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Photo Credit: Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking in Cobol Hall, Detroit, June 23, 1963. Read and listen to the full speech, here.
“The price that this nation must pay for the continued oppression and exploitation of the Negro or any other minority group is the price of its own destruction. For the hour is late. The clock of destiny is ticking out, and we must act now before it is too late….” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., June 23, 1963.
Is the United States heading toward its “own destruction”? I originally planned to share my previous three posts published on MLK, Jr. Day with some additional current commentary, and closer to the actual date of Martin Luther King Day on January 20, 2025. But the timing this year coincided with President Trump’s inauguration and his flurry of shocking (but not unexpected) executive orders.
Given the statements of the current president on “DEI” and race made in just the last few days, I’m glad this tribute to Dr. King is published belatedly on February 1— a more auspicious day for Black history than I realized. According to a post published today by the historian,
, President Gerald Ford officially proclaimed February 1, 1976, the first Black History Month:“… asking the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
Also on this day in 2023, the family of Tyre Nichols buried their 29 year old son after he was severely beaten by police during a traffic stop.
Ms.Richardson closed her post with this alarming information:
In 2025 the U.S. government under President Donald Trump has revoked a 60-year-old executive order that protected equal opportunity in employment and has called for an end to all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. This February 1, neither the Pentagon nor the State Department will recognize Black History Month. [Emphasis added]
After ordering all federal agencies to immediately end their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) polices during the first few days of his presidency, Donald Trump held a press conference the day after the D.C. plane crash on January 29, and with out knowing what caused the tragic accident, blamed it on President Obama, President Biden and their “insistence” on hiring a diverse workforce, including women, people of color and the disabled, and singled out the Federal Aviation Administration (F.A.A.) for its supposed hiring of more diverse workers, thus making flying less safe:
Of the F.A.A. under Mr. Obama, Mr. Trump said: “They actually came out with a directive, too white.” At another point he quoted from the website of the F.A.A., which he said indicated that the agency was looking to hire people with disabilities, including “hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism,” and said that they “all qualified for the position of a controller of airplanes pouring into our country.”
The fact is that every applicant for any federal job must meet the standards and qualifications written for that position. President Trump didn’t just imply that non-white employees made flying less safe, he said so directly:
Asked directly how he came to the conclusion that diversity had something to do with the crash, Mr. Trump replied, "because I have common sense."
President Trump also is reversing the policies of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, “which was established by the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination against all people in the United States, with a focus on vulnerable groups”.
According to recent reporting by NBC news:
Former Justice Department officials and advocates told NBC News they expect the new administration to swiftly carry out sweeping reversals of most major Biden administration civil rights policies. Already, the Trump-run department has issued a memo freezing all action in civil rights cases, including filings and settlements, and withdrawn from multiple cases filed during the Biden administration.
These actions do not simply reflect a change in a different administration’s policies, but actually change the clear meaning and intent of the Civil Rights Act, itself.
And with that context, you may want to have a read or re-read of my past posts published to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
— Last year I focused on MLK, Jr. and poverty.
“ ‘There is no deficit in human resources; the deficit is in human will.’ MLK, Jr. in his Nobel Peace Prize lecture presented December 11, 1964, where he addresses the failure to end poverty.”
— In 2023, I discussed MLK Jr.’s focus on the importance of public service.
“I’m also not particularly thrilled to join the chorus of those who extoll his virtues on this one day in January, the approximate day of his birth, 94 years ago on January 15, 1929. And I can’t help but remember those many members of Congress who fought against marking the day of his birth with a national holiday and a day of service to our nation. It took nearly two decades of marches, petitions and Congressional wrangling for President Reagan to finally sign the bill into law in 1983, and the first MLK Day was not celebrated until the third Monday of January, 1986.”
— In 2022, I wrote about MLK, Jr.’s push for a universal basic income to eliminate poverty.
“In 1967, Dr. King wrote what was to be his final book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, in which he laid out his plan for a guaranteed income for all citizens, and reiterated this idea later that year as part of his address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference convention.”
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Leave your thoughts on these previous posts, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and how his ideas contrast with our current administration’s new “policies” on race…or any other relevant ideas you like to share in the Comment Section below.
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