Years ago, I stood at the Black Fist statue, and felt the heaviness of George Floyd’s death. I also felt hope from the protests in his name. The corner of 38th St. and Chicago Ave. in Minneapolis was liberated by the people into an art-filled, open space. The joy was electric. Maybe, I thought, maybe this is a glimpse of a Black future. Now, nearly six years after Floyd’s murder…
Source
We look back on the life and legacy of civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson, who died Tuesday at the age of 84. From marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to building the Rainbow Coalition in his two presidential runs and beyond, “Jackson’s life contributed to making this country more democratic, more inclusive, more fair,” says Howard University political science professor Clarence Lusane.
Source
Every year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, elected officials quote King while standing safely at a distance from the risks he embraced. His name is invoked, his image sanitized, and his politics stripped of urgency. The U.S. celebrates a softened King who spoke about love but not power, unity but not confrontation, peace but not disruption. What we rarely confront is this truth: Martin Luther King…
Source
As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids schools, states ban honest teaching about race and gender, and public officials invoke Martin Luther King Jr. to call for restraint and “civility,” King’s legacy is being aggressively stripped of its political substance. Much of the scholarship and public memory of King has long privileged his work in the South, reinforcing the idea that…
Source