Bill Moyers/Michael Winship: Dr. King’s Warning of ‘Two Americas’

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from Consortium News:


Dr. King’s Warning of ‘Two Americas’
April 11, 2013

Besides battering down the walls of racial segregation, Martin Luther King Jr. demanded that America address its economic barriers to fairness and justice, a challenge that may have earned him even more contempt from the power structure, as Bill Moyers and Michael Winship note.

By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship


You may think you know about Martin Luther King, Jr., but there is much about the man and his message we have conveniently forgotten. He was a prophet, like Amos, Isaiah and Jeremiah of old, calling kings and plutocrats to account — speaking truth to power.

King was only 39 when he was murdered in Memphis 45 years ago, on April 4, 1968. The 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 March from Selma to Montgomery were behind him. So was the successful passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

In the last year of his life, as he moved toward Memphis and his death, he announced what he called the Poor People’s Campaign, a “multi-racial army” that would come to Washington, build an encampment and demand from Congress an “Economic Bill of Rights” for all Americans — black, white, or brown. He had long known that the fight for racial equality could not be separated from the need for economic equity – fairness for all, including working people and the poor.

Martin Luther King, Jr., had more than a dream – he envisioned what America could be, if only it lived up to its promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for each and every citizen. That’s what we have conveniently forgotten as the years have passed and his reality has slowly been shrouded in the marble monuments of sainthood. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2013/04/11/dr-kings-warning-of-two-americas/

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