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.

Martin Luther King: Dream Maker

Few historical figures are as compelling as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Similar to Billy Graham, King had a presence, a calling, and a following, but most important of all, King had a voice . . . a voice bigger than life . . . a voice impossible to ignore.

What follows are six of King’s earliest memories. Thinkwriter invites you to read the memories and then select King’s worldview from the list at the bottom of the post. Please cast your vote in the poll to the right of the list, and thank you for participating!

Martin Luther King remembers . . .

(1.) [I was much too young to remember the beginning of the depression] . . . but I do recall, when I was about five years of age, how I questioned my parents about the numerous people standing in bread lines.

(2.) I joined the church at the age of five. I well remember how this event occurred. Our church was in the midst of a spring revival, and a guest evangelist had come down from Virginia. On Sunday morning the evangelist came into our Sunday school to talk to us about salvation, and after a short talk on this point, he extended an invitation to any of us who wanted to join the church. My sister was the first to join the church that morning, and after seeing her join I decided I would not let her get ahead of me, so I was the next.

(3.) When I was about six years of age, an incident happened. From the age of three I had a white playmate who was about my age. We always felt free to play our childhood games together. He did not live in our community, but he was usually around every day; his father owned a store across the street from our home. At the age of six, we both entered school – separate schools, of course. I remember how our friendship began to break as soon as we entered school; this was not my desire but his. The climax came when he told me one day that his father had demanded that he would play with me no more. I never will forget what a great shock this was to me. I immediately asked my parents about the motive behind such a statement.

(4.) I remember a trip to a downtown shoe store with Father when I was still small. We had sat down in the first empty seats in the front of the store. A young white clerk came up and murmured politely: “I’ll be happy to wait on you if you’ll just move to those seats in the rear.”

Dad immediately retorted, “There’s nothing wrong with these seats; we’re quite comfortable here.”

“Sorry,” said the clerk, “but you’ll have to move.”

“We’ll either buy shoes sitting here,” my father retorted, “or we won’t buy shoes at all!” ...whereupon he took my hand and walked out of the store.

This was the first time I had seen Dad so furious. I still remember walking down the street beside him as he muttered, “I don’t care how long I have to live with this system; I will never accept it.”

(5.) When I was about eight years old, I was in one of the downtown stores of Atlanta, and all of the sudden someone slapped me, and the only thing I heard was somebody saying, “You are that nigger that stepped on my foot.” And it turned out to be a white lady; of course, I did not retaliate at any point. I wouldn’t dare retaliate when a white person was involved. I finally told my mother what had happened, and she was very upset about it. But the lady who has slapped me had gone, and my mother and I left the store almost immediately.

(6.) When I was fourteen, I traveled from Atlanta to Dublin, Georgia, with a dear teacher of mine, Mrs. Bradley. I participated in an oratorical contest there and I succeeded in winning the contest. My subject, ironically enough, was “The Negro and the Constitution.” That night Mrs. Bradley and I were on the bus returning to Atlanta. Along the way, some white passengers boarded the bus, and the white driver ordered us to get up and give the whites our seats. We didn’t move quickly enough to suit him, so he began cursing us. I intended to stay right in that seat, but Mrs. Bradley urged me up, saying we had to obey the law. We stood up in the aisle for ninety miles to Atlanta. That night will never leave my memory. It was the angriest I have ever been in my life.

Martin Luther King’s worldview is . . . (correct answer in red)

1. If the shoe fits, wear it. (11%)
2. Man is the system. (44%)
3. The red man will get ahead, man! (0)
4. Anger motivates. (44%)