Martin Luther King - Activist or Preacher?

Every year, argument breaks out in community rooms and meeting halls and cafes and bars as small groups of people get together to decide what the legacy of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. is from their perspective and how their community should mark the day.

There is usually a real push and pull between those who wish to use MLK Day as a way to tame Martin's message and those who wish to fully explore the entire message that Martin tried to convey (the fight against the "giant triplets" of poverty racism and militarism).

In many places, numerous different celebrations occur running the full gamut when it comes to perspectives. I think that this would please Martin because it denotes a real attempt to both co-opt and protect his message. This demonstrates that his legacy and his message have roots that are deep and relevant.

This year, I took some heat from a few friends who felt that the Glens Falls event this year was not "activist" enough. We had our usual short march to Christ Church and listened to music and sang and listened to remarks by a woman, Dr. Glorya Askew, who is a Head Chaplain with the N.Y.S. Department of Corrections. I really let the newly formed NAACP and the Democrats amongst us take the lead. Obamamania is in the air and I didn't want to rain on anyone's parade. I knew he would be an important part of the day's remarks. As such, I took a backseat this year as far as the organizing went.

The Post-Star did its usual advance story on Thursday consisting of an interview with Roy Thomas about the resurgence of the local NAACP (of which I am a member). It included his plans for the NAACP locally and made mention of his involvement in this year's MLK organizing (with no mention of any of the others involved). They made only brief reference to the keynote speaker choosing to focus instead on the two white local politicians whose 90 second remarks would see us off from City Hall on to the march.

Now, understand, I do not hate either of these dignitaries and am, in fact, pleased that they wish to celebrate with us each year. That said, Martin was an enemy of the status quo and those who defended it. He was a preacher, a thinker and an activist. Dr. Askew deserved to be recognized as the primary speaker and someone of note and she wasn't.

When the PS did its actual story on the event, they did the same thing, giving preferential treatment to the white politicians and virtually ignoring the African American woman we had all chosen to speak to us on this day. She was fantastic, too, so its even more shameful.

This type of institutional racism is a good reason for us to stop celebrating the "end of racism" the media keeps crowing about. Its far from over when a bunch of white reporters and editors get together and write about white people of power who attended the event and not the African American woman we were there to listen to.