King's Worldview: Man Is the System

In his tragically short life, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his followers managed to bulldoze America’s most mean-spirited social system - the one that had blacks using different counters, different doors, different water fountains, bathrooms, and sides of the street as compared to whites . . . even as it also disallowed the most highly educated blacks the right to vote or serve on juries . . . and instituted the establishment of separate schools, disparate opportunities, and lopsided expectations for school children based entirely on skin color.

In fact, America was not really the leader of the free world previous to Martin Luther King and his movement for black equality. Had King and the blacks and whites who marched with him stopped short of their goal, vast regions of the U.S. would have remained morally no different than South Africa under apartheid.

Interestingly, King’s approach in attacking this problem was inspired by the triumphs of Gandhi’s non-violent activism. King, like Gandhi, was actually more violent against the system by being non-violent. And of course, he was also clever - and he had that voice.

Of interest to Thinkwriter is that King not only recognized the ineffectiveness of aggression to create lasting social change, he also bet on the idea that given the opportunity, man would correct racial discrimination from the inside out. Here was a man who understood well that Jesus wouldn’t condone what whites did to blacks. Thus, coming from the point of view that “man is the system,” King marched toward the problem of segregation, pushing against a litany of arbitrary standards that ultimately crumbled under his non-violent pressure.

His approach was not without a hidden physical price, however. We all know he was killed by an assassin, but King’s autopsy also revealed he had the heart of a 60-year-old man inside his 39 year-old body. Doctors hypothesize the stress of “fighting” for civil rights for 13 grueling years aged him well beyond his expected maturity.

And today, it is tribute to Martin Luther King’s overwhelmingly positive impact that nearly every major city in the U.S. has a street or school named after him. On the flip side, it is also evidence of humanity’s resistance to change, as well as a vast misunderstanding of King’s true gift to America that most memorials are located only in black neighborhoods – at least at this time.

Of further interest to Thinkwriter are also the many gems in his earliest memories.

In memory #1, we find the five year old King taking note of people “standing in bread lines.” Besides King’s likely observation (as an adult looking back) that hunger doesn’t discriminate, we can only imagine how many times an active five-year-old boy (King’s age at the time) was cautioned to “get in line.” Children, of course, hear the literal meaning of phrases like “get in line” or “I’m going to line you out, if you don’t stand still!” But for one little boy growing up as a minority, such an admonishment might also take on a double meaning – setting up little eyes to take special notice of desperate-looking people finding themselves “gettin' in line” along a busy public street.

In memory #2, King remembers feeling competitive. When his sister steps forward ahead of him to join the church, King doesn’t want to be left behind. He recalls the feeling of being second but wanting to be first.

In memory #3, we can imagine his disappointment over an aborted friendship. Whether or not the friend’s father actually told his son he could no longer play with the young King, the friend explained it that way . . . and although probably true in this instance, how often do children and adults use the contrived admonitions of an absent personal or business authority figure to justify or sell their own wants and needs? People are quick to abdicate their power to an invisible other when a confrontation appears difficult or awkward.

Regardless the reason, however, being boldly told the friendship was over was a complete shock to the young King. Wasn’t King the one doing this kid a favor, after all? In King’s neighborhood, King was the social superior! The friend was only a visitor – the son of a store owner (or maybe just a manager) working across the street from the King’s home. As pastor of the church, King’s father was practically the king of the neighborhood, after all…and the King family was not “poor” in any category imaginable. And hadn’t these boys played together for several years?

King believes this to be his first real taste of racial discrimination, and it’s a bitter one. Whether or not the friendship actually ended solely because of prejudice, in King’s mind there could have been no other reason. When social structures are unjust, they quickly become the reason for any perceived wrong; however, when social structures are just, additional truths about life can emerge.

Memory #4 brings to mind one of the many unreasonable barriers imposed on blacks by whites at the time. In this incident, King’s father refuses to purchase shoes from a store in which blacks must sit toward the back of the store to receive service. The senior King respectfully makes his anger known first and then exits the store with son in hand. This scenario is a valuable lesson for the young King. He can admire a father who at first attempts to reason with the clerk, and then later lets the clerk know his disapproval in words and behavior. Too often people say one thing – but do another.

Integrity is at play only when a person’s words and behavior match perfectly. How often do children hear one thing from their parents and witness the exact opposite?And what about America’s integrity? Weren't we all, in effect, saying one thing and doing another?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: One nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.

Memory #5 is apparently only a glimpse of a larger memory in which King somehow gets slapped and denigrated by a woman he describes as “a white lady, of course.” We see that by age eight, King’s heart is clearly turned against people who are white. He has learned to discriminate just as he has been discriminated against. Similar to love - which grows when we extend it to others - the inevitable outcome of practicing hate is the creation of more hate.

And finally in Memory #6, King’s pain and anger seem palpable. Following the excitement of his big win at the oratorical contest, the teacher and her student are forced to stand in the aisle of the bus and ride for the 90 mile trip home, even while whites who boarded the bus after King and his teacher are allowed to take the seats of any blacks (by law) and probably sleep all the way back to Atlanta!

The year would have been 1943; over a decade prior to the Supreme Court legally striking down segregation and of course many, many years before Americans would begin embracing the spirit of desegregation. Note that Mrs. Bradley and the young King obey the law, yet they know the law is flawed. King was fortunate to have good people around him who taught him how to manage the social climate of the day and who encouraged him to develop his skills – like the skill of oration, for example. His teacher made the trip to the oratorical contest possible, even though riding a bus in those days was never without risk for people of color. Thus, in a truly significant way, Mrs. Bradley helped make Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech the memorable presentation it was and remains to this day.