Rev. William Barber: Why We Must Reclaim MLK’s Radical Vision

As we welcome Martin Luther King Day, the radicality of his messages seems to be lost. It’s almost like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister by vocation, and his ideals were frozen on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, where he gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. Many who misquote him and twist his progressive, inclusive “Gospel of Freedom” into false narratives of colorblindness are the very ones opposing everything he gave his life for. This sanitized portrait of revolutionary preachers ignores his prophetic calling and how he challenged the oppressive values of the American system, calling out the “triple evils” of racism, extreme materialism (capitalism), and militarism.

The national holiday that is named in his honor has evolved into a “Day of Service” where engaging neighborly deeds has replaced protesting, organizing, and freedom fighting. 

All the Ways MLK’s Legacy Is Being Misused

By 1967, King was one of the primary targets of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, and a poll conducted that same year revealed that he was one of the most hated men in America after he famously spoke out against the Vietnam War.

Can King’s revolutionary ethos be reclaimed?

The Root spoke with the Rev. Dr.  William Barber, President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival, about why MLK Day is the perfect time to reclaim King’s radical message.

According to Barber, the genius of King’s movement was that it first began as a local, communal movement before it transformed into a national enterprise. While pastoring Dexter Avenue Baptist Church (Now Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church) in Montgomery, Alabama, King was appointed the leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association, which oversaw the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Barber believes that King’s blueprint of addressing the issues in our local communities captures the essence of the Nobel Prize winner’s ideals.

“When you look at King’s life, most of his work was done in Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery. Even after the “March on Washington,” he said. “Go back to your neighborhoods and organize for change,” Barber explained. “He did not just have this mass national march with no purpose. At its best, the Black Church has always known this.”

Barber also shared how the National Baptist Convention, King’s first denominational home, excommunicated him from the organization for his protests and for aligning with progressive stances. Eventually, he and several other like-minded ministers founded the Progressive National Baptist Convention. King’s commitment to truth, justice, and equality caused him to lack support during his lifetime from much of the Black Church.

“Remember, it was the Black church that put King out of the National Baptist Convention,” he said. “In Montgomery, only 12 churches really got involved during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. But King and his supporters resisted and organized until they struck down segregation on a national level. King never had a large majority supporting his work.

Barber went on to speak about how King understood the power of the ballot box and that the unity of oppressed people is a threat to white supremacy.

“There’s not a southern state in America where if you just mobilize 20% of African Americans that are not voting, along with poor and low-wage white and brown people around an agenda, there wouldn’t be a ground state in this country,” said Barber. “King talked about in his 1965 Selma speech that the greatest fear of the oligarchs in this country is for the masses of Black people and poor white folk to join together to form a voting bloc that could fundamentally shift the economic architecture of the nation.

At the time of his assassination, King was working on the Poor People’s Campaign to gain economic justice for impoverished Americans. This vision of the campaign was to build a multi-racial coalition of multiracial coalition of Black, White, Latino, and Native American people to demand that the government address poverty as a national emergency. Barber says that King’s message of economic inequality is more relevant than ever before

“When King left here, he said that the evils were systemic racism, poverty, and militarism. Now we can add ecological devastation, denial of health care, and the war economy. All of those evils are bound together,” Barber stated. “We have a responsibility. We can be the Black church without being Black nationalists, where we are only concerned about Black people. That’s what King was about.”

“We have to build a coalition of conscience with all folks who are on this battlefield, particularly if we believe in the power of the Spirit, which is not limited to color. We have to show that, believe in that, and organize around that,” he continued. “We must remember that the mission statement of King’s organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was “to save the soul of America.”

Barber also said that being a part of the “Kingian prophetic tradition” can only happen during his holiday. But the struggle for freedom is always ongoing, and the fight continues.

“Being prophetic is not just doing a sermon on King Day or finding some cute rhymes and quotes to go off about Trump,’ he explained. “ It’s about having a consistent ministry, a real sense of calling, and prophetic social consciousness. That’s how we honor King’s legacy.”