Posted by By Shawn Williams – Dallas South News Editor
I’m still not quite sure how I ended up on stage, at the Winspear Opera House, on the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, with one of the foremost King scholars…but I’m glad that I did. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson stirred the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture’s 5th Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium as only he can. And when I was asked to join him on stage in discussion, I was further enlightened and challenged.
I had an idea of where the discussion would go, but in the end I think both Dr. Dyson and I pushed back the prevailing image of Dr. King in this country. Not just by urging Americans to look past the “I Have a Dream” speech, but also to give a broader look at Dr. King and his shortcomings.
I have seen more discussion on King’s struggles this holiday than anytime that I can remember. Of course the goal of MLK day is to highlight Dr. King and his achievements. But I think it helps to know that Dr. King experienced some of the same emotions as the rest of us. There has also been widespread discussion on his views towards women in leadership.
In a nontraditional look at King for Vanity Fair, Baratunde Thurston uses Twitter (What Would Martin Luther King Make of Twitter) for a fictional look at how King may have been able to provide a more complete picture of himself using social media. Here’s a bit of Dr. King’s Twitter feed thanks to the mind of Baratunde:
He would join in on hashtag games.
And he would face criticism from his contemporaries in the struggle.
We’d get access to King’s private and personal sides, both dark and light.
But at the program here in Dallas we didn’t just focus on shining more lights on Dr. King’s imperfections, but on the totality of his message. Dr. Dyson suggested that we are so focused on King’s speeches that we miss his sermons. When Dr. Larry Allums, President of the Dallas Institute and facilitator of our discussion, asked which of King’s speeches was my favorite I responded “The Drum Major Instinct.” This was a sermon delivered in a church (with a scriptural text) a few months before his death.
We have to teach our sons and daughters, that Dr. King was not only hated by racists, but he was shunned by white intellectuals and the black middle class. His message of uplifting the poor (whether white or black) and ending the War in Vietnam didn’t win him any friends, and lost open door relationship with Lyndon Johnson and the White House.
Let’s not wait until next January to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. King We can find lessons from his sermons, speeches, writings, teachings, and leadership style that touch every facet of American life. We must push back on attempts to freeze Dr. King in time.King’s greatness didn’t begin and end in Washington D.C. in 1963.
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