On January 22, 2016, Fresno Pacific University Provost’s Office held its Sixth Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration with the theme of “Remembering and Renewing King’s Dream for Peace: Black Lives Matter.” For some people, connecting King to the Black Lives Matter movement was detrimental and a contradiction. For many others, including the keynote speaker, Iva Carruthers, Ph.D., general secretary of the Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference, connecting Black Lives Matter was a timely, necessary and provocatively explicit connection to the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
As a person of African descent in the U.S., King confronted moral evil and injustice perpetrated by white individuals of local, state and federal governments, and other institutions. Through prayer, songs, sermons, speeches and nonviolent direct action, he denounced the legalized segregation, oppression and degradation of black lives. As a Christian minister, King lambasted the segregation in the church, the body of Christ, based on race and skin color because even in the sacred space, black lives were not welcomed in white-led congregations and denominations. He called on the white church, society and government to cease and desist practicing ideologies, policies and practices that denied the humanity of black lives. He called the black church and the masses across racial, ethnic, religious and socio-economic differences to redemptive suffering for black freedom, and to save the soul of the nation. King, unapologetically and unabashedly, proclaimed black lives matter.
Today, in 2016, King’s message is still relevant because U.S. governments and institutions such as law enforcement and the judicial system question the legitimacy, in practice, that black lives matter. If black lives matter, why are there practices of excessive use of force, especially in situations of unarmed, nonviolent ordinary black men, women and children? If black lives matter, why do we find a disproportionate number of black men, women and youth in the criminal and juvenile justice system, in contrast to their white counterparts who commit both “blue” and “white” collar crimes? If black lives matter, what are the concrete means and actions being manifested that adhere to the significance of King’s message, which is now celebrated every year? King’s message denounced the criminalization of black lives for “walking while black,” “driving while black” or “being black.”
For those who would like to dismiss the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement as being “racist,” violent and inconsistent with the life and legacy of King, I invite you to revisit King’s work, especially from 1964-1968. King was an early critic of the Vietnam War. He spoke openly against the U.S. government’s perceived imperialist interests while failing to care for poor black, and white, lives at home. He was living more fully his claim “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Remember, King was jailed on numerous occasions, and deemed a troublemaker by staunch racial segregationists. He was seeking to heal the nation from the cancerous cells of white supremacy that unfortunately still dictate unjust race-based outcomes. He entered hostile towns and places of racial violence and injustice with the practice and end of nonviolence. Likewise, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” is a nonviolent rallying cry and posture to remember the last words of Michael Brown before he was gunned down. Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrate vulnerability and a different form of power in the face of a militarized law enforcement who are authorized as so-called peace officers. The Black Lives Matter movement seeks healing of the nation, too, starting with unjust policing, that is being led by black females in their 30s plus a decentralized cadre of black millennials.
In King’s “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” his solution was unequivocally based on becoming the beloved community. Otherwise, according to King, we would perish as fools. The Black Lives Matter movement is for life, too, and not perishing. In closing, may the Christian church go and do likewise as the church follows the one who came to bring us, black lives included, life.