Martin Luther King’s Support of Democratic Socialism

Many remember Martin Luther King Jr. as the most pivotal Civil Rights figure of the 20th Century.

Growing up, I learned a lot about King’s role in combatting racism as it had persisted in America since the end of slavery and how he had helped galvanize a movement that forced America to look itself in the mirror.

What I didn’t learn was that — in addition to his views on race — he was a notable critic of America’s capitalist economic system and a supporter of Democratic Socialism, very much of the FDR/Bernie Sanders variety.

It is important — now more than ever — to remember that King, prior to his assassination, was planning to take on the broader economic system, having planned the “Poor People’s Campaign” that would march on Washington to shed light on the fact that — at the time — there were 40 million Americans living in poverty — a number that, as of today, has risen to 46.2 million.

Stanford’s MLK Research Institute does a great job of explaining the motive behind the Poor People’s Campaign.

Martin Luther King announced the Poor People’s Campaign at a staff retreat for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in November 1967. Seeking a “middle ground between riots on the one hand and timid supplications for justice on the other,” King planned for an initial group of 2,000 poor people to descend on Washington, D.C., southern states and northern cities to meet with government officials to demand jobs, unemployment insurance, a fair minimum wage, and education for poor adults and children designed to improve their self-image and self-esteem (King, 29 November 1967). Suggested to King by Marion Wright, director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Jackson, Mississippi, the Poor People’s Campaign was seen by King as the next chapter in the struggle for genuine equality. Desegregation and the right to vote were essential, but King believed that African Americans and other minorities would never enter full citizenship until they had economic security. Through nonviolent direct action, King and SCLC hoped to focus the nation’s attention on economic inequality and poverty. “This is a highly significant event,” King told delegates at an early planning meeting, describing the campaign as “the beginning of a new co-operation, understanding, and a determination by poor people of all colors and backgrounds to assert and win their right to a decent life and respect for their culture and dignity” (SCLC, 15 March 1968).

Currently, in the Democratic field, the issue of income and wealth inequality is a hot topic, which has mostly been the result of the lightspeed entry of Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders into mainstream American politics — despite the predictions of pundits and the political establishment.

It is hard not to feel like much of King’s work was left undone. Since his time, our nation has slipped further and further into oligarchic control, and the wealthy classes have done a great job controlling our media narratives regarding who we are, what we stand for as a nation, and what we should aspire to be.

Without a doubt, the dominant view in this nation is that we should prioritize the satisfaction of our selfish interests and the pursuit of profits over the creation of a sustainable society that seeks to reduce — as much as possible — systemic inequalities that lie at the heart of why so many people are still struggling despite living in the wealthiest, most privileged nation on Earth.

As the Democratic primaries lead into Super Tuesday — which is sure to paint a clear picture of who the frontrunner will be — I feel the need to pull some quotes from the late, great Reverend King regarding America’s economic inequality and how only the elimination of poverty can provide a life of dignity for each and every citizen.