Half a Century Later: 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

cHalf a Century Later:
50th Anniversary of the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Today, April 4 1968 at 6:01 p.m. Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in Memphis, USA.
It is significant that King, the leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the US was killed while visiting that city to support an action of sanitation workers who marched with the slogan “I Am a Man”.
Tonight, the final two parts of a commemorative film titled “Black America since MLK: And Still I Rise” by Henry Louis Gates aired on US Public Broadcasting Television.
This mini-series traces 50 years of history from the date of King’s assassination, more it traces 50 years of the Civil Rights Movement.
To view historical developments in such a compact timeframe of four hours helps put several developments, which took 5 decades in real time, into perspective.
For one, the context of King’s own developing view of the issues of racism and segregation in the US was further clarified. At the time he was shot, and perhaps the reason he was eliminated, he had started linking racism with the economic and class structure of the American social order.
He had begun the demand for housing and other economic rights and went to support the workers’ struggle. He had already denounced the war in Vietnam. His going deeper beyond the surface of the causes of and the necessity for change to eliminate racism alarmed the guardians of the status quo. So, he had to go.
This film (made in 2016) also traces the ebb and flow of the struggle for full rights for Black Americans and recognition as part of the entire body politic.
It puts into perspective the victory of the fight for the right to vote, the rise of Stokely Carmichael, the Black Panther Movement, Malcom X and others who were also targets of the FBI and other elements of the police power protecting the status quo.
In uncanny similarity with developments in and after 1970, the introduction of the drug culture and drug trade, the destruction of family and social life accompanying the mass incarceration of the poor black youth, the violent crime and police profiling and assault on this segment of the population are all features of the last half century.
Following Obama’s election in 2008, there was so much talk and so much hope that change had come to America in a “post-racial” era.
From the first days, the backlash began culminating in the election of the next US President with the full support of the most despicable elements like the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazi storm troopers of the rising fascism.
Despite the setbacks, the twists and turns, the film also revealed the persistence of the struggle against racism, inequality and oppression in new and modern forms as part of the struggle for freedom and for the Rights of All.
The struggle which Malcom X and King began to see in terms of the need to eliminate the root causes and move beyond the status quo continues. Those who attempt to maintain the status quo shall not succeed.
Those who fight for the New for Real Change and the creation of a new society that puts power in the hands of the majority and guarantees the rights of all Shall succeed.
The more the forces of the Old try to suppress, the more the forces for the New Shall Rise.
 
Clyde Weatherhead
A Citizen Fighting for
Democractic Renewal
Of Our Society.
4 April 2018