On the other hand, Martin Luther King Jr. is associated with non violence, being passive and calm. However a lot of people failed to mention the modifications Dr. King made throughout his tenure as a Black leader. They don’t talk about how he encouraged the Black community to stop supporting big corporations who don’t give back to the Black community. They failed to mention how he encouraged poor black folks not to be degraded by employers who treated them unfairly. He encouraged them to strike, he encouraged them to show their importance through economic exploitation. This level of economic equality, demands and separation was extended through employment, housing and social demonstrations.
Before his death, Dr. King had gotten to the point that he didn’t believe integration was the proper means of achieving justice for Black people. His last speech in Memphis, was not only prophetic in almost predicting his death.
It also showed how he felt the Black, poor, and disenfranchised people needed a different strategy. This stance was the springboard for the movement that followed, including Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party. On his birthday, we should stop painting this picture of some soft individual who didn’t think we shouldn’t fight back. We should honor him as a soldier who came up with a different strategy of fighting back.