Apartheid. USA 1988

February 18, 1988:

Who wears Dr King's mantle?
(editorial Times)

In his life, Dr Martin Luther King Jr fought to put an end to segregation, discrimination and, hardest to root out, bigotry. On the anniversary of his birth, many now claim to wear his mantle, to walk in his footsteps... Dr King's weapons were non-violent confrontation and civil disobedience. He sought to dramatize the pain of injustice. But he knew, in the long run, that the most effective way to reduce enmity and bigotry was to bring people together. Like Jesus and Gandhi, he preached that intolerance is a dead end and that violence and fratricide feed on and perpetuate themselves. ‘Non-violence,’ he wrote, ‘is a powerful weapon.

[p. 173]

It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.’... In large measure because of his efforts, life in America is better today for blacks and other minorities than it was in the 50's and 60's. Yet does anyone think Dr King's work is finished? Ask black children growing up in violence-ridden housing projects in Chicago. Ask young blacks in Detroit, who never had a chance at a decent education or a job with a future. Ask children in New York in foster-care. Ask single mothers on welfare in Newark. Ask the inmates, many of them black, on death row. Martin Luther King's work will never be finished. As long as blacks are diminished, so are all citizens and so is the American ideal of freedom and equal justice. Today, Dr King's mantle is for all Americans to put on; his work remains for all Americans to do.^219.

219. The New York Times, editorial