Monday, January 15, 2007

I Am Not for The MLK Holiday

Again we are bombarded by images of MLK and his various speeches. So call black leaders give their same ol' song and dance about how we came a long way but there is still some more roads that need to be paved. That is it besides Rosa Parks, noone else is mention.
I am not for the holiday because it takes away from the big picture and down plays those equally if not more important that contributed to the cause of freedom.
First complaint is the March on Washington, it is portrayed as if one man orchestrated it. The fact is that there were six Randolph, Roy Wilkins (NAACP), James Farmer (CORE), John Lewis (SNCC), Whitney Young, Jr. (Urban League), and King (SCLC). Bayard Rustin was the chief coordinator whom was silenced by the powers to be (Hoover and his cronies) because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era.
Little is mention how orchestrated and sedated the march became, noone talks about John Lewis and how his speech was circulated which eventually was censored in order not to offend the Kennedys. He referred to the civil rights bill as "too little, too late" and also he was noted as saying "We will march through the South, through the Heart of Dixie, the way Sherman did. We will pursue our own 'scorched earth' policy and burn Jim Crow to the ground—nonviolently. We will fragment the South into a thousand pieces and put them back together in the image of democracy."
The truth is that El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz had the course of action correct the United States should have been bought before the United Nations on human rights violations. It is hard to give civil rights when the premise of being human is not recognize.
There are countless people that go unheard or mention at this time of the year(MLK and black history month). We should recognize those that fallen and possibly tripped that light bulb for the civil rights for example Emit Till a fourteen year old boy accused of whistling at white girl in 1955. White Supremacists in the Deep South beat him to death for whistling at a white girl(I refuse to refer to her as a woman) by the name of Carolyn Holloway Bryant. There was an open casket at the request of Emit's mother. The world saw exactly what the sick and twisted devils did to her son. Till’s body was seen exactly as his killers had left it. Emmett Till’s head was swollen to at least five times its normal size; his eyes were knocked out of his eye sockets and hung down his broken cheeks. Virtually all of his teeth had been knocked out. Emmett Till’s entire body, from head to toe had been brutalized almost beyond recognition. Emit Till’s murderers were acquitted by an all white jury. A constant injustice that is repeated many times over in The Deep South. Oh and the catalyst Carolyn Holloway Bryant is still alive and Emit's mother died with no justice served.
Medgar Wiley Evers is another person that comes to mind, he was instrumental at integrating Ole. Miss. Mr. Evers was gunned down by an assasins bullet.
Beckwith the assassin was convicted on February 5, 1994, after living as a free man for three decades after the murder. Beckwith appealed unsuccessfully, and died in prison in January of 2001. The sad thing is that our tax dollars went to a proverbial nursing home for this devil incarnate.
I admit that Martin Luther King was a great man but having a holiday does not solve the problems in the world today. From my experience with the federal employment system it is a day off and for the school system, they should not consider any days off until they raise teachers salaries and improve the United States school ranking among other industrialize nations.
People come with the same line we honor so we do not forget, I beg to differ the prison population is overflowing with young men of African decent because they choose to contribute to chemical warfare among there own. There should be a Black Martyrdom holiday instead. Schools do not get out they must adhere to a week of intense history of the sacrifices that were made by those before them. History is never written by the minority, it is assimilated the majority should be the slogan.
RIP El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Dr. King, Mr. Evers, lil brother Till, Addie Mae Collins (aged 15), Denise McNair (11), Carole Robertson (14), and Cynthia Wesley (14) and those countless others that gave their life in pursuit of freedom and equality.



http://www.rustin.org/
http://www.abbeville.com/civilrights/washington.asp
Lewis, quoted in Darlene Clark Hine, eds. Eyes on the Prize: A Reader and Guide (New York: Penguin Books, 1987), p. 123.
http://students.mcneese.edu/msu-dgauthreaux/emit_till.htm
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/evers_medgar/

3 comments:

BIG CHIEF said...

Nice fact finding MACK! Keep spreading the knowledge. Peace my brother!

Anonymous said...

if you were conserderd your feeling for the MLK Holiday, theyre wouldnt be any holidays you fool! maybe you should take an American Lit class and learn a few things b4 you try and comment on facts and issues you do not know...the holiday is a step to cast light upon the struggle of blacks not to undermine! if there was no holiday then that would undermine even more!----with your opinion "Good luck with life" my advice to you is to think more an a broad level! see several points of view then examine them all chose one and also compare b4 you go writing blogs and sites =)

Ms. M said...

If you don't like the ignorance in society, don't complain about it, spread knowledge--not lame opinions.