MLK: A Legacy of Volunteerism or Political Action?

I wrote this almost a decade ago and figured I would dust it off, revise it a bit and repost. I still think its relevant today. In my hometown of Philadelphia, over 70,000 people will use the day off tomorrow to volunteer.

The observation of the national holiday commemorating the life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is upon us again. Its is entirely appropriate to set aside a day to remember and reflect upon the teachings and sacrifices of not only Dr. King, but the many leaders and foot soldiers in the battle for racial and social justice. The holiday is celebrated in many ways ranging from banquet lunches, religious services and in recent years, volunteer community service activities. Many years, I participate along with thousands of other volunteers in the Philadelphia region in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service performing activities such as painting public schools, cleaning up school grounds and vacant neighborhood lots, and organizing celebratory and educational events for children. While I certainly have seen the value in engaging in such community service, I have walked away from each day wondering if we were truly living out the dream that Dr. King had for this country by making his national holiday a day for volunteerism.

Not knowing Dr. King or having been alive during the Civil Rights Movement, I am extremely limited in my ability to interpret his thoughts for our world 35 years after his death. I am also keenly aware that the words of King taken out of context are used to support political positions and personalities across the political spectrum. In the mid-nineties, when Newt Gingrich began quoting Dr. King to support an anti-affirmative action viewpoint, I then understood the danger of how the words of Martin Luther King Jr. could be contorted to support positions that he clearly did not hold. When I saw Dr. King sponsoring insurance in television commercials, I saw that the power of his image could be used to support a commercialism which he made strong stands against during his lifetime.

Understanding the limitations of extrapolating Dr. King's words and actions to our own day, the notion of a day of volunteerism seems a limited and perhaps limiting expression of the legacy of Dr. King. How can we be painting the schools and cleaning vacant lots without addressing the underlying economic conditions that create tremendous inequality? How can we be creating supplemental educational programs without addressing the woefully under-resourced urban and rural public schools? The volunteerism of the day seems only to scratch the surface of  major underlying issues of racial justice and economic inequality.

We share in community services and lunches commemorating the achievements of Dr. King without organizing ourselves for the work left undone.  We are reminded from time to time that racial discrimination and prejudice is still alive and well in many pockets of our society. While legal segregation ended with the 1964 Civil Rights Act, de facto segregation exists today as can be seen by the tremendous segregation of our Philadelphia neighborhoods and surrounding suburban communities. De facto segregation of our schools is also vividly displayed in our public schools only by a simple comparison of school quality and ethnic composition of either side of City Line Avenue, dividing city and suburb. There is also the question of peace in Iraq, Afghanistan, and our general war on terrorism. King sustained considerable criticism from across the political spectrum for speaking out against the Vietnam War. Rarely was the King holiday used as a rallying point to speak out against a pre-emptive war in Iraq. He was willing to risk reputation as the preeminent Civil Rights leader by being an advocate for peace because "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."  What risks are we willing to take?  Is volunteerism is the low risk answer to our fundamental social ills or are we actually using the act of volunteerism to build a consciousness that spurs more civic action?  After a decade and a half of MLK Days of Service, I worry that its too often the former and we're not moving enough towards the latter. 

Looking for more evidence of the gravity of the problems? According to recent statistics, the Latino and African American poverty rate is still 3 times the poverty rate for white Americans with 30% of black children growing up in poverty. 1 in 3 children growing up in the entrenched poverty that our society allows should be alarming to all of us. Overall, the current recession has brought us to a point in which 1 in 4 children are living on food stamps.  The Bush administration tried to solve the economic woes of the nation by continuing to cut income and capital gains taxes that largely benefit the rich, providing nothing but economic droplets that trickle down through the system. While Obama has presented a welcome shift in temperament, the shift in policy has largely been lagging. 

Everyone is familiar with the "I have a dream speech" at the 1963 March on Washington, but many are not as familiar with the Poor People's Movement to eradicate poverty in the country that Dr. King was organizing at the time he was assassinated. For the last three years of his life, King had shifted his focus from solely Civil Rights issues to those of economic and social justice for all races organizing a "revolution against that injustice." He intended to recruit 3000 of our nation's poor from urban and rural areas to literally sit on the Congress and White House until the government took serious and immediate action. He then expected perhaps hundreds of thousand more to follow demanding "their right to jobs, income, the demolition of slums, and the rebuilding by the people who live there of new communities in their place; in fact, a new economic deal for the poor." Perhaps its is not so coincidental that he was shot in the process of organizing such a revolutionary movement.

Clearly, the radical King who challenged the underpinnings of our social institutions and economic structures has been sanitized. He is now an acceptable national martyr, an icon who does not present the same challenge in death that he did in his life. Certainly community service could lead to a more educated and involved citizenry that would begin to organize around supporting the issues for which Dr. King fought so passionately. However, after some 15 years of the MLK Day of Service there seems little community movement towards a deeper, more sustained political involvement.

While I am sure the intentions of MLK day organizers are good, it does feel as though we are seeing a co-opting of the call of King to militant political activism for systemic economic and social justice. Rather than political activism, the leadership offers the community a non-challenging, non-threatening day of community service that does little to address the inequality of our social structures that create such need in our communities. This seems to be a betrayal of not only the notions and ideals that Dr. King held, but the strategies he pursued to make those ideals a reality.  Shortly before his death King wrote in his book Where Do We Go From
Here?, "In the future we must become intensive political activists. 
Necessity will draw us toward the power inherent in the creative use of
politics."  King had clearly moved beyond mere community service to pushing all to the most daring forms of non-violent political activism. 

As we honor Dr. King's legacy this year, let us move beyond community service and volunteerism, beyond writing and speeches, towards reorganizing our communities, our churches, our unions, our civic associations, our parent teacher organizations, and the multitude of other areas for civic participation. Let us move beyond blogs to take concerted, organized action.    Let us organize to use the Ghandian and Kingian practices of the nonviolent demonstrations and political action to creatively address reject the administrations militarism to build a sustainable peace, the purging of lasting remnants of discrimination and segregation, quality public education, health care, jobs for the unemployed and the eradication of poverty. Clearly we have miles to go to achieve the fulfillment of King's dream. Let the volunteerism, lunches, speeches, sermons and celebrations be practiced not as end unto itself, but rather a step of the journey towards organizing our communities to act for the cause of love and justice.