The Other America (Martin Luther King, 1967)

This post is a reading of Martin Luther King's speech The Other America, given on the 4th April, 1967. It can be found online at https://www.gphistorical.org/mlk/mlkspeech/mlk-gp-speech.pdf, or watched on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJu_YDgw9rU

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‘A riot is the language of the unheard.’ 

– Martin Luther King (1967, p.2)

Recently, and perhaps unsurprisingly, this quote from Martin Luther King has been shared widely on social media. But, as is often the case with quotes used online, this approach means we lose the all-important context, and so this post aims to explore the wider context to understand what King intended.

Context

The quote comes from the 1967 speech The Other America, which King gave at Stanford University. It came ten days after a speech he gave in New York City where he expressed his opposition to the Vietnam War (Hartford, 2007). The Other America set out how King perceived there to be ‘two Americas.’

‘One America is beautiful for situation. In this America, millions of people have the milk of prosperity and the honey of equality flowing before them. This America is the habitat of millions of people who have food and material necessities for their bodies, culture and education for their minds, freedom and human dignity for their spirits. In this America, children grow up in the sunlight of opportunity.’ (King, 1967, p.1)

‘This other America has a daily ugliness about it that transforms the buoyancy of hope into the fatigue of despair. In this other America, thousands and thousands of people, men in particular, walk the streets in search for jobs that do not exist.’ (King, 1967, p.1)

For King, the inequality between these two Americas was stark and undeniable. Much of the black community found themselves in the ‘other’ America, either unable to find work or left earning less than they needed and desired. The result of this was that pursuing the so-called American Dream - where people could be whatever they wanted if they were willing to work for it – became an impossibility. Indeed, Freeman (1973, p.69) suggests that black people in the US consistently earned less than others in 1959:

• ‘The median income of black males was 58 percent of the median for all men; the comparable figure for black females was 57 percent.’
• ‘Among college men, the average income for blacks was 60 percent that for all men, whilst the ratio for grade school graduates was 75 percent.’
• ‘Blacks had considerably less education that whites and, because most were educated in the South during periods of great inequality in the allocation of school resources, education of lower quality as well.’
• ‘…black unemployment rates were roughly twice as high as the white rates.’

Freeman goes on to use available data from 1947 to 1972 to show that the position of black people improved, although the progress made had by no means brought equality. Most of the progress came from the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which made discrimination in public and employment illegal and banned segregation (The Library of Congress, 2014). Given that King’s speech came three years later in 1967, we can imply that the speed of change was not fast enough, and that despite actions taken to end discrimination and inequality on a legal basis, the level of economic inequality black Americans faced remained unacceptable. We can see here that The Other America speech was therefore given at a time where black Americans still felt they were mistreated and oppressed.

Anger

Having set out his perception of ‘the two Americas,’ King then moves to discuss the real anger present amongst many African-Americans.

‘So the vast majority of negroes in America find themselves perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. This has caused a great deal of bitterness. It has caused a great deal of agony. It has caused ache and anguish. It has caused great despair, and we have seen the angered expressions of this despair and this bitterness in the violent rebellions that have taken place in cities all over our country.’ (King, 1967, p.2)

1967 is often called the ‘summer of love,’ where ‘hippy culture’ exploded in America and Europe, with counterculture ideas around drugs, the environment and politics expressed repeatedly (The Observer, 2007). However, the summer of 1967 is also known as the ‘long hot summer’, where nearly 160 race riots broke out across American cities (Gonsalves, 2017; The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2017). Many black people felt that injustice towards them continued regardless, fuelling anger and disillusionment in the community. Martin Luther King gave his speech on the 4th of April, before the 1967 summer riots began, but his words proved an accurate description of what was to come.

Two of the most significant summer riots occurred in Detroit and Newark. The riots in Newark, New Jersey took place between the 12th – 17th July. Several contributing factors for the riots have been identified since. For example, the city had a majority black population, yet there was a long-term issue surrounding housing for black people. Anger for the black community was fuelled by the appointment of a white councilman for the Board of Education secretary in place of a seemingly more qualified black man. Other factors included a reported incident of police brutality towards black Muslims, and a black neighbourhood being informed they would have to move home so that a medical school could be built. The final straw was police brutality towards a black taxi driver on the 12th of July, who was rendered unable to walk when he arrived at the police station.

Meanwhile, between the 23rd – 28th July, riots took place in Detroit, Michigan. Detroit was a large part of the motor industry in the first half of the twentieth century, causing many workers, both black and white, to move there. However, this led to serious racial division, made worse by a particularly violent police department which targeted black individuals. Segregation in schools and neighbourhoods was also still common. On the 23rd of July, police raided an unlicensed bar and arrested many people who were avoiding the heatwave at the time. The arrests stoked anger amongst citizens who became increasingly violent. Order only resumed once the National Guard and military had been sent to Detroit by the President. It was the largest riot that had happened in the US until the Los Angeles riots in 1992.

Violence

Having established the anger at work, King then moved to discuss his views on the riots. We can now see that there is no doubt that many black people felt that the 1964 Civil Rights Act had achieved little, changing the law but not the attitudes of many people in America. Martin Luther King’s thoughts on violence and riots are well known – he believed that a course of non-violent action was needed to win hearts and minds in order to bring about true equality for American citizens (The King Center, 2020), even saying in the Other America speech that:

‘I still believe that non-violence is the most potent weapon available… I am still committed to militant, powerful, massive, non-violence as the most potent weapon in grappling with the problem…’ (King, 1967, p.2)

However, having said this, King also refused to simply condemn the riots. He stated that:

‘It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.’ (King, 1967, p.2-3)

Whilst King disagreed with violence as a course of action, he also understood why it was that so many black people had turned to more violent protests in riots in both 1967 and the years beforehand. The ‘contingent, intolerable conditions’ have been identified above and are well documented, and the anger in the community was not simply because the conditions existed, but that they had persisted for so long despite years of agitation. It is clear in the quote above that the situation is not trivial and not easily brushed off. In blunt terms, King made clear that America had ‘failed’, highlighting the inequality and injustice that continued, and the feeling among many black people that there was no will in society to make the change that was so desperately needed. Under such a situation, King saw it as logical that people would ‘feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention’, even though he himself felt that it was not the right approach to take. The speech goes on to highlight that ‘the long hot summer has always been preceded by a long cold winter’ (King, 1967, p.3). Here, King explained that years of summer riots are a result of the failure year after year to begin to understand and solve the very real and serious problems by those who have the power to do so. He rejected the ideas that America had moved beyond racism, that time alone would deal with injustice in society, and that the passing of laws could change nothing, and proclaimed that understanding that all of these were false was crucial if the US would ever truly begin to deal with racial injustice (ibid., p.3-4).

In his concluding remarks, King explained that:

‘But let me say that it has been my experience in these years that I’ve been in the struggle for justice, that things just don’t happen until the issue is dramatized in a massive direct-action way… we are planning to dramatize the issue to the point that poor people in this nation will have to be seen and will not be invisible.’ (King, 1967, p.6-7)

For King, whilst violence might have been unacceptable, only direct action from the public would actually force politicians to take notice and take the actions necessary for injustice in America to end.

Relevance to the present

Martin Luther King gave his The Other America speech in 1967, just over fifty years ago. He spoke at a time where black people had legally gained equality in a few areas, but also where discrimination and segregation remained rife across the country. There was still much to be done in terms of legislation and changing attitudes He also spoke at a time when many black Americans had reached their tipping point with their anger at police brutality towards the community, and where riots were breaking across the country as people turned to violent protests after years of feeling ignored.

Police brutality continues to be a very real issue for people in the US. According to Mapping Police Violence (2020):

• Around 1,100 US deaths in 2019 have been attributed to police violence
• 24% of those killed were black, despite black people only making up 13% of the US population
• Black people are three times more likely to be killed by the police than white people
• 99% of cases of killings by the police between 2013-2019 have not resulted in the officers being charged

Yet again, people feel that their repeated appeals for change are ignored time and again by politicians. They feel let down and angry, still fighting for true equality and against discrimination and injustice which has been entrenched within society. The violent protests which might result from this may not be the ideal outcome or one that we like, but we cannot be surprised that it is the reality we face.

To conclude, here are three final excerpts from King’s The Other America speech.

‘…we got to come to see that however much we dislike it, the destinies of white and black America are tied together. Now the races don’t understand this apparently. But our destinies are tied together. And somehow, we must all learn to live together as brothers in this country or we’re all going to perish together as fools. Our destinies are tied together. Whether we like it or not culturally and otherwise, every white person is a little bit negro and every negro is a little bit white.’ (King, 1967, p.7)

‘John Donne was right. No man is an island and the tide that fills every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. And he goes on toward the end to say, “any man’s death diminishes me because I’m involved in mankind. Therefore, it’s not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.” Somehow we must come to see that in this pluralistic, interrelated society we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.’ (King, 1967, p.7)

‘So however difficult it is during this period, however difficult it is to continue to live with the agony and the continued existence of racism, however difficult it is to live amidst the constant hurt, the constant insult and the constant disrespect, I can still sing we shall overcome. We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.’ (King, 1967, p.8)

 

Bibliography

Anon. (2019). American Dream. In: Dictionary.com. [online] Available at: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/american-dream [Accessed 4 Jun. 2020].

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Freeman, R.B. (1973). Changes in the Labor Market for Black Americans, 1948-72. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, [online] 1973(1), pp.67–120. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2534085?seq=1 [Accessed 4 Jun. 2020]. 

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