Dr. King’s Advice to Protesters: “The power of economic withdrawal”

He did not stop at simply identifying a dormant power that Blacks had been neglecting. He went on to explain how to wield that power in the battle against the enemies of the Black freedom movement:

And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy — what is the other bread? — Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart’s bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven’t been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on town — downtown and tell [Memphis] Mayor Loeb to do what is right.

Then Dr. King went even further, challenging Blacks to do what every other white immigrant group has done:

But not only that, we’ve got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a “bank-in” movement in Memphis. Go by the savings and loan association. I’m not asking you something that we don’t do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We are telling you to follow what we are doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies here in the city of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an “insurance-in.”

Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.

He said that when we Blacks feel pain, “we must kind of redistribute the pain.”

Ferguson has taught us that Dr. King was absolutely correct in his agenda for Black progress. He may have asked us to “love our enemies” but clearly he was wise enough to know when and who needed tough love in the form of economic punishment.

Let us take this sage advice from one of our greatest leaders.

Article Appeared @http://noirg.org/articles/dr-kings-advice-to-ferguson-the-power-of-economic-withdrawal/

 

 

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