Dr. Martin Luther King imparted much wisdom on the American people, and its leaders. Some of it was absorbed while he was alive; much of it has yet to be realized. So today, as we celebrate the civil rights leader’s birthday, we remember one of the great orator’s statements, which to us still holds so much relevance: “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.”
Maybe you have a favorite Dr. King quote, or the above line resonates with you. Whether you’re at home with the day off work, or sneaking in a few minutes today to grab your LBGT news, we invite you to chime in, unfettered, about where you believe civil rights stands today.
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Wade MacMorrighan
I think it’s a day for despair, because many current civil rights leaders shout down anyone that would invoke him to support Gay rights (despite the fact that his late wife, Coretta Scott King did so, frequently!).
CNN is asking for such responses that may be read over the air, please popst a response, here, and tell them what’s on your mind: http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/18/dr-martin-luther-king%E2%80%99s-dream%E2%80%A6/
Sean Chapin
One of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. is “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” and is the basis of my LGBT-themed video tribute to him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FinK9WWbYk
Mike in Asheville, nee "in Brooklyn"
How about: a day of disappointment and despair AND a day of hope and celebration.
greenluv1322
Celebrating MLK Jr is a mistake. He really only advocated for christian, black, heterosexual men. He threw his best adviser gay Banyard Rustin under the bus and sold out Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Democratic Freedom fighters for the segregationist President Johnson. So…once again guys look for another hero, because this dude was a dud. And as for Coretta…what woman doesn’t lie for her husband. Hillary, Michelle, Elizabeth, and the list goes on for lying ass wives supporting their raggedy ass husbands. That is all.
NotACynicOrSensationalist
greenluv1322, that is a bit of a cynical and sensational comment, you think?
MLK invoked Jewish people and also called out support for white people in his “I Have A Dream” speech, so I find it hard to believe that Dr. King would advocate only for Christians and only for Blacks. We may never know where King exactly stood on gay rights, but we can’t just dismiss Coretta’s words just because she “doesn’t lie for her husband”, and the fact that Bayard Rustin did organize the March on Washington in 1963 while Martin knew about him does speak some volume.
I don’t know you, but based on your comment, I wonder if you have little hope inside yourself, and you would do well to do some soul searching if you ask me.
Same Crap
Johnson a segregationist? The man who singed the Civil Rights Acts, who nominated Thurgood Marshall to the USSC? Oy, where do you find these trolls?
terrwill
Coretta was an advocate for the Gays. His miserable fat nasty crunt of a daughter Bernice is the one who spews poo hating the Gays. Her Mother must turn over in her grave everytime that fat bitch opens her vile mouth………..
1EqualityUSA
Terrwill, I’m betting that if Martin Luther King were here right now, he would cringe at the name calling, no matter what Bernice’s opinion was.
terrwill
@1EqualityUSA: Sorry, this crunt actually organized hundreds of scumbags to rally at her Fathers grave to denounce Gay marriage. She defiled her own Fathers grave to encourage hate, despite Coretta stating that MLK would have been a supporter of Gay marriage. Sorry, I was being somewhat reserved in the words I would like to use to describe this vile scum…………
1EqualityUSA
Any other day but today, at least. I love your posts, Terrwill
terrwill
@1EqualityUSA: Ok, her birthday is March 28th, I’ll hold off anything further today and really let her have it on her birthday………….. : P
1EqualityUSA
Emily Post would be proud of you.
Wade MacMorrighan
@Sean Chapin: Hey Sean, glad to see you posted something over at CNN. Sadly, they didn’t choose to repeat a single GLBT-specific response, choosing instead very generic ones. *sigh* Anyhoo…my fav. Kingism has always been, “Justice delayed is justice denied!”
Wade MacMorrighan
@terrwill: Yeah, I’ve always wondered why Bernice dislikes us so (even rallying hatred against us in her father’s name), despite the FACT that her mom was such an outspoken advocate?! Must’ve made for some intense conversations during the holidays!
Mike in Asheville
@No.4 Greenluv1322 — WTF?
I am hardly well read about MLK; his letter from Birmingham Jail and a couple of essays were reprinted the 1978-8? Norton Anthologies which my introduction to rhetoric class studied. Nonetheless, while I am aware of claims that MLK was: a communist, anarchist, anti-Christian (several web sites dedicated to this), feminist (supporter of women’s rights), anti-war crusader; BUT I have never heard of or read claims that he was a cog working for black Christian heterosexual men!
There are plenty of homophobic black Christian heterosexual men who plague the LGBT with their bigotry (Rev. Harry Jackson). And there are plenty of black Christian heterosexual women who also plague the LGBT community (Bernice King). Rail against them! But rail against MLK? No.
When Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, including the famous line that “all men are created equal”, he was a slave owner. And he remained a slave owner over the ensuing 50 years of so-called American freedom. To explore the hypocritical dichotomy of Jefferson as the slave owner who claim that “all men are created equal”, is worth exploring and understanding. As per MLK, I challenge you/others to show me where MLK was hypocritical in his words and deeds.
hyhybt
@Wade MacMorrighan: blood relation does not always mean agreement.
@terrwill: Glad you got whatever was ruining the formatting of your posts straightened out.
alicia banks
i love mlk
today i remember how he would protest obama’s warmongering, elitism, and homohatred!…
i love everything mlk ever penned….too many favorie quotes to list or rank
here is just one:
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere in this country.”
see more on mlk at
eloquent fury
alicia banks
terrwill
@hyhybt: still sux on the netbook………on the PC its fine………guess where I am today??? : P
schlukitz
No. 12 · 1EqualityUSA
Emily Post would be proud of you.
OMG! America’s etiquette guru. She’s been gone since 1960. I am surprised that you are familiar with her.
And…her raisin bran is so much better tasting than Kellogs. 😉
1EqualityUSA
Dear Schlukitz, I have her book on my shelf. Original print. Hey, lesbians do write thank you notes.
schlukitz
Dear Equality,
WOW! That’s incredible. A real collector’s item, indeed.
Of course you write thank you notes. I would not have expected anything less of you, courteous, considerate and caring person that you are.
I knew you were a class act from your very first posting. 😉
greenluv1322
Hi guys I appreciate the spirited discussion regarding my post. Allow me to give you a little background on myself. Unlike most of you I am a black lesbian lawyer. I have been reading well since the age of four. Both of parents are teachers and students of black history. That is mainly due to the fact that our country was segregated until they both had been teaching for about five years. As a result I have extensive knowledge of negro/black history. I read books that were written either contemporaneously or directly after MLKJr was alive. He was not the “fearless” leader that you guys who by my estimation only think the guy was great based on a national holiday created in the 1980’s. I am not saying that the guy didn’t do anything I am just saying that the guy didn’t do EVERYTHING. I am saying who in the hell cares what Coretta, who I do appreciate, had to say about some dead dude.
The point is he WAS NOT a gay rights advocate when he was alive. The point is that took the low road and disassociated himself Mr. Rustin. He like so many other black people at the time, past and present, shit on LGBT’s when it is convenient.
I talk like this, because I can back it up. Please read what my friend and fellow intellectual Melissa Lacewell Harris has to say over at the nation.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/517878/how_barack_obama_is_like_martin_luther_king_jr
Mike in Asheville, nee "in Brooklyn"
@No. 22 Greenluv1322
Sorry, but you are judging MLK by your 2010 idealism; judge him for who he was when he was. Since he fails to meet your 2010 (or even 1986, the first holiday) expectations, he should not be celebrated for his actual accomplishments? I disagree.
Holidays, lets see: Columbus Day, though millions of native Americans end up dying from the diseases brought here; Labor Day, yet millions toil at minimum wage; Thanksgiving, though one wonders why the Indians didn’t just slaughter the Pilgrims before the Pilgrims slaughtered them; 4th of July, though the Founding Fathers betrayed their own oath that “All Men are created equal”; Presidents’ Day, well there’s a mixed bag of slave owners who betrayed the Declaration of Independence (per Lincoln, God’s wrath for that betrayal being the Civil War) to Richard Nixon, Reagan, and 2 Bushes; Memorial Day/Veterans’ Day, though our politician so quickly jump into new wars forgetting history; Flag Day, as some think mass produced pieces of cloth are holy relics instead of expressions of freedom; and on and on.
So MLK isn’t perfect; don’t believe that anyone suggested otherwise. Flaws and all, he is a hero for humanity. Take everything good, understand everything bad, and move forward. The first significant movement for gay civil rights started with the Stonewall Riots, just 1 years after the assassination of MLK; do you not think that his courage, his fight, his eloquence in support of civil rights was not an important underlining example that led the Stonewall veterans to take a stand for gay civil rights?
alicia banks
mlk took much hell to remain loyal to bayard.
bayard public sexcapades finally made that impossible
do not blame mlk for the libido that bayard could not control!!!
see more at
alicia banks
eloquent fury
“The most painful component of your revisionist slander of King was the way you desecrated his dear, platonic, and eternal friendship with Bayard Rustin. The very same hypocritical homohating “christians” who harassed King, are the very same ones that now demand that afrocentric public intellectuals, like myself and Dyson, give the blackish Obama a blank white pass to perpetually betray the black community. We refuse to ever excuse Obama, no matter how the truths we tell about him are twisted or ignored.
King defended and befriended Bayard as long as his political strategy would allow. Rustin’s extremely humiliating and lewd public sexual escapade was fatally complicit in the belated severing of his political ties with King. The elated holy gaybashers who advised King finally slew Rustin, yet they did so with Rustin’s own knife. In spite of the revisionist libel you have penned, King, Coretta, and Rustin remain an eternal trilogy of social warriors and sacred friends. Again, as you shamelessly embraced only Obama’s political strategy, this specific analysis escaped you.”
blackjack44
“the arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice” – MLK
My favorite because it makes me continue to believe gay rights will be realized in time.