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Martin Luther King

In Wilkerson’s view, racism is only the visible manifestation of something deeper, a hidden system of social domination.

Isabel Wilkerson’s World-Historical Theory of Race and Caste

By Editors' Choice

By comparing white supremacy in the U.S. to the caste system in India, her new book at once illuminates and collapses a complex history. By Sunil Khilnani, The New Yorker — As the summer of 1958 was coming to an end, Martin Luther King, Jr., was newly famous and exhausted. All of twenty-nine years old, he had been travelling across the country for weeks promoting his first book, “Stride Toward…

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A demonstrator next to a fence bearing names of black people killed by police, Washington DC, June 2020.

America’s ‘Untouchables’: the Silent Power of the Caste System

By Editors' Choice

More than a century and a half before the American Revolution, a human hierarchy had evolved on the soil of the future United States. To comprehend the current upheavals one must understand the human pyramid encrypted into us all: the caste system. By Isabel Wilkerson, The Guardian — In the winter of 1959, after leading the Montgomery bus boycott that arose from the arrest of Rosa Parks and before the trials and…

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Fast food workers and union members carry signs as they stage a protest outside of a McDonald's restaurant in Oakland, Calif., on Feb. 12, 2018, the 50th anniversary of the historic Memphis Sanitation Strike that was led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

What Happened to Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream of Economic Justice?

By Commentaries/Opinions

Economic justice was always central to Martin Luther King Jr.’s agenda. But society has moved backward on that issue since his death. By Michael K. Honey, Time — When Memphis sanitation workers went on strike in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. knew they had a lesson to teach America. “You are reminding the nation,” he told attendees at a March 1968 rally there, “that it is a crime for people to live…

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President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Martin Luther King, Jr. at the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. August 6, 1965.

Many Say Education of King’s Life, Legacy Remains Critical for Young People

By News & Current Affairs

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent — More than a half-century after the death of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., many of America’s youth are still in the dark about the life and legacy of the nation’s foremost civil rights leader. Brainly, the world’s largest online learning platform, recently surveyed more than 1,700 U.S. students to understand better what they know – and don’t know – about…

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artin Luther King Jr. stayed in the back bedroom of this house

N.J. historic preservation officials insult the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

By Commentaries/Opinions

N.J.’s refusal to list the Camden home where MLK plotted his first protest on the state’s Register of Historic Places insults the civil rights leader’s legacy. By Linn Washington Jr., — A significant “first” usually merits the designation of historic. For example, the first formal protest against racial discrimination by civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in June 1950 — an action that produced King’s first lawsuit…

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Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy in St. Augustine, Florida. June 1964.

The Forgotten Socialist History of Martin Luther King Jr.

By Commentaries/Opinions

King believed that a multiracial working-class movement was required to overcome the failings of capitalism. By Matthew Miles Goodrich, In These Times — In 1952 a 23-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a love letter to Coretta Scott. Along with coos of affection and apologies for his hasty handwriting, he described his feelings not just toward his future wife, but also toward America’s economic system. “I am much more socialistic…

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