On the Eve of His Murder, Martin Luther King Invoked America’s Nationalist Heritage to Challenge the System
by Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin
On the Eve of his Murder, Martin Luther King Invoked America’s Nationalist Heritage to Challenge the System
By Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin
At the end of March, 1968, Dr. King was in the final stages of arrangements to lead a Poor People’s campaign, that would disrupt Washington until its demands were met.
In a Christian sermon in Washington’s National Cathedral on March 31, he spoke of America’s Revolution and its promise of freedom for all. He said that after the Civil War ended slavery, government programs had given the people land, education, science and cheap credit. But, he said, the newly freed slaves were abandoned to destitution and ignorance – forcing them back into virtual slavery and racial injustice that had not ended.
He condemned the U.S. war then raging in Vietnam. He said it was part of a system of war which spread poverty over the world, made it impossible to fulfill America’s debt to its poor people, or to overcome racism. He quoted the peace speech President John F. Kennedy gave in 1963, shortly before Kennedy was killed.
King said he was preparing to lead black and white poor people into the centers of government to demand a change of course.
Feverish tension gripped Washington the day of King’s sermon, March 31, 1968. The establishment considered Dr. King and Robert F. Kennedy, JFK’s surviving brother, the most dangerous leaders remaining after JFK’s assassination.
That night, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced he would not seek reelection.
Four days later, Martin Luther King was shot to death. His friends proceeded with the Poor People’s campaign. Robert Kennedy’s wife Ethel attended the setting up of the campaign’s “Resurrection City” on the National Mall. Robert Kennedy was shot to death June 6, two months after King. The government then broke up Resurrection City. Globalism has since condemned America and the world to war, chaos and poverty.
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The 19th century history that Dr. King addressed was a crucial turning point in modern times.
Establishment historians have covered over the true story: how Lincoln’s economic nationalist programs aided the people, and how the transatlantic anti-nationalist financier faction excluded and betrayed African-Americans.
That story will be told in depth in my forthcoming book, Who We Are: America’s Fight for Universal Justice, from Franklin to Kennedy – Volume Two, 1830s to 1890s, will be published very soon, by about the end of January.
We are now approaching Martin Luther King Day, and Inauguration Day — both on January 20th.
In posts in the coming weeks, I will shed some new light on Dr. King’s last campaign, and on that 1968 sermon. This whole story of Dr. King and what he really stood for has profound implications for our country, and it must be told.
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