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Martin Luther King Jr. is venerated as the prophetic leader of the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. But he was also something else: a union man. King saw that racial equality was intertwined with economics, asking, “What good does it do to be able to eat at a lunch counter if you can’t buy a hamburger?” On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, labor historian Peter Cole writes about King’s relationship with
what was perhaps the most racially progressive union in the country, Local 10 of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union in San Francisco.
Early advocates of public education imagined “common schools” where children from different economic backgrounds could be educated in the same classroom – an idea also championed by Martin Luther King Jr. But that vision has yet to be realized on a large scale, education historian Jack Schneider of UMass Lowell writes.
Howard Thurman was a theologian who may not be as well known as King, but he had a profound influence on King and the civil rights movement. As scholar Paul Harvey explains, it was Thurman who taught King about the necessity of spiritual growth to take on the intense work of social transformation.
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the picket line at the Scripto plant in Atlanta, Ga., December, 1964.
AP
Peter Cole, Western Illinois University
Most people think pf Martin Luther King Jr. as a civil rights leader who led the nation in addressing the evils of systemic racism. What many don't know is that he also championed labor unionism.
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America’s public schools were meant to bring together children from all walks of life.
Monkey Business Images/www.shutterstock.com
Jack Schneider, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Public schools were originally envisioned in the 19th century as 'common schools' where rich and poor kids could be educated together. MLK wanted the same thing – but it's not happening.
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Thurman taught King Jr. that spiritual cultivation was necessary to take on the intense work of social activism.
AP File Photo
Paul Harvey, University of Colorado
Thurman was 30 years older than King: the same age, in fact, as King's father. Among his most significant contributions was bringing the ideas of nonviolence to the civil rights movement.
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Politics + Society
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Sharon Austin, University of Florida
Fifty years after MLK's death, a minority politics scholar assesses black progress in the US based on poverty, jobs and wealth. "In some ways," she concludes, "we've barely budged as a people."
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Derek H. Alderman, University of Tennessee
When activists have sought to rename main thoroughfares that don’t serve just primarily black neighborhoods, they have faced many challenges.
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Ethics + Religion
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Joshua F.J. Inwood, Pennsylvania State University
Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision of love was not sentimental. It demanded that individuals tell their oppressors what they were doing was wrong. How can this vision help with community-building today?
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Kenyatta R. Gilbert, Howard University
Martin Luther King Jr. used a prophetic voice in his preaching -- a hopeful voice that addressed human tragedy. But it was the black clerics who came before him, who helped King develop that voice.
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