Martin Luther King Jr, Born in 1929

On 15 January 1929, minister and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia.

King is widely lauded today by establishment figures and the media. However, Black activist and former Panther, Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin argues that:

“The King we are being presented is the corporate King, the creature of the white government who used this pacifist myth to beat down the Black freedom movement of the 1960's with blood, and of which he was one of the major casualties, along with Malcolm X, the other major leader of that period. We are fed this garbage every year at this time, which totally circumvents logic and perverts history about Martin Luther King jr. and the civil rights movement itself.”

While famous for advocating non-violent resistance, King did not condemn those who rioted, and he personally had armed guards and a private arsenal to protect himself, and applied for a permit to carry a concealed weapon which was denied by racist authorities.

Towards the end of his life, King became increasingly radical, criticising militarism, war, poverty and capitalism as well as racism, which alienated some of his liberal supporters.

For example, he said that people "must ask the question, ‘Why are there forty million poor people in America? And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth.’ When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I’m simply saying that more and more, we’ve got to begin to ask questions about the whole society".

In recognition of his birth, the third Monday of January in the US is recognised as a federal holiday, MLK day.

Martin Luther King Jr. born - WCH | Stories

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