A dream that is not yet fulfilled

Press, 12 April 1978, Page 16

A dream that is not yet fulfilled

Ten years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, a former associate of Dr King, BAYARD RUSTIN, assesses the achievement of the civil rights leader.

Last month I was talking to a young man who at the time of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s assassination was in secondary school. He recalled that evening in early April, 1968, when the shocking news of Dr King’s murder was broadcast. He remembered the stark yet dignified, funeral procession through the streets of Atlanta. But h'e had no clear memories of the great civil rights struggles of the 1950 s and the 19605. Names and places like James Meredith, Birmingham, Medgar Evers, Selma, “Bull” Connor, Little Rock, Rosa Parks, and Montgomery were blurred in his mind. Unlike his parents and older neighbours, he was untouched by the bitter reality of racial segregation. For him. the very concept of segregation seemed alien and peculiar, indeed unthinkable. The attitudes of this young man, I think, testify to Dr King’s greatest accomplishment: racial segregation has become politically and morally untenable in modern America. Dr King, through the enduring beauty of non-violent witness and the political power of mass organisation, successfully challenged the moral legitimacy of white supremacy. He showed America the true face of racism — hideous and inhuman. Unlike many earlier black leaders, Dr King was not simply a “black leader,” concerned only with “black issues." He was substantially more than that. A. Philip Randolph was far more

precise when he called Dr King “the moral leader of the nation.” And it was Dr King, more than anyone else, who transformed the civil rights movement into a broad social movement, seeking and forging coalitions with white allies. This coalition strategy was based on Dr King’s social dream, a vision that consisted of two intimately linked components: the full realisation of civil and political rights, and the achievement of economic and social equality by black Americans. In short, Dr King proposed what might be called a package deal for black liberation. He viewed the social dynamic of collective struggle—rather than individual black achievement—as the chief instrument of black liberation. Freedom, according to Dr King, would not—and should not—come piecemeal, nor would it come through the sheer benevolence of the white power centres. It would come only as the result of a non-violent social revolution. Nowhere in the United States now can a white man defile the dignity of black people by placing a “Whites Only” sign in his shop window, Black children are no longer forced into grossly inferior “coloured” schools. And everywhere black voters, though seriously underregistered, are openly courted by black leaders, as well as by white politicians who only a few years ago openly avowed racial segregation. Whenever I cite the vic-

tories of the civil rights movement, I am usually confronted by two conflicting, but equally disturbing, reactions: a self-satisfied sigh of relief that manifests a dangerous complacency; or a mocking voice proclaiming: “It doesn’t matter ,it’s all a delusion.” The scoffers demand instant results and quick-fix solutions. They see people suffering and they react with their hearts. But they fail to see the whole picture, and lack a sense of history and movement. The complacent ones are just as impatient as the scoffers. Black people, they eagerly say, have “made it.” And now they grumble and whine as they implore us to “get off their backs.” Like the scoffers, they also fail to see the whole picture: they reject the social vision of the civil rights movement. For the complacent, civil rights and the ever-increasing racial tolerance of white America are ends in themselves: anything more is considered black greed. Dr King realised that the initial victories of the civil rights movement, though achieved through the personal sacrifice of thousands and even the loss of life, would be the easiest. A year before his death, he wrote: “The practical cost of change for the nation up to this point has been cheap. The limited reforms have been obtained at bargain rates. There are no expenses, and no taxes are required, for Negroes to share lunch counters, libraries, parks, hotels, and

other facilities with whites. . . . The real cost lies ahead. “The discount education given Negroes will in the future have to be purchased at full price if quality education is to be realised. Jobs are harder and costlier to create than voting rolls. The eradication of slums, housing millions, is complex far beyond integrating buses and lunch counters.” During the 10 years since Dr King’s death the second phase of the civil rights movement — the economic phase — has produced a spotty and somewhat disappointing record. Although

most blacks have improved their economic position, at least marginally, since the 19505, recent years have seen repeated setbacks for black people. And unemployment rates among black remain at intolerably high levels. For certain categories of black workers, teenagers for example, the unemployment rate is double that of white workers. But perhaps even worse, the labour force participation rate for black men of prime working age has fallen drastically since 1958 — from 96 per cent to 88.5 per cent. This bleak statistic

indicates that thousands of black workers have abandoned all hope of "making it” in contemporary America. These disheartening trends are easily traced to the disastrous economic policies so doggedly pursued by the Nixon and Ford Administrations. Everyone — except perhaps the bankers and certain lucky stockholders — suffered under the yoke of recessions. And now, with a Democratic President elected with the overwhelming support of the black voters, the situation looks only slightly better. Few politicians grasp the concept that economic policy has become the civil rights policy of the 19705. Dr King died while aiding a union of dustmen to recognise the need to unite black workers and white workers in their common struggle for economic security and advancement; his dream has not been realised after 10 long and sometimes cruel years. Nor do 1 really think that he expected us to see the dream fulfilled in 10. 20, or even 50 years. He knew that endurance and perseverance are the distinguishing marks of any worthwhile movement for justice. “The hard truth,’’ he told us in 1967, “is that neither Negro nor white has done enough to expect the dawn of a new day. While much has been done, it has been accomplished by too few and on a scale too limited for the breadth of the goal. Freedom is not won by a passive acceptance of suffering. By this measure, Negroes have not yet paid the full price for freedom. And whites have not yet faced the full cost of justice.” Dr King’s words still ring true today.