The Bravest Philosopher of Our Time

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
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Remarkably, an unheard Dr. Martin Luther King audio was found in an attic recently.

Read the full article here along with direct quotes.

During part of the interview, King defines nonviolence and justifies its practice.

“I would … say that it is a method which seeks to secure a moral end through moral means,” he said. “And it grows out of the whole concept of love, because if one is truly nonviolent that person has a loving spirit, he refuses to inflict injury upon the opponent because he loves the opponent.”

The interview was made four years before the Civil Rights Act became law, three years before King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and eight years before his assassination. At one point in the interview, King predicts the impact of the civil rights movement.

“I am convinced that when the history books are written in future years, historians will have to record this movement as one of the greatest epochs of our heritage,” he said.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King a god and the most remarkable philosopher of our time…

  • The 49th anniversary of Dr. King’s I Have a Dream speech is upon us:

“I Have a Dream” is a 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on August 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination. The speech, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.

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Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King died for what he believed in.

He died for his philosophy.

Some say he knew how his life would end.

He used to state: A man that has nothing he is willing to die for has nothing really to live for.

Join me in honoring America’s last, perhaps greatest hero.

God bless you Rev. King…

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Bill I’m from Birmingham Alabama. I remember when I was a kid and they still had KKK rallies here, surrounding the courthouses and occupying the parks like those wall street kids. You could just ride past in your car and see em w/ the pointy hats and all. When I was a kid once, some friends and I were hiking in the woods looking for a place to smoke cigarettes stolen from our parents, and we walked up on about 100 of them burning crosses and shit in this big clearing in the woods, and we hid behind some rocks and watched it all go down.

Crazy shit. You know MLK did alot of what he did right here. And to be honest, his message was good, but almost no one here listened to it. The white people are still just as racist as can be, and the crime problems in this city, vastly perpetuated by minorities, has made us the 4th most violent city in America. #1 for rape.

So what do you think about MLK besides his message? Of course the things he said and believed in were good things, and he was correct in his ideas, imo, but what do you think the problem was in the translation to the people who matter most in his vision of society? The black kids here are hopeless, they go to some of the worst public schools in the nation, and live in a city w/ an unemployment rate of something like 25% if I had to estimate. I believe that a person is murdered in Birmingham every 2 days or something. Several rapes each day, abortion clinic bombings, our mayor and members of the city council, and a bunch of county commissioners have all been indicted and are serving time for causing the largest municipal bankruptcy in history. Jefferson County’s bond debt, to give you an idea is roughly the same as that for the entire state of New York.

No one here is productive, most people here are criminals, and the parks and streets downtown aren’t safe for black kids, or white kids.

It was a great dream. But right here in the belly of the beast, where civil rights were fought for the hardest, the dream is dead.

Sucks man. He’d be pretty disappointed.

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Also, I think Nelson Mandella was a little braver.

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Wow.

GREAT story.

Well told.

I like the way you write and you have crafted some poignant questions.

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Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.










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lol at Martin Luther King being the bravest philosopher of our time.

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He definitely did what a lot of people say they would do, but really wouldn’t. The bastard practically sacrificed himself,his life and his relationships with family and his peace of mind for a cause, put himself in the firing line for people who couldn’t do it on their own, and literally led an entire race of people in the US out of a mentality that was very detrimental to them. In the end, he didn’t get rich, and he did get assassinated. Advocated for non-violent resistance, and to a large extent, besides Ghandi, he might have been one of the more successful cases in history when it comes to actually making changes that way.

I dunno Volchock. I guess you can turn this into a debate about what a philosopher is, or what objective standard we’d need to determine who was the best, but since that’s not what the thread is about, I don’t really see the point of your post other than to insert some kind of misguided negativity.

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You don’t see the point ? What else is new ?

For starters he wasn’t a philosopher. He was also a very lousy thinker in many regards.
But yes, he might have been a very brave person and was certainly an important historical figure.

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I agree with you Rev. Martin Luther King was a brave person and was certainly an important historical figure.

In addition, I think he was a very good thinker. He was able to encapsulate a vast, important concept and distill it into a chewable mantra; Workers rights are civil rights.

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As a people, Americans have yet to catch-up to the philosophical ideologies this great and tragic figure possessed.

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God bless Dr. Martin Luther king.

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God Bless You MLK

Thank you for verbalizing America’s greatest hopes and dreams.

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Please advise how you determined he was a very lousy thinker in many regards.

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I live in south-side of Birmingham now. I don’t like it very much

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Sorry to hear that. Try not to get raped. Studying philosophy there?

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Sociology

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Get out while you can. Why on Earth would you study that? Undergrad? Is there a mean lesbian professor in that department still? Possibly the chair? Oh god why would you study that? Just an interest? Career path? Thinking of doing the medical sociology thing there? Don’t think I’m trying to be a dick or anything I just don’t know about sociology. It seems like it could be learned by accident while learning other things.

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It’s more than what it appears to be. I’m creating a video game with one of the professors

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Bill, you remind us about the “I Have a Dream” is a 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on August 28, 1963,…from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

I was there, in that crowd. I heard it as he originally delivered it. I have happy memories of the occasion - how we passed Sammy Davis, Jr. over our heads, in a wave motion, so he could get from one part of the grounds to another. And how both Joan Baez and Judy Collins had a warm reunion with each other, as they were both volunteering to provide some musical diversions. And how inspiring the occasion was, seeing such a stream of humanity assembled for a common purpose. My trainer in nonviolence, Bayard Rustin, was the prime organizer of the whole event. I was pleased regarding that.

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I am so honored.

It’s AMAZING that we are both here.

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I am TRULY honored that you have responded to my post.

Thank you. I deeply respect you.

Can you share a story of that day or a short story how that day played into your future actions?

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I did a bunch of research work almost the whole time I was there. Fun stuff. But what do you want to do with sociology?

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I can share a memory that occurred way before that day. I was 33 on the day of the March on Washington. I was only about 25 when this event occurred that is burned into my memory. [size=85] [Prior to this event, I had been active in the Civil Rights Movement for four years - having been trained by Bayard Rustin, in New York City, in a workshop located in Harlem .] [/size] When this happened, I was working as an aide, an assistant to the Secretary for the New England Region of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Earlier I had been a transcriber for A. J. Muste, the national director, but now I was back in my home town of Boston. The office was located on Park Street, a stone’s throw from the State House. A phone call came in. I took it. It was from a Field Director named Glen Smiley. He informed me that “We have discovered a potential leader, an activist minister, down here in Montgomery, Alabama. We (the F.O.R., in conjunction with the American Friends Service Committee) are sending Bayard [ - on leave at the time from the War Resisters League -] down there incognito to teach this fellow how to organize (a national movement.) The guy’s name is Reverend (Martin L.) King.” I replied, “Yes, I’ve heard of him; he’s the one who organized that citywide bus boycott.”

Then I informed my employer, who was in charge of the Regional Office. I realized that Bayard Rustin had to travel there in very-plain clothes, for safety reasons, and that he would effectively teach the reverend that the evolving movement would need a song, and a symbol, and would need to connect with the trade-union movement, and form coalitions, and would need to learn how to get more efficient media attention as well as good public relations.

The song that later emerged was “We Shall Overcome.” The symbol was a pair of bare feet (to depict the notion of marchers and walkers-to-work (boycotting the public bus-lines.)

As I think back on that time, I always get a thrill. At the time I had no idea that Dr. King had attended the same school I had: Boston University. I didn’t know then that he had studied under Alan Knight Chalmers, the author of that little book entitled COURAGE IN BOTH HANDS. It told of many successful historical experiences when nonviolent direct action had produced practical, ethical, liberating results. I didn’t know then that Dr. King had met his wife there, Coretta Scott.
Magna cum laude in Philosophy. [Earlier I and my fellow work-shoppers had helped open up public swimming pools in parks, and desegregate lunch-counters and movie theaters in both St. Louis, and in Washington, D. C. …but this is not about me. It’s about a movement of the people that demonstrated that nonviolent direct action can work, and work here in the United States.]

I thank you, Bill, for your contribution. And I am grateful that you commemorate this historic event - The March on Washington - that was a factor in changing the world …for the better.

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I LOVE that story!

I want to add you as my first friend here, if you don’t mind.

Have you ever visited Daily Kos?

It’s a good site too. Large.

Your post here WOULD BE PERFECT at Daily Kos also. You wouldn’t have to change a thing.

Just an idea.

THANK YOU again for contributing.

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