Martin Luther King, Jr. & Other Founding Fathers

We are approaching the 100^th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan's birth (February 6^th, 1911). I'll get back around to that next month. I mention it here because in 1983 President Reagan signed into law an act creating a federal holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Tomorrow many Americans will celebrate that holiday they way they celebrate most holidays: by sleeping in. I think it deserves a few more words.

Martin Luther King, Jr. richly deserves to be recognized as one of America's founding fathers. He deserves this in the same way that Abraham Lincoln deserves it. Lincoln saved the union that the aforementioned fathers founded, first from the peril of popular sovereignty and second from the peril of disunion. But just as the principles of the Declaration were fundamental compromised by almost a century of slavery, they were compromised by another century of apartheid. King moved the country to the completion of the founder's project.

The story of MLK's rise is a profound historical drama. American apartheid forced African Americans to build their own social and economic institutions inside the larger nation. When the historical moment ripened in Montgomery Alabama, the Black church was most readily available meeting place for that city's African American residents. The de facto leader of such a meeting would be the pastor.

As Machiavelli observed, the ripeness of the times is known by the rising of the great man, and the great man in turn is revealed by the times. King is responsible for two immortal pieces of American rhetoric. In Letter from a Birmingham Jail, King recognized that the moment had come and put the force of his rhetoric and personality behind it. In his I Have A Dream speech, King realized that moment. I won't call that speech incomparable. I will go one better, and say that only Lincoln's greatest addresses compare.

America's race problems were hardly solved by the success of the Civil Rights Movement. What that great motion solved was the Constitution's race problem. The powers of the federal and state governments will never again be used to keep one portion of the population in subordination to another. With that, the history of the American founding concludes.

If I could edit Mount Rushmore, I'd replace Teddy Roosevelt with James Madison and add Martin Luther King, Jr. That would be a more fitting and instructive shrine. Have a happy Martin Luther King Day!

Comments

[larry kurtz]

Nice post, Doc. And just a few miles down the road apartheid represses the descendants of Si Tanka in another failed red state.

[larry kurtz]

Here are a couple of links to gnaw on: http://www.npr.org/2011/01/16/132839717/american-rising-when-slaves-took-on-new-orleans

http://lifeasahuman.com/2011/arts-culture/culture/the-wounded-knee-massacre/

[William]

"A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true... We're going to stand up amid anything they can muster up, letting the world know that we are determined to be free!" - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.