Let’s get a few important things out of the way: The Reverand Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. was not the docile, unintimidating, conflict avoider that mainstream media has propped him up to be in the years since his passing. We established that long ago. Read (or reread) here and here for a refresher. That sanitized, whitewashed version of Dr. King, the impressive Morehouse alum who graduated college at 19 years-old, is not only stale and lame but extremely dangerous.
Remember those ‘We Are Not Our Ancestors’ shirts some were wearing a few years ago? The notion that Dr. King and other bold, brave civil rights activists like him were quietly laying down to allow oppression of their schools, neighborhoods and financial development is downright false. There’s more than one way to knuck if you buck. The Black Panthers had their way. Brother Malcolm X had his way. Sister Fannie Lou Hamer had her way. While their approaches might have differed, their end goals were primarily the same. May we never lose sight of this and the mighty sacrifices they all made.
Dr. King’s legendary I Have a Dream speech during the 1963 March on Washington is what most of us are taught was his career highlight. In fact, many scholars agree that it is the best speech of the 20th century based on social and political impact and rhetorical artistry. Dr. King delivered a captivating oration that still causes chills more than six decades later. And yet the widely repeated and heralded parts of the speech are the words that some might argue are most pleasing to the general public’s palette. Rarely are the parts where Dr. King spoke about the economic mobility of Black folks (he notably called out his people being forced to move from a smaller ghetto to a larger ghetto), voting rights (the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and the Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote) and all around persecution (one hundred years later the Negro still finds himself in exile in his own land).
What does not receive nearly enough amplification, however, is his brilliant and bad-a**, Letters from a Birmingham Jail.
Whew.
Martin literally had time that day and his pen game was on fire. For anyone who was confused or thought otherwise, in that letter Dr. King also confirmed he indeed had an unapologetic slick tongue. His indignation was not sugar coated. The letter is 5,961 words of masterful and radical civil rights activism. While penned in 1963, it can and should be used as a guide to help us navigate the policies and executive orders of Trump in 2026.
“I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty five affiliated organizations across the South. Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates.”
Here, Dr. King demonstrates the power of unity, collective responsibility and cooperative economics. We can absolutely benefit from this type of structural organization while fighting against recent unjust mandates by Trump targeting educational systems, immigration and employment opportunities.
Again, we have been led to believe that fighting against injustice is one-dimensional. That is simply incorrect. Sometimes it is picketing and marching. It is also donating time and money to initiatives doing the critical work. It is volunteering in an underserved community. It is using your voice, which might be your social media platforms, a podcast or a YouTube channel to call out racial inequities. Dr. King and his peers could not have executed what they did without the support of unsung heroes behind the scenes like those frying up the chicken for those marchers who could not stop and eat at restaurants in sundown towns. We are more powerful together than we can ever be as individuals.
“You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham but fail to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.”
We are still hit with this baseless argument today from MAGA supporters who question the rallies and demonstrations objecting to inequality of those who have been marginalized. Trump and his cronies have resorted to attempts of sanitizing or flat out “erasing” important parts of American history which don’t fit their narratives.
This is one urgent reason we will not and cannot stop speaking and sharing our stories. Never.
“I am not afraid of the word “tension.” There is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.”
As the good reverend so eloquently explained, tension or conflict is not a time to run. That is when we roll up our sleeves and fight. In this information age, fighting might not look as it typically did in the 1960s. But the drive is the same. It might mean emailing community stakeholders, speaking up at local community board meetings, sending a DM to an elected official until someone agrees to a meeting about your child’s school enrichment programs or sharing posts from thought leaders like Joy-Ann Reid to spread awareness of what is happening and table shakers such as Angela Rye who equip us with strategic weapons for the battle.
Bottom line: We will not allow tension deter us. We didn’t then and we won’t now.
Happy Birthday, Dr. King. And thank you.
*[Parts of the Letters from a Birmingham Jail quotes were edited for brevity.]