What the Media Doesn't Tell You about MLK
Title
What the Media Doesn't Tell You about MLK
Description
Published below is an excerpt from an article in the Nubian Message, North Carolina State University's African-American student newspaper, which was first published on November 30, 1992. In an issue prior to the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr., Jamerson argues that the media reduces King's history to a interesting biography while missing "the true essence" of the civil rights leader. Moreover, Jamerson claims that mainstream media narratives and American collective memory limit King's struggle against racial discrimination to the Jim Crow South, while ignoring his structural critique of inequality in the United States. The article cites King's involvement in the Poor People's Campaign and highlights the media backlash against his opposition to the U.S. Government's conduct of the war in Vietnam.
Jamerson's critique reflects the Nubian Message's goal of creating a media space for black cultural expression to counter dominant narratives about American history.
Jamerson's critique reflects the Nubian Message's goal of creating a media space for black cultural expression to counter dominant narratives about American history.
Creator
Myshalae Jamerson, Culture Editor
Source
Myshalae Jamerson, "What the Media Doesn't Tell You About MLK," The Nubian Message 6, no. 15 (January 21, 1999), 4. Digitized by the Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.
Date
1999-01-21
Contributor
Madison W. Cates
Language
English
Type
document
Text
After the programs and specials have ended, it seems as though the life of the great Dr. King has been squeezed into a one to two hour television show, revealing nothing of the true essence of the distinguished civil rights leader. Although it’s equally as important to know these facts, it is truly tantamount to the King ideology and beliefs.
Much of Kings’ battle against racial discrimination in the South is widely known and publicized. What isn’t revealed is that Dr. King was very unhappy about the government’s approach to rectifying racial discrimination in this country. He believed that the government did not consider civil rights to be a priority, and that the civil right’s [sic.] laws were ineffective for people who were too poor to eat at a restaurant or afford a nice home.
Noticing that a large number of White people were below the poverty line, Dr. King placed an emphasis on class as well as race. In order to close the gap between the rich and poor, Dr. King decided that there was a need for, “radical changes in the structure of our society.†Power and wealth should be distributed so there would not be an enormous difference in the haves and the have nots.
In addition to his disapproval of society from an economic perspective, Dr. King was greatly opposed to the Vietnam War and the foreign policy of the United States. He believed that support should have been given instead of suppression and deemed the U.S. as the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.†That quote was taken from Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam†speech in 1967, and it was heavily denounced by the media. In one instance, the Washington Post stated that “King has diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people,†just by giving that speech.
In the last months before his death, Dr. King was in the process of organizing a project called the Poor People’s Campaign. He was going around the country to gather “a multiracial army of the poor†that would invade Washington until Congress established a bill of rights especially for poor people. Dr. King’s objectives for this project was to create government jobs for the reconstruction of American cities, and to use some of the money that was spent on the military to help the poor.
Much of Kings’ battle against racial discrimination in the South is widely known and publicized. What isn’t revealed is that Dr. King was very unhappy about the government’s approach to rectifying racial discrimination in this country. He believed that the government did not consider civil rights to be a priority, and that the civil right’s [sic.] laws were ineffective for people who were too poor to eat at a restaurant or afford a nice home.
Noticing that a large number of White people were below the poverty line, Dr. King placed an emphasis on class as well as race. In order to close the gap between the rich and poor, Dr. King decided that there was a need for, “radical changes in the structure of our society.†Power and wealth should be distributed so there would not be an enormous difference in the haves and the have nots.
In addition to his disapproval of society from an economic perspective, Dr. King was greatly opposed to the Vietnam War and the foreign policy of the United States. He believed that support should have been given instead of suppression and deemed the U.S. as the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.†That quote was taken from Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam†speech in 1967, and it was heavily denounced by the media. In one instance, the Washington Post stated that “King has diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people,†just by giving that speech.
In the last months before his death, Dr. King was in the process of organizing a project called the Poor People’s Campaign. He was going around the country to gather “a multiracial army of the poor†that would invade Washington until Congress established a bill of rights especially for poor people. Dr. King’s objectives for this project was to create government jobs for the reconstruction of American cities, and to use some of the money that was spent on the military to help the poor.
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newspaper article
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Citation
Myshalae Jamerson, Culture Editor, “What the Media Doesn't Tell You about MLK,” The State of History, accessed December 2, 2024, https://soh.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/items/show/33189.