especially this one because the administrators, and others seem to debate falsehoods, in defience of facts.

An embraced romanticism of White ideologies of what Whites and Jews have promoted as important to Afrimericans.

Heres the lesson.

Lesson one. Most anything you read about Afrimerican history that has been written in the past 15 years is a diluted, miscontrued version of events and people to rob the message of the angst surrounding the events that took place, and to provide a false sense of acceptance and inclusion that has improved but is still highly selective, and negatively discriminatory against Afrimericans.Like before but without the physical brutality

Lesson two. Martin Luther King did not champion an American cause, had that been so he would have stayed home, and kept his mouth shut, and went on with the American program of Jim Crow, Legal lynchings, Segragated public, and private instutions.

Martin Luther King championed Black causes that was for the expressed purpose to demand America treat Blacks like People, like human beings, decently, and with equitable inclusion. America was not trying to have that, and fought the effort in every imaginable way. (America is not this beacon of wholesomeness...)

Lesson three America is an O.K. country, but it's institution of racism against Afrimericans is just as active today as it's ever been, and if you don't believe me come do some Afrimerican work with me and you'll see.

Your phone will be bugged and converstaions interrupted, Emails will disappear, your mail will go all over the United States before it gets to you, the F.B.I., C.I.A., and other government agencies monitor you, Banks, and credit agencies manipulate your scores, and your accounts to restrict access to capital, and that's just the simple stuff.

You dishonor Martin Luther King by equating him as an American hero, over an above a Black Hero.

All the Black heros that took, and take a stand for Black people, Afrimericans, are harassed by America, and many have been killed for asking America to do what's right, and for asking for something they should not have been put in a position to ask for anyway.

America was not happy with Martin Luther King, America killed him.
(* John F Kennedy died from a bullet through the neck, Martin Luther king was killed the same way, with estimates being the shot came from anywhere from two blocks away or further).

Everything that sounds good ain't. Afrimericans are sacrificing their history, and legacy by the lies of White, and Jewish America, and the Black faces/voices they can use to sell the lies. Find the facts and get off the bandwagon of keeping up with the misinformed Jones.

Great post, Afrimerican!! You raised many valid points.

I think some people in this society have forgotten that we had to be Black even when it wasn't a good thing to be in America. Now that it's "acceptable" to them to let us be who we are, they'd rather us just "forget about the whole thing" and be American instead.

It was okay for them to differentiate us at the time ... but now, we shouldn't want to differentiate ourselves. I wonder how many of them realize that a whole bunch of us don't want to be like them as much as they want to be like us.

He may have been "more than a Black leader" but he was a Black leader nonetheless.

I'm getting pissed all over again!

Great minds . . .

quote:

Originally posted by EbonyRose:

Can MLK not be Black and an American as well as a hero? Why shouldn't White Americans not be able to respect that King was a leader that was also Black and not just an American?

Not just a black hero, an American hero

See, now that's what I'm talkin' about, MBM!

I'm still trying to calm down before I write her because I don't want to just blast this lady. I'd really like to explain to her what it is I'm trying to say.

Through rare access to the Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien examines the personal determination and private courage and concerns of the preacher and civil rights leader.

Tune in Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m. ET