{"id":50158,"date":"2018-01-18T12:12:56","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T19:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=50158"},"modified":"2018-01-18T12:12:56","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T19:12:56","slug":"martin-luther-kings-life-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/martin-luther-kings-life-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"NAU ethnic studies professor discusses Martin Luther King’s life, legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Heidi Toth<\/strong>
\nNAU Communications<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

2018 is a seminal anniversary in the American Civil Rights movement\u2014the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of the signing the Civil Rights Act of 1968, protests by black students at major universities, the Memphis sanitation workers\u2019 strike and, on April 4, the anniversary of the assassination of The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis.<\/p>\n

Frederick Gooding Jr<\/strong>, an ethnic studies professor at Northern Arizona University who researches and teaches African-American history and critical race theory, talked about King\u2019s contributions to the fight for civil rights and the importance of Americans today to continue working toward the dream he shared in his well-known 1963 speech. He also spoke at the breakfast the Black Student Union held on Martin Luther King Day.<\/p>\n

What do you think was Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s biggest accomplishment? <\/strong><\/h3>\n

I think what he did was he changed with the times, and I think that\u2019s often overlooked. What the media did\u2014the media in mainstream America has seized upon four words that have essentially served to ensconce him within human history. They\u2019re very inspirational words, but I think he was a bit more than an aspirational dream. He was a practical person who was very much involved with the pulse of the people.<\/p>\n

He was vocal about his anti-war stance and economic critique of America. He does make reference in his \u201cI have a dream\u201d speech to the promissory note coming back insufficient funds, and later in his career he shares a message of rights of marginalized blue-collar workers who happen to be black. He\u2019s leaning toward a more socialized stance. He stayed in the slums in Chicago to bring light to fact that people are living on the same planet but in different worlds.<\/p>\n

I think oftentimes people stop the picture in 1963. It\u2019s beautiful picture, it\u2019s inspirational, but the 5-year period after that shows he was still evolving in ways many of us need to. It\u2019s easy to hold hands on Jan. 15 every year and talk about what a great job he\u2019s done and then take our foot off the gas for rest of the year.<\/p>\n

If anything, his progression indicated that we should do the same.<\/p>\n

Which speech stands out most to you?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The last speech he ever gave. Go look it up on YouTube and see how you would characterize the tone. It was the night before he was assassinated. Assess that tone and compare and contrast it to cuddly teddy bear image of his \u201cI have a dream\u201d speech.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s eerie also in that it is perhaps\u2014It was almost like he had a premonition that \u201cI may not make it there with you to the idea of promised land.\u201d I don\u2019t know if he saw that it was imminent, that it would be the next afternoon, but more the idea that we have so much work to do. He\u2019d been out of the spotlight, the buzz of the Nobel Peace Prize was worn off, and he was trying to bring light and attention to poor people.<\/p>\n

This idea that \u201cI may not make it there with you is perhaps an ominous sign as well. It\u2019s not just in terms of he himself, but the idea that wow, there is so much work to be done.<\/p>\n

How is his legacy part of today\u2019s conversation?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In many senses, it simplifies it. We get the day off, but sadly, many schools don\u2019t really do much to recognize it. It\u2019s almost taken for granted. In the early \u201880s, many states were still considering whether to adopt it as federal holiday, and there was a lot of activism around it. Stevie Wonder wrote a song, and it was typical at elementary or middle school level to have programs about Martin Luther King. Now it\u2019s just another three-day weekend.<\/p>\n

What should people today learn from Martin Luther King\u2019s life and his mission? <\/strong><\/h3>\n

We should learn that he\u2019s one individual who helped fight the good fight and it\u2019s going to take more than one individual. If you look at 50 years since then, some things have changed, but not everything. We thought more would have changed by now two and a half generations later.<\/p>\n

Some people do point to President Obama as positive proof, but Obama was one individual. There\u2019s still an operation in place. It has changed, but the question is to what degree. By the metrics of poverty, homelessness, joblessness, education, life expectancy, those numbers unfortunately have been relatively consistent when it comes to blacks being at the bottom. The LeBron James, the Oprahs of the world\u2014they\u2019re the exception.<\/p>\n

Even in the 1920s, at the height of Jim Crow when black people were hung from trees, there was a black millionaire. There\u2019s always an exception to the rule, but the question is what is the rule.<\/p>\n

Who today is carrying on MLK\u2019s mission?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

That\u2019s a problematic question, and I\u2019m going to push back. Again, it\u2019s not one individual. This is a nation of 300-plus million people, and it can\u2019t be reduced to one individual. That\u2019s disingenuous. This narrative carried on that King was the leader, and once he was taken out things fizzled. People have always been resisting\u2014before King came and after. In local government, high schools and the lumberyard, people have always been fighting for humanity.<\/p>\n

I think what\u2019s interesting is to see development of Black Lives Matter because this movement doesn\u2019t necessarily have a figurehead, and that\u2019s been frustrating for some\u2014who can we talk to, who takes the blame, who\u2019s responsible? There\u2019s a myriad of different individuals from different places, though the critique may be that not well-positioned to advance agenda.<\/p>\n

The question is how will social movements evolve in terms of race and ethnicity? Time will tell. The multiplicity of Black Lives Matter as one example might give a hint that maybe we should not be asking who.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Heidi Toth NAU Communications 2018 is a seminal anniversary in the American Civil Rights movement\u2014the 50th anniversary of the signing the Civil Rights Act of 1968, protests by black students at major universities, the Memphis sanitation workers\u2019 strike and, on April 4, the anniversary of the assassination of The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":49166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}