“If they’re the grand old men of your movement, you’ve got a lousy movement.”
I think it’s similar to the kind of movement that starts with a “B.” And I think that MLK would be appalled that this is viewed as his legacy.
4 thoughts on “Jesse Jackson And Al Sharpton”
Comments are closed.
King had a mixed legacy anyway. After reading the chapter on King in Jim Powell’s great book THE TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY, I had greater sympathy for MLK. Powell shows how much of a statist intervention in private affairs old-style Jim Crow segregation laws were. But I think there was always a collectivist strain in King’s politics, which became more pronounced as his career as political activist progressed. I recently saw some photos of the March on Washington where you can see many of the placards carried by the marchers called for “jobs and freedom.” As if, by making Uncle Sam (or maybe I should say “Massa Sam”) like them better, he could just wave a wand or sprinkle fairy dust and create jobs for all. That’s the kind of magical thinking and ignorance of basic economics that led to the Obama Presidency.
many of the placards carried by the marchers called for “jobs and freedom.”
In fact, the official title of the march was “The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”. The original focus was unemployment, and the march was designed to call for public works spending that would create jobs for blacks (who, then as now, had a much higher unemployment rate than whites). Eventually the list of demands broadened to:
Passage of meaningful civil rights legislation;
Immediate elimination of school segregation;
A program of public works, including job training, for the unemployed;
A Federal law prohibiting discrimination in public or private hiring;
A $2-an-hour minimum wage nationwide;
Withholding Federal funds from programs that tolerate discrimination;
Enforcement of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution by reducing congressional representation from States that disenfranchise citizens;
A broadened Fair Labor Standards Act to currently excluded employment areas;
Authority for the Attorney General to institute injunctive suits when constitutional rights are violated.
“In fact, the official title of the march was ‘The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom’. The original focus was unemployment, and the march was designed to call for public works spending that would create jobs for blacks . . . ”
Okay, so it was statist from the get-go. Thanks for clarifying, Jimbo.
Here, for what it’s worth, is a hardcore libertarian look at MLK. As you can see, the writer is less than favorably impressed with the King chapter in the Powell book I referenced above:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2003/01/marcus-epstein/myths-of-martin-luther-king/