Reminders & More Commentary

REMINDERS: Today (Monday, May 4th) is the deadline for the families to submit 5 short-answer questions. Please try to email them to me sometime today. I will be here until at least 4:30PM or so. Tomorrow (Tuesday, May 5th) your papers are due. Also, we have two final textual commentaries to hear from Ben and St. Claire. Along with my commentary below, I plan to wrap up my remarks about the last of the selections in A Testament of Hope tomorrow as well. On Thursday, May 7th, the 4th and final writing assignment is due and Kristin, Jessica H., Jessica O. & St. Claire are expected to talk about what you wrote for that assignment. You will need to do so in roughly 20-25 minutes or so altogether, because Dr. King's "Mountaintop Speech" runs around 50 minutes. That leaves little or no time for review for the final exam, so I'll give some thought to setting up a time on Friday, or perhaps Monday for a review session.


MORE COMMENTARY: last Thursday we got as far as selection #51, so let me pick up there.

#51 "Meet the Press" (TV interview, 21Aug.'66)

A. This excerpt was placed in The Congressional Record, an acknowledgment of how important the race issue was. In the headnote, notes how of the different leaders (from King, to Wilkins, to Carmichael), King adhered to the principle of unity and civility in public debate.

B. Note King's assesssment of the movement as of Aug. '66. "Well, I think at points it is growing worse. This does not mean that we have not made significant progress. But I think the real problem today is there is still a tragic gulf between promise and fulfillment, and that the rising expectations of freedom and equality, the rising expectations of improvement have met with little results, so the problem today is that we have laws on the books but they have not been thoroughly implemented and there are still pockets of resistance that are seeking to hold the civil rights movement back in our just and legal and moral aspirations for a democratic society, are still being met with these forces of resistance." (p. 381)

C. Later, King also puts his finger on the source of the intense hatred in Chicago -- based on fears and stereotypes of the black community. (p. 385)


#52 "Face to Face" (TV news interview, 28July'67)

Headnote: In addition to King, Ivan Allen (mayor of Atlanta), Dick Gregory, Roy Wilkins. Also placed in the Congressional Record.

A. President Johnson had just announced the formation of the Kerner Commission to study the riots. King comments on the misery of ghetto life. Ivan Allen stresses the need for law and order, but he does recognize "deep problems" that lie behind the riots.

B. Comic relief from Dick Gregory may be the most revealing, especially his follow-up regarding the rioting, seeing it as a type of spontaneous combustion. For example, shortly after he is introduced, he says, "I'm going to have to talk very fast because I have to fly out of here to Kansas City, Missouri, to help a friend of mine, a white cat that just moved into an all-colored neighborhood."
"And some colored bigot burned a watermelon on his front lawn." (p. 398)

And, a bit later: "If we treat this problem the way we treat a slum building that burns down -- when the fire commissioner shows up, the first thing he says, 'We're going to check into it and see what caused it.' If we check into these explosions and see what caused them instead of talking about looters and hoodlums, check and find out what caused it, because you're aware of a theory called spontaneous combustion. When you put dirty, oily, greasy rags in a closet, you close the door so that air cannot circulate, nature's going to take care of the rest. You can call these rags ignorant. You can call them nigger, you can call them fool. If you don't have enough wisdom to open up that door, it's spontaneous combustion. The black ghettos in America today are America's oily, dirty, greasy rags...." (p. 400)


#56 Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

Headnote: this book was perhaps the toughest project for Dr. King given his demanding schedule. And at this time, it appeared that he and his organization were being by-passed in favor of more militant black power advocates. So, King tries to clarify "black power" and focus on what is positive about it. (I would add, it is also one of his most radical, far-reaching statements.)

Chapter 1 Where Are We?

A. In general, King does not paint a very rosy picture. Sees evidence of a white backlash in the South. He clearly disagrees with President Johnson's assessment. Voting Rights Act just the first phase. "With Selma and the Voting Rights Act one phase of development in the civil rights revolution came to an end. A new phase opened, but few observers recognized it or were prepared for its implications. For the vast majority of white Americans, the past decade -- the first phase -- had been a struggle to treat the Negro with a degree of decency, not of equality. White America was ready to demand that the Negro should be spared the lash of brutality and coarse degradation, but it had never been truly committed to helping him out of poverty, exploitation or all forms of discrimination." (p. 557)

1. Changes so far had been cheap.

B. He acknowledges the courage of many whites, but on the whole he feels they have not made a real effort to overcome their ignorance, perhaps out of a continued sense of superiority. (see top p. 561)

C. King sympathizes with whites who fear riots, but he makes clear that whites have a responsibility to understand and deal with the conditions that spark violence.


That brings us up to Chapter 2 Black Power, which, in my view, represents an incisive analysis of the concept of "power" itself, and the false notion that power is synonymous with the use of force, physical violence, or to parapharse Mao Tse Tung, what comes out of the barrell of a gun.
We'll pick up here tomorrow.