Comment on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It’s three months from the day 55 years ago when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s life was cut short by a bullet in his head. And every year when we celebrate his birthday, invariably we ask ourselves whether things for which he fought and died have changed.

In fact, if you had told me in 1968 that African-Americans would experience the degree of civil rights and legal opportunities to which they are afforded in 2023, I would have told you that you were out of your mind. For that matter, the equal rights now afforded gay men and women, as well as women no matter what their sexuality, are also a product of the efforts made by King for which he lost his life.

But when all is said and done, however, thinking about MLK in the context of civil rights tends to obscure and, if anything, diminish what he believed to be the primary commitment that shaped how he lived and why he died.

Because MLK’s fundamental bedrock of belief wasn’t about civil rights. It was his love and devotion above all to non-violence, and in this respect, he might see his life as a failure if he were alive today.

In 1970, two years after King was assassinated, the national murder rate (per 100,000 residents) was 8.8. In 1990, the rate was 9.4. In 2000, the national murder rate was 5.9. There has been a veritable cottage industry in academe…