Having spent another iteration of this national holiday watching political figures and institutions that are diametrically opposed to the tenets espoused by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opportunistically and hypocritically celebrate his legacy, I’m appreciative of those who approach the discourse with the countermeasure of truth. In particular, I was struck by this passage of King’s writing that New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie shared today. This appeared in Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, a book published in 1967. King was assassinated the following year in Memphis, Tennessee, while living this very principle. He was in the Southern city to show his support for a sanitation workers’ strike.
