50 Years Ago: Martin Luther King
Even before the killing of Martin Luther King, this summer promised to be a bad one for race troubles in America. Many city authorities, fearing an intensifying of the riots, had armed themselves with some formidable weapons.
The Negroes were also preparing and waiting, with no lack of black nationalists to advise them on how to use arms, petrol bombs and the like. This menacing situation was ignited by the assassination of Martin Luther King and the death of the advocate of passive resistance was, ironically, marked by a flare-up of the very violence he denounced.
King had, in fact, been losing some ground to the groups like Black Power and this in itself is symptomatic of the change which America has undergone during the last twenty years. The suppression which the Negroes have suffered for so long was bound one day to erupt. For too long have they been denied the vote, subjected to a host of indignities and restraints. For too long has colour discrimination been a part of the American way of life. For too long has a coloured life been cheap so that, in some states, the murder of a Negro counts for little more than the killing of an insect—and the body silently disappears into some southern swamp.
The predictable result of this has been the Negro protest, the riots and the rise of the Black Power theorists. Kill Whitey and Burn, Baby, Burn are sterile remedies for the Negroes’ frustrations—but who, or what, must bear the blame for them?
Martin Luther King, for all his courage, had little more to offer the American Negroes than a place beside the country’s white workers. For most coloured workers, this is their highest aim—the right of access to the same sort of employment, the same sort of working class homes, the same sort of terms from the hire purchase company, as others.
Many have died in the long history of the American Negro, and many will die in the future. Is the result of it all only to be the exchange of one kind of oppression for another?
(Socialist Standard, May 1968)
"Mwaka wa 1950: Martin Luther King, Jr. (Mwanzoni mwa mwaka wa 1950), alitangaza kuwa ""mwaka mbaya sana kwa matatizo ya rangi nchini Marekani.""" Mamlaka nyingi za jiji, zikiowa kwamba ghasia zingeongezeka, zilikuwa zimejiandaa na silaha zenye kuogopesha. Wenyeji wa Negro pia walikuwa wakijitayarisha na kusubiri, bila kukosa waasi weusi wa kitaifa kuwapa ushauri juu ya jinsi ya kutumia silaha, mabomu ya petroli na kadhalika. Hali hii ya kutisha ilisababishwa na mauaji ya Martin Luther King na kifo cha mtetezi wa upinzani wa kimakusudi kilikuwa, kwa kushangaza, kilichowekwa alama na mwangaza wa vurugu ambazo alishutumu. King alikuwa, kwa kweli, amepoteza baadhi ya ardhi kwa makundi kama vile Black Power na hii yenyewe ni dalili ya mabadiliko ambayo Marekani imepitia katika miaka ishirini iliyopita. Ukandamizaji ambao weusi wameteseka kwa muda mrefu ulikuwa na hatia ya kulipuka siku moja. Kwa muda mrefu sana wamenyimwa haki ya kupiga kura, wamekuwa wakikabiliwa na unyanyasaji na vizuizi vingi. Kwa muda mrefu sana ubaguzi wa rangi umekuwa sehemu ya njia ya maisha ya Marekani. Kwa muda mrefu sana maisha ya watu wenye rangi yamekuwa ya bei nafuu hivi kwamba, katika baadhi ya majimbo, mauaji ya Negro yanahesabiwa kwa kiasi kidogo zaidi ya mauaji ya wadudu - na mwili hutoweka kimya kimya katika mabwawa fulani ya kusini. Matokeo ya kutabirika ya hili yamekuwa maandamano ya Negro, ghasia na kuongezeka kwa wanatheoria wa Nguvu Nyeusi. Killy White na Burn, Baby, Burn ni dawa zisizo na matunda kwa ajili ya Negroes 'kukatisha tamaa' lakini ni nani, au nini, lazima kubeba lawama kwa ajili yao? Martin Luther King, kwa ujasiri wake wote, alikuwa na kidogo zaidi ya kutoa Negroes Marekani kuliko mahali kando ya wafanyakazi wazungu wa nchi. Kwa wafanyakazi wengi wenye rangi, hii ni lengo lao la juu - haki ya kupata aina sawa ya ajira, aina sawa ya nyumba za darasa la wafanyakazi, aina sawa ya masharti kutoka kwa kampuni ya ununuzi wa kukodisha, kama wengine. Wengi wamekufa katika historia ndefu ya Wamarekani weusi, na wengi watakufa katika siku zijazo. Je, matokeo ya yote hayo ni kubadilishana aina moja ya ukandamizaji kwa nyingine? (Socialist Standard, Mei 1968)