“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
From Camille Landry, National Co-Coordinator
We remember Martin Luther King: Warrior for Justice, Leader of Millions, Visionary for the Nation and the World, Maker of Good Trouble, Philosopher of the Struggle, King of the Movement. He was much more than a plaster saint clothed in toothless nonviolence. Martin showed us how to be courageous. He led the way against police dogs and fire hoses and cudgels, the FBI and the might of the American empire, to lead people into the struggle for justice. He comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable. He spoke truth to power. He refused to back down despite overwhelming threats and enormous power set against him.
While contemporary media paint him as a plaster saint who would pray and sing in the face of unrelenting oppression, the reality is that he was a warrior for justice who used disruptive tactics to challenge the injustice, brutality, and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the United States against its own people and the world. Martin Luther King is far more than a historical figure. His vision of justice and liberation remains valid today.
On this 93rd anniversary of his birth, we ask you to be like Martin: To join with people across the globe struggling against oppression; to challenge this nation to end its violations of human rights here and abroad; to support, encourage and join in the struggles for justice.
Be like Martin:
- Work for justice everywhere. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
- Work in solidarity with others: “I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham.”
- Take action. “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
- Don’t give up! “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
AFGJ strives to do these things. Won’t you join us?
- Learn more about our work for justice in Central & South America and the Caribbean
- Check out AFGJ’s Lucy Parsons Popular Human Rights School, a project to bolster the exchange of training, skills and infrastructure to grassroots activists organizing for transformative change and an end to human rights violations in and by the United States.
- Sponsor the Lucy Parsons Popular Human Rights School with a donation to our fellowship fund, which will provide stipends & resources to our BIPOC faculty and students
