PROGRAM SUCCESS – JANUARY 2009
PAGE 3
MARTIN LUTHER KING
He led a mass struggle for racial equality that
doomed segregation and changed
America forever
By JACK E. WHITE
Guest Columnist
It is a testament to the greatness of Martin
Luther King Jr. that nearly every major
city in the U.S. has a street or school
named after him. It is a measure of
how sorely his achievements are
misunderstood that most of them
are located in black neighborhoods.
Three decades after King was
gunned down on a motel balcony
in Memphis, Tenn., he is still
regarded mainly as the black
leader of a movement for black
equality. That assessment, while
accurate, is far too restrictive. For all
King did to free blacks from the yoke
of segregation, whites may owe him
the greatest debt, for liberating them
from the burden of America’s centuriesold hypocrisy about race. It is only
because of King and the movement that
he led that the U.S. can claim to be the
leader of the “free world” without
inviting smirks of disdain and
disbelief. Had he and the
blacks and whites who
marched beside him
failed, vast regions of the
U.S.
would
have
remained
morally
indistinguishable
from South Africa
King announces on
April 25, 1967, that
he would not be a
candidate for the
president of the
United States.
see
MARTIN
LUTHER
KING
page 30