King’s fight-back legacy honored in Detroit
By
Kris Hamel
Detroit
Published Apr 10, 2008 9:07 PM
The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History was the site of a
special commemoration April 5 marking the 40th anniversary of the assassination
of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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Abayomi Azikiwe
WW photos: Cheryl LaBash
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“The Struggle Legacy of MLK” was the theme of the gathering
sponsored by the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice. More
than 150 people came to hear presentations on various aspects of King’s
life and work.
The program, chaired by MECAWI leader Andrea Egypt, opened with a showing of
Dr. King’s interview by Mike Douglas in 1967, in which King spoke out
against the U.S. war in Vietnam.
Debbie Johnson gave an overview of King’s anti-imperialist, anti-war
legacy. “King clearly viewed the situation evolving in Southeast Asia as
revealing a long history of Vietnamese struggle against colonialism,”
stated Johnson, “and one in which he viewed any U.S. role there as
furthering European colonial domination on a long suffering, but clearly
determined people to fight any foreign occupation, whether French or American.
King said unequivocally, ‘There can be no gainsaying of the fact that we
have taken a stand against a people seeking
self-determination.’”
Keynote speaker was Larry Hales from Denver, a leader of the national Marxist
youth organization FIST (Fight Imperialism, Stand Together) and an organizer
against police brutality. His topic was the question of nonviolence versus the
right to armed self-defense of the African-American community.
Hales reminded the audience: “There is a constant state of war going on
against African Americans, the working class and all people, especially people
of color. The first Black people brought here in chains were in a very violent
mood. They had just seen their villages destroyed, people killed and sent off
to slavery, many of them brutalized and killed or dying on the voyage here.
“The idea of a Black nation and the idea of national liberation quickly
formed. The weapon the ruling class used to get whites to participate in the
subjugation of people of color is the same one they use now—racism and
white supremacy.
“Violence was used to free slaves and rebellions started immediately when
slaves were brought to this country. The armed and violent struggle predates
the non-violent struggle. Dr. King knew that violence is done by the oppressor
and that economic violence, economic warfare was directed at the Black
community as well, part of the systematic violence against the oppressed
community.”
Hales captured the crowd’s attention with his political analysis and
historical examples of the struggle for Black liberation. He laid out a
revolutionary approach as the only solution to ridding society of racism and
violence: “The system uses violence when it robs us of what we create as
workers, the value we create as workers, so they can make huge profits. Martin
Luther King gave his ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop’ speech in
Memphis to striking sanitation workers and talked about ‘the promised
land.’ He didn’t mean somewhere you go when you die. He had a
vision that things don’t have to be this way. There is another way. We
won’t get rid of violence until this violent system of exploitation is
gone.”
Other speakers at the event were Kevin Carey, who talked about communists who
were active in the civil rights struggle, as well as possible governmental
involvement in King’s assassination. Sandra Hines motivated the audience
with song before talking about Detroit women “who stepped up and did
what’s needed to be done” in many struggles. Judith Thompson also
spoke on women in the civil rights movement. Abayomi Azikiwe talked about the
legacy of King and the ongoing struggle for economic justice.
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