Honoring Dr. King

Today in the United States we commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The most iconic image of Dr. King is when he stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC and delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in August 1963. It is one of the most powerful speeches in the English language, and the moment is electric, but it is not how I prefer to remember Dr. King. The massive, adoring crowd gives the impression of a man riding a wave of vast popularity, of triumph, a glimpse of future vindication and acclaim. But that superimposes our knowledge of the present onto a time when none of that was foreordained, and to me, obscures what made Dr. King truly unique and historic.

Rather, for me, Dr. King's true greatness shines through in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail," written four months earlier. He had been arrested for "parading without a permit" and was sitting in a jail in Birmingham, Alabama. He was seen negatively by a majority of the US population and was facing criticism from all sides. Moderates, including the church leaders to whom his letter was addressed, felt that he was stirring up trouble unnecessarily and moving too quickly. They urged him instead to be patient and let racial justice arrive on its own. Others, like Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, meanwhile were criticizing Dr. King for his insistence on non-violence and urging him to reject peaceful protests and adopt more radical tactics.

But Dr. King did not choose his path by following popular opinion; he let himself be guided by what was moral and right. He knew that people were angry and frustrated but he did not incite them to violence by further arousing their emotions. He led from the front and channeled those emotions into constructive and peaceful marches. He did not seek change through superior force; he preached non-violent resistance and thereby exposed the moral bankruptcy and hypocrisy of the powerful. Dr. King did not seek short-term wins; he sought to show us a better version of what we could be as individuals and as a society in the long run. He had an intuitive feel for mass communication and he used it to inspire healing and empathy rather than to divide and antagonize. His speeches soared with the cadences of the Southern Baptist pulpit but were grounded in a deep scholarly understanding of history, political philosophy, and human nature.

We look back now at the August 1963 March on Washington as a glorious prophecy of the realization of Dr. King's vision for racial equality. But realization of that vision wasn't imminent and he knew it, yet he persevered. Dr. King's essential genius, and the core of his greatness, was demonstrated as he sat in that Birmingham jail. It might have appeared that he had nothing but weakness, and he had no immediate path to success. Southern leaders like Bull Connor had the law, the police, the dogs, and the fire hoses all on their side. Dr. King might have shown strength by smashing windows or picking up a Molotov cocktail, and many wanted him to do so. But if he had, he would have lost. He did not, and today Bull Connor has been relegated to the dustbin of history while Martin Luther King Jr. is honored on the National Mall as one of our greatest leaders.

Why? Because sitting in that jail cell in April 1963, he had nothing that would enable him to win the day but everything he needed to change history. In the long run, moral character matters, truth prevails, empathy is indispensable, goodness is rewarded, and leaders who inspire the better angels of our nature are those who we honor for generations to come.