America: Then & Now

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights leader known for his nonviolent approach to civil disobedience through protest, involvement in the Black church and poignant delivery of impassioned speeches. He is one of the most respected and beloved figures in history, representing a promise of equality and justice for every American citizen.

Throughout his life, he worked tirelessly in the pursuit of civil rights.
For the duration of King’s leadership, he was terrorized, antagonized and even jailed, but his spirit was never broken. From behind the bars of a Birmingham jail, he famously wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” yet the iconic proponent of peace drew the ire of the American government and was ultimately targeted as a threat to national security.

56 years have passed since the assassination of the civil rights activist and political philosopher. As his birthday draws near, reflections of the time since the Civil Rights Movement call into question whether modern America is the embodiment of his dream, or if economic, social and political advancement is a mere façade of equality and a dream deferred.

The Birth of a King

Born in Atlanta on Jan. 15, 1929, King was raised in a respectable, middle-class family. His parents were college-educated, and both his father and grandfather were Baptist preachers. By the time he was 15-years old, he was enrolled at the prestigious Morehouse College, studying medicine and law before graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology at age 19 and going on to earn a Bachelor of Divinity from Crozer Theological Seminary and Doctor of Philosophy degree from Boston University.

King’s childhood was marred by a sudden awareness of racial prejudice at age 6. After spending a summer in Connecticut before his first year of college, he became aware of the stark contrast between the racially segregated environment of his upbringing and racial integration in the North. Despite the social, academic and economic achievements made by King and his family, the oppressive climate of the American South limited them and other Black people to a “second-class citizenship,” fueling King’s hatred for segregation.

While studying at Boston University, King met Coretta Scott. The two married in 1953 and made a transformative relocation to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1954. While working as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, King joined a small group of civil rights advocates in the fight against racial segregation on the public bus system. The group, known as the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), selected King as its leader, and the actions that followed would go on to spark the Civil Rights Movement that changed the country.

The Path to Freedom

The Civil Rights Movement challenged the injustice and inequality that had been ingrained in the United States’ economic, social and political systems since the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1866. 

After the Civil War ended in 1865, the country entered a Reconstruction Era which focused on the reintegration of formerly seceded southern states and the restabilization of economic systems that were disrupted by the four year conflict. Black Codes (or Black Laws) which existed in Northern and Southern states prior to the Civil War to regulate the actions of free, enslaved and formerly enslaved Black people, were codified into state law during Reconstruction. The laws suppressed the activity of Black people and criminalized many of the behaviors that were protected as rights among the white population, such as gun and land ownership, voting, and vagrancy.

Black Codes regarding vagrancy were particularly instrumental to the continued oppression of Black people after slavery, and supported systems put in place to counter labor shortages following abolition. Failure to pay taxes, maintain employment and homelessness were some of the charges included under the term’s broad definition, and penalties for vagrancy overwhelmingly included forced free labor. Imprisonment and forced contracted labor or apprenticeship without pay were a legal alternative to enslavement that would provide economic relief while continuing the culture of captivity.

In 1877, a congressional body filled with Southern representatives exchanged electoral votes for Rutherford B. Hayes with a promise that the federal government would end its occupation of the South and dedicate federal aid to rebuilding infrastructure. The revocation of governmental intervention in Southern politics resulted in a rapidly disintegrating landscape for the Black community, and the start of the Jim Crow Era.

The Civil Rights Movement challenged the injustice and inequality that had been ingrained in the United States’ economic, social and political systems since the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1866. 

After the Civil War ended in 1865, the country entered a Reconstruction Era which focused on the reintegration of formerly seceded southern states and the restabilization of economic systems that were disrupted by the four year conflict. Black Codes (or Black Laws) which existed in Northern and Southern states prior to the Civil War to regulate the actions of free, enslaved and formerly enslaved Black people, were codified into state law during Reconstruction. The laws suppressed the activity of Black people and criminalized many of the behaviors that were protected as rights among the white population, such as gun and land ownership, voting, and vagrancy.

Black Codes regarding vagrancy were particularly instrumental to the continued oppression of Black people after slavery, and supported systems put in place to counter labor shortages following abolition. Failure to pay taxes, maintain employment and homelessness were some of the charges included under the term’s broad definition, and penalties for vagrancy overwhelmingly included forced free labor. Imprisonment and forced contracted labor or apprenticeship without pay were a legal alternative to enslavement that would provide economic relief while continuing the culture of captivity.

In 1877, a congressional body filled with Southern representatives exchanged electoral votes for Rutherford B. Hayes with a promise that the federal government would end its occupation of the South and dedicate federal aid to rebuilding infrastructure. The revocation of governmental intervention in Southern politics resulted in a rapidly disintegrating landscape for the Black community, and the start of the Jim Crow Era.

During Reconstruction, there was a surge in Black political participation. However, in the years that followed the elections of presidents Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover the number of government jobs and appointments were drastically decreased until Black people were excluded altogether. Meanwhile, Southern legislative bodies passed laws – coined Jim Crow Laws and named for a minstrel actor known for deleterious stereotypical representations of Black culture – requiring segregation in public spaces and facilities. These laws were sanctioned by the 1896 U.S. Supreme Court’s “separate but equal” decision in Plessy v. Ferguson.

The Ultimate Fight

Jim Crow Laws had divided the South for over half a century before King moved back to Montgomery from Boston. Black people were under constant threat of terror by the Ku Klux Klan, had been stripped of their rights en masse, were prohibited from participating in government and were living in heavily oppressive conditions without access to systems, facilities or privileges enjoyed by their white counterparts.

Throughout the south, disenfranchised Black people resorted to demonstrations to show unity and bring attention to their plight. In 1941, thousands of Black people publicly threatened to march to the nation’s capital to demand economic equality through employment, leading to the issuance of an executive order creating access to national defense and other government jobs. Yet, with the exception of another executive order preventing discrimination in the military, there was little progress toward equality for all.

Tensions continued to rise across the South as Black people were prohibited from the use of equal public facilities. In Montgomery, the segregated public transportation system became the focal point of the demand for civil rights in 1955, when 15-year old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on a bus. She was arrested and charged with violating segregation law, disorderly conduct and assaulting a police officer. Nine months later, Rosa Parks, a civil rights activist and NAACP youth council leader who had been trained in civil disobedience followed suit, refusing to give up her seat on a segregated public bus.

Parks’ arrest was the tipping point for the Civil Rights Movement. Montgomery NAACP leader, E.D. Nixon, called on local ministers to support a boycott of the transportation department and on Dec. 5, MIA was officially formed with King as president and the boycott ensued.

For 381 days, approximately 42,000 Black residents boycotted the bus system. During the boycott, MIA challenged the constitutionality of bus segregation, resulting in the indictment of dozens of boycott leaders on conspiracy charges. The media coverage of Montgomery city leaders’ actions drew attention to the South, and in June 1956, the state federal court ruled that bus segregation violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court later confirmed the ruling, and on Dec. 2, 1956, the boycott came to an end.

King was targeted for his MIA leadership and quickly gained a reputation as a leader of the people. Violence plagued his family as angry white supremacists threatened and persecuted him, even bombing his home in January 1956. Instead of walking away from the fight, he gained the strength and courage to carry on.

In January 1957, King was named chairman of the Southern Negro Leaders Conference of Transportation and Nonviolent Integration (later called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference). He delivered his first national address titled, “Give Us The Ballot,” in an appeal for voting rights, and appeared on the cover of Time magazine as his notoriety grew.

Throughout his life, King had been inundated with the concept of nonviolence – from his upbringing and the religious influence of his father and grandfather, to his studies in college. He admired the teachings of Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi, who used a nonviolent approach as the leader of the nationalist movement of independence from British rule. He worked with members of the Black community to stage sit-in demonstrations at department stores, led and participated in peaceful marches in protest of civil rights violations and called for equality on his growing oratorical platform.

Public Enemy Number One

King was one of the most popular faces of the Civil Rights Movement, in addition to Malcolm X who was known for his strong views on Black Nationalism as a member of the Nation of Islam, and Fred Hampton who was deputy and chairman of the Black Panthers and founder of the Rainbow Coalition. Several leaders emerged during the movement, but King’s popularity was largely based on his palpable messages of peace and Christianity-influenced approach.

A great deal of economic, social and political change occurred during the Civil Rights Movement due to King’s actions and influence. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 protected the voting rights of Black citizens; in 1961 the Interstate Commerce Commission prohibited segregation in interstate transit terminals; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 guaranteed equal employment and integration of public facilities; in 1965 the Voting Rights Act strengthened voting protections; and in 1968 the Fair Housing Act prevented housing discrimination.

Sadly, the passage of the Fair Housing Act was the final legislation enacted during the Civil Rights Era, and King was not alive to see it.

During his early involvement with MIA in the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, King became the subject of heavy federal surveillance. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) director J. Edgar Hoover accused him of being influenced by Communists after he publicly disparaged the agency for its inaction toward civil rights violations in the South. Since World War I, there had been widespread fear of espionage and the potential for communism-fueled radicalism. After initially monitoring King under the Racial Matters Program, the FBI created a counterintelligence program against “Black Nationalist-Hate Groups” to continue the intrusive surveillance on him and other Black activists.

Despite the adoption of King’s “I Have A Dream” speech as one of history’s most iconic and beloved public appeals for equality, FBI Deputy Director William Sullivan further criminalized him due to the mass admiration and recognition he received.

“Personally, I believe in the light of King’s powerful demagogic speech yesterday he stands head and shoulders over all other Negroid leaders put together when it comes to influencing great masses of Negroes,” Sullivan wrote in an FBI memorandum. “We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro, and national security.”

The FBI’s efforts to monitor King were unsuccessful in identifying ties to Communism. The only damaging evidence the agency managed to acquire was that of an extramarital affair, which was used in an attempt to blackmail and discredit the civil rights leader.

After advocating for social and political equality, the last fight of King’s life was for economic equality. He traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to support Black sanitation workers in their protest against unsafe conditions and unfair treatment in the 1968 Sanitation Workers’ Strike. On Apr. 3, he gave his final speech, and on Apr. 4, he was assassinated with a single bullet while standing on the second floor balcony of his motel.

Following King’s assassination, the nation erupted in violence like a powder keg that had been stored in the heat of nonviolent protest for too long. More than 40 people died in riots around the country, prompting a wave of criminalization that would contribute to the erasure of many of the Civil Rights Movements advancements.

In 1999, members of the King family filed a civil lawsuit in a Tennessee state court for the wrongful death of the fallen leader. A jury determined that local, state and federal government agencies were involved in the assassination, but in 2023 the allegations were dispelled by an investigation conducted by the Department of Justice.

Nevertheless, the man who is remembered as a beacon of light, hope and peace in a world too often plagued by racial injustice was snatched from the world at just 39-years old. He was respected for his nonviolent approach to change and effective means of protest throughout the Civil Rights Movement. However, to those who benefited from the continued oppression of Black people, he was seen as a huge threat and an enemy that needed to be neutralized in order to protect their prejudiced way of life.

After King was assassinated, progress slowed tremendously. President Lyndon B. Johnson had been instrumental in the desegregation of public facilities and legislation passed during his tenure greatly advanced civil rights. He did not run for a second term in 1968, and just months after King passed President Richard Nixon was elected to office.

For 20 years, and during the entire Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War raged in the East. Approximately 2.2 million American men were drafted between 1964 and 1973. King opposed the war, along with other notable civil rights leaders and hundreds of thousands of Americans. The conflict, which disproportionately required combat service from 64% of eligible Black men versus only 31% of whites, heightened awareness of injustice throughout the country. Innumerable protests called for an end to war and equal rights for all.

However, under the administrations of Johnson and Nixon, reversionary interests in the criminalization of Black people crushed social justice advancements made during the Civil Rights Era. The ensuing chain of events call into question whether the economic, social and political equality that King lived – and died for – were ever really achieved.

One Step Forward, 400 Years Back

The progress made during the Civil Rights Movement laid the foundation for continued advancement in some areas, but significant regression in other areas remains problematic for the Black community. With modernized technologies and industries, the problems are increasingly complex, enshrouded by layers of systemic oppression that creates direct and indirect effects.

King’s “I Have a Dream,” speech is remembered as a guiding light for equality in America and the world. However, the speech is often misinterpreted as the simple suggestion that segregation be reversed and equality be restored to mankind. “Little Black Boys and Black girls [joining] hands with little white boys and white girls,” says little of the social restructuring that would be needed to create true equity within systems whose framework rests on the idea that Black people are sub-human.

Equality and equity are similar words with vastly different meanings. Equality means that each person is given the same resources or opportunities as everyone else. With hundreds of years of oppression supporting the disenfranchisement of the Black community, simply providing access to the same resources that have been utilized to build generational wealth among the white population would be inadequate.

Equity recognizes each person’s unique circumstances and provides access to resources needed to reach equal economic, social and political outcomes. By focusing less on the content of King’s most famous speech and considering the context of his message, it becomes apparent that the Black community has not yet reached “the mountaintop,” or promise of freedom in America.

Economic Equality

Ironically, while King’s support of labor rights has received less attention than his civil rights activism, there has been consistent advancement in the area of economic equality.

The earliest American economic labor organizations were temporary unions, which allowed workers to collectively demand increased wages, negotiate contracts and ensure workplace safety. King supported labor rights and the organization of labor unions, referencing the importance of collectivism in the fight for civil rights.

“The two most dynamic movements that shaped the nation during the past three decades are the labor and civil rights movements,” he said. “Our combined strength is potentially enormous.”

In 1961, King spoke before The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), advocating for worker’s rights. In the last speech of his life, he discussed misleading laws that did little to protect the rights of the Black working class. In his address supporting sanitation workers who were fighting for their union to be recognized, he said:

“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as ‘right to work.’ It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights. It is supported by Southern segregationists who are trying to keep us from achieving our civil rights and our right of equal job opportunity. Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone.”

Great progress has been made to safeguard worker’s rights. Today, worker’s rights are regulated by the United States Department of Labor, which identifies fundamental principles and rights at work such as protections for collective bargaining, forced and child labor, workplace anti-discrimination and safety.

There has been a great deal of legislation protecting employees from discriminatory treatment when it comes to wages and job protection. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin, with protections that were amended and strengthened with the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Over time, additional protections have been extended for age, disability and sex-based wage discrimination.

Along with worker’s rights, “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” programs and policies that encourage diversity in the workplace have been implemented to help improve organizational culture.

Despite workplace protections, economic equality has not been fully achieved.

The Black community has not fully recovered from the institutionalized and systemic racism and discrimination embedded in the policies and practices that affect its economic position as a whole. The institution of slavery stripped Black people of every financial, social and spiritual resource for hundreds of years, while white people benefited from free labor and the acquisition of assets.

In 2023, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis published a report on economic equality titled “The State of U.S. Wealth Inequality,” which highlights gaps in inflation-adjusted wealth by demographic groups. The top 10% of households in the United States had an average wealth of $7 million, representing 69% of total household wealth. The bottom 50% of households had only $51,000, representing 2.5% of total household wealth. Black families were found to own only $0.24 for every $1 of white family wealth.

These rates would be abhorrent to King, who once said, “God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous, inordinate wealth, while others live in abject, deadening poverty.” He believed that while money was necessary for a well-rounded life, it had the potential to corrupt and could be used as an instrument of exploitation if not distributed equitably.

Wealth inequality stems from years of workplace discrimination and academic disparities, in addition to inequitable access to financial products like home and business loans to build wealth. In December 2023, the nation’s largest credit union was exposed for its continued disenfranchisement of Black people. The military-serving institution approved more than 75% of white applicants for conventional home loans in 2022, but less than 50% of Black borrowers who applied for the same type of loan. It also approved a higher percentage of applications from white borrowers making less than $62,000 per year than Black borrowers making over $140,000 per year. This example of economic inequity follows years of housing discrimination through redlining and steering, and has played a major role in keeping the Black community in a state of economic depression.

Despite efforts to counter wealth disparity through business ownership, Black businesses face major obstacles in the procurement of start-up capital. The concept of group economics could help to close the racial wealth gap, but with manufacturing and distribution channels largely controlled by non-Black groups, there is a long way to go to achieve true economic equity and prosperity.

Social Equality

In the years since the abolition of slavery, the Black community has experienced drastic changes. The Reconstruction Era re-introduced captivity through imprisonment, and mass migration provided exposure to new opportunities and ways of life.

Despite a multitude of social and economic obstacles, the Black community transitioned from slavery and then sharecropping to educational advancement, business ownership, and prosperity. In the mid-1900s, a majority of Black women worked as domestic servants and Black men worked as servicemen, but today there are Black men and women working in every industry imaginable. The social benefit to Civil Rights Era legislation made way for Black people to advance from unskilled, low-paying jobs to being able to compete at every level of occupational opportunity.

However, not every social change within the Black community since the Civil Rights Era has been positive.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the stigma associated with being Black faded away as Black people fought passionately for civil liberties. Pride was abundant, and Black culture was celebrated with the adoption of natural beauty trends and terms like “Afro-American” and “Black” replacing “colored” and “negro.” Publications like Jet and Ebony were dedicated to Black news and entertainment, and growing consciousness within the community supported young people in their pursuit of education and happiness.

Toward the end of King’s life and after his assassination, the Black community suffered a devastating setback with lasting implications.

In 1964, President Johnson declared a “War on Poverty,” with legislation meant to counter the negative effects of poverty. Just over a year later, he declared a “War on Crime,” viewing crime and poverty as interconnected and merging the sociological and economic factors that caused poverty with the criminalization of Blackness. The War on Crime focused on poor urban Black neighborhoods, with increased policing and incarceration.

After King’s assassination, civil unrest fueled Johnson’s War on Crime. Meanwhile, the Vietnam War fueled a new problem entirely, which President Nixon targeted with a war declaration of his own – the “War on Drugs,” was announced in 1971.

According to a report published in 1971 by the Department of Defense, Vietnam War-Era drug use skyrocketed, with 51% of armed forces reporting marijuana use, 31% reporting the use of LSD and psilocybin mushrooms, and 28% reporting the use of cocaine and heroin. Heroin use was rampant in urban areas due to its low cost and ease of access.

In 1969, Nixon wrote a message to congress saying, “New York City alone has records of some 40,000 heroin addicts.” His response to drug abuse was criminalization, which disproportionately affected the Black community. During the Vietnam War, the prison population had declined – due in large part to military participation. By 1974, incarceration rates skyrocketed, with approximately 150,000 new inmates and an average annual increase of 7.1%.  This acceleration trend was the most severe since the start of incarceration recording in 1925 according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Today, over 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, representing nearly 20% of the world’s prisoners. The 2022 U.S. Census reported that 13.6% of the United States population was Black, yet Black people make up 37% of the prison population.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that Black males are 28.5% more likely to be incarcerated than white males, a rate that reflects the history of captivity and imprisonment in America.

In a documentary titled, 13th, director Ava DuVernay addresses the implication of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and its passage that reads, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” She highlights the political strategy used throughout the Civil Rights Movement and legislation that further disenfranchised the Black community, like the 1994 Crime Bill that included mandatory sentencing.

The social impact of incarceration has affected the Black family and community structures greatly and the respectability culture of the mid-20th century has been largely replaced by changed social trends.

In the 1980s, the crack epidemic surged in urban areas throughout the United States, resulting in increased gang violence that worsened incarceration and further destroyed Black families and communities. Hip hop music, which originated in the early 1970s, underwent a transformation in the 1980s as the influence of gang culture bled into sex and violence-dominated lyrics. Entertainment, which formerly highlighted RnB and soul talent, was now the soundtrack for a community that was straying further from the fight for equality and highlighting the same materialism that King strictly opposed.

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society,” he warned.

Today, incarceration rates are higher than they’ve ever been. Drug use continues to threaten community advancement, and mental health is a growing issue among Black men, women and children. On the surface, social advancements such as integration and more favorable attitudes toward diversity are positive and lasting changes initiated by the Civil Rights movement, but socially inequitable discrimination and hypercriminalization have greatly disrupted progress. Structural changes are central to community building, and without the strong demand for equity that was seen from early civil rights leaders, the pace of positive change seems to have slowed.

Political Equality

In 2008, President Barack Obama became the nation’s first Black president, in a landmark election that symbolized a tremendous change in attitudes and beliefs. During his presidency, there were numerous opponents who criticized his every move, but his presence on the political stage was a monumental moment for the Black community.

Senator John Lewis, who was brutally beaten while marching for the right to vote in 1965 in Selma, Alabama, was elated by the historic event. “When we were organizing voter-registration drives, going on the Freedom Rides, sitting in, coming here to Washington for the first time, getting arrested, going to jail, being beaten, I never thought – I never dreamed – of the possibility that an African American would one day be elected President of the United States,” he said.

The Black community has come a long way since the end of Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement, with full voting rights and opportunities to participate in local, state and federal government. King fought for voting protections for Black people, knowing that the ability to elect judges would alleviate some of the injustice seen in courtrooms and communities around the country.

“So long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the right to vote I do not possess myself,” he remarked. 

Today, Black political participation is at an all-time high, with 62 Black members of the U.S. Congress – the most ever.

Obama was succeeded by President Donald Trump after his final term ended in 2016, introducing a new wave of racial tension and political uncertainty. Trump’s platform appealed to white supremacists who proudly declared a desire to “make America great again,” through right-wing extremist agendas. As his first term came to an end, he and a legion of loyalists questioned the legitimacy of voting policies and procedures, asserting that the election had been rigged in the favor of his opponent.

At the time of the election, the nation was grappling against limitations caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. Nationwide shutdowns resulted in a large number of mail-in votes, challenging the integrity of voting machines and poll workers. As a result, several states enacted restrictive voting laws that made it more difficult to vote, especially for disenfranchised communities.

The laws mimic Civil Rights Era voter suppression, and are being challenged by people working diligently to protect voting rights. Despite their efforts, the 2020 presidential election highlighted a troubling gap in voter turnout, with only 58.4% of nonwhite voters casting ballots. Distrust in the political system and disqualifications caused by criminal history continue to discourage people from voting.

As America experiences drastic social, technological and economic change, it is imperative that eligible voters participate in the political process. Hotbed issues such as gun control, reproductive rights, immigration and technological privacy are at the center of current policy-making, and just as King pointed out, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Honoring the Legacy

King modeled his life on nonviolent civil disobedience in the fight for equality, and his life was stolen from him before he had a chance to see the modern advancements and liberties the Black community enjoys today. He and several other civil rights leaders were murdered as a result of their love for their people and work to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to attain the “American Dream.”

Before he died, King shared his vision of a better society, and outlined the steps necessary for the Black community to recover from the violent and oppressive history that stripped away basic human rights. He foretold of a future of great promise, saying, “We shall have to do more than register and more than vote; we shall have to create leaders who embody virtues we can respect, who have moral and ethical principles we can applaud with enthusiasm.”

In the 56 years since King left this earth, the integrated American society has made great strides toward equality, though much is left to do to ensure that each man, woman and child has an equitable chance at life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.