We have overcome - King Spech 2011 - Harcourt Klinefelter

I had the privilege of working with Martin Luther King in the last two years of his life. I knew him as my employer, my minister and friend and not only him, but also the rest of his family. As Assistant Director of Public Relations for SCLC my responsibilities included making the recordings of Dr. King’s speeches and sermons and then sending them to the media and making them suitable for radio programs.

In “Ï have a Dream” Dr. King in a superb poetical way was able to help us imagine what the future in America might look like and challenged us to make it a reality through the application of nonviolent means of social change. We have seen this Dream become a reality thru the courage of men, women and even children, who when attacked refused to retaliate. They met physical force with Soul force. Multitudes armed with only Love in their hearts won the victories over legal segregation and voting rights. It is only fitting that this is commemorated each year with the national holiday.

History has a way of killing prophets literally or figuratively and later praising them in name only. Unfortunately this also applies to, as he was often called, the Prophet of the Twentieth Century.

This is certainly true today; many have questioned his relevance in our globalized world. Some have said that his message was something that only fitted in his time and place and that the world has changed so much that it is no longer relevant. Others have realized that many think so because they know little more about Dr. King than the title of his famous speech.

It is ironic that Dr. King is so praised, and his method so neglected. It is just the opposite of what he wanted.

If we remember Dr. King only as the moral leader of the Civil Rights Movement in America, however important it was, and not his method of achieving such a Dream on a world scale then he becomes only a figure in history books. If we take seriously the implication of this vision and commemorate the victories won by non-violence means in so many countries all over the world since his assignation then his prophetic voice will echo down the ages.

In past years I have spoken about his philosophy of non-violence which was based upon his trust in the power of the love of God for all his children and tried to illustrate how it worked based on my personal experiences with the Movement.

Tonight I would like let us to go back to the moment in history when Dr. King was killed in order to look at his vision that he had for us at that time. Then I will try to let you imagine what this far-sighted plan might look like here and now. Hopefully it could restore our faith in what Dr. King Sr. so often said. “God makes a way where there is no way”

Where do we go from here? That was the title of King’s last and most radical Southern Leadership Conference Address as well as his last book.

When Dr. King was assassinated the first phase of the Movement, the decisive battle in the fight against legal Segregation, had already been won. Only the mopping up remained. Just like the second phase of the struggle, that of gaining in practice voting rights for blacks. So as Dr. King said, both these had not cost the nation very much money. But the third and last phase of his Movement, the struggle for economic rights for all poor people, not just blacks, that however, would cost a lot. As long as people talk only about the rights of their own group this is less threatening to the established order. But when people organize all for all, that is a severe offence against the primary rule of staying in power, that of divide and conquer.

The third and last stage of the movement was for economic rights. It started in Chicago and the unfinished climax, was thee Poor Peoples Campaign, in 1968 when blacks, poor whites, Native Americans, and other minority group would come to Washington to camp on the grounds of the government buildings. That was perhaps even a greater threat than Dr. King’s criticism of the war in Vietnam. The idea of a guaranteed annual income was a revolutionary idea. Unfortunately it has never been implemented.

In his last Christmas sermon he said:

I want to say to you as I move to my conclusion, as we talk about _Where do we go from here,_ that we honestly face the fact that the movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society. There are forty million poor people here. And one day we 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. We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life’s marketplace. But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. It means that questions must be raised. You see, my friends, when you deal with this, you begin to ask the question, _Who owns the iron ore?_ You begin to ask the question, _Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that is two-thirds water?_ These are questions that must be asked. ….
What I’m saying to you this morning is that communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a higher synthesis. It is found in a higher synthesis that combines the truths of both. Now, when I say question the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the problems of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together.

From _A Christmas Sermon on Peace,_ 1967

Where do we go from here? He wrote.

Our only real hope today lies our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal opposition to poverty, racism and embracing nonviolence as a matter of principle….

In this spirit I will continue to work, with the help of God and others, to make the Dream a world-wide reality.

I hope that you too will join with me so that we can speed up the day when all over the globe we will be able to sing, “We Have Overcome!”