For Martin Luther King Day: Thomas Sowell and Robert Woodson reflect on the legacy of Rev. King and his famous speech

From Mark Perry.

"Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and if he were alive on his birthday (January 15) this year Rev. King would have been 92 years old. Eight years ago marked an important milestone for Martin Luther King’s legacy – the year 2013 was the 50th anniversary of the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” and Reverend King’s memorable “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963 (see photo and video above and the CNN article “9 things about MLK’s speech and the March on Washington“). Around that time of the 50th anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech in August 2013, economist Thomas Sowell offered some reflections on MLK’s legacy and the significance of his famous speech in a National Review article titled “A Poignant Anniversary.” Here are some excerpts from Dr. Sowell’s article to help reflect on today’s federal holiday and MLK’s legacy (emphasis added):

At the core of Dr. King’s speech was his dream of a world in which people would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by “the content of their character.” Judging individuals by their individual character is at the opposite pole from judging how groups are statistically represented among employees, college students, or political figures. Yet many — if not most — of those who celebrate the “I have a dream” speech today promote the directly opposite approach of group preferences, especially those based on skin color.

What was historic about that speech was not only what was said but how powerfully its message resonated among Americans of that time across the spectrum of race, ideology, and politics. A higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats voted in Congress for both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

To say that that was a hopeful time would be an understatement. To say that many of those hopes have since been disappointed would also be an understatement. There has been much documented racial progress since 1963. But there has also been much retrogression, of which the disintegration of the black family has been central, especially among those at the bottom of the social pyramid. Many people — especially politicians and activists — want to take credit for the economic and other advancement of blacks, even though a larger proportion of blacks rose out of poverty in the 20 years before 1960 than in the 20 years afterwards. But no one wants to take responsibility for the policies and ideologies that led to the breakup of the black family, which had survived centuries of slavery and generations of discrimination.

Many hopes were disappointed because those were unrealistic hopes to begin with. Economic and other disparities between groups have been common for centuries, in countries around the world — and many of those disparities have been, and still are, larger than the disparities between blacks and whites in America. Even when those who lagged behind have advanced, they have not always caught up, even after centuries, because others were advancing at the same time. But when blacks did not catch up with whites in America within a matter of decades, that was treated as strange — or even a sinister sign of crafty and covert racism.

Civil rights were necessary, but far from sufficient. Education and job skills are crucial, and the government cannot give you these things. All it can do is make them available. Race hustlers who blame all lags on the racism of others are among the obstacles to taking the fullest advantage of education and other opportunities. What does that say about the content of their character?

When the Civil Rights Act of 1964…. passed, it provoked no rethinking. Instead, it provoked all sorts of new demands. Judging everybody by the same standards came to be regarded in some quarters as “racist” because it precluded preferences and quotas. There are people today who talk “justice” when they really mean payback — including payback against people who were not even born when historic injustices were committed.

Unfortunately, Dr. Sowell ended his essay on MLK with this pessimistic conclusion:

We have a long way to go to catch up to what Martin Luther King said 50 years ago. And we are moving in the opposite direction.

MP: Thanks to Thomas Sowell for those insights and reflections on MLK and his famous speech for today’s holiday, which reinforce Robert Woodson’s commentary about the distortion of MLK’s legacy by the progressive left in a Wall Street Journal op-ed a year ago and featured on CD here. Here are some “money quotes” from that op-ed:

History is full of inspiring examples of black people succeeding against the odds, including building their own schools, hotels, railroads and banking systems when doors were closed to them. These accomplishments were made possible by a set of values cherished among the blacks of the time: self-determination, resiliency, personal virtue, honesty, honor and accountability. Dr. King understood that these values would be the bedrock for black success once true equality was won.

Today the progressive left wants to ignore the achievements and pretend that blacks are perpetual victims of white racism. The New York Times’s “1619 Project” essay series is the latest salvo in this attack on America’s history and founding, claiming “anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country.” This statement is an abomination of everything Dr. King stood for.
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Dr. King, who sought full participation in America, would never have indulged today’s grievance-based identity politics, whose social-justice warriors use race as a battering ram against the country. Yesterday’s values prepared blacks to walk through the doors of opportunity opened to them through civil rights. Family, faith, character and moral behavior were all crucial to their victories. Today’s social-justice warriors trade on the currency of oppression, deriding the concept of personal responsibility and always blaming external forces. I can think of no better way to instill hopelessness and fear in a young person than to tell him he is a victim, powerless to change his circumstance.

During the civil-rights movement blacks never permitted oppression to define who we were. Instead we cultivated moral competence, enterprise and thrift, and viewed oppression as a stumbling block, not an excuse. Dr. King would have refused to participate in today’s identity politics gamesmanship because it frames its grievances in opposition to the American principles of freedom and equality that he sought to redeem. He upheld the country’s founding principles and sought to destroy only what got in the way of delivering the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as well as the recognition that all men are created equal.

We must not let the purveyors of identity politics fudge the record: Martin Luther King Jr. believed in the promise of America. In fact, he helped to fulfill it."