40 Years Later . . . The Tarnished Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. Among Southern Whites

Today marks the 40th Anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. When I was growing up in a still racist South (1980's and 90's), I heard about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but not always in a positive way. When I asked about him, I remember being told by my elders on more than one occasion that he was a trouble maker who brought in outside agitators to disrupt the tranquility of the South. I was told that he was a Communist and Un-American (I later learned that was untrue).  I was told that the blacks were doing fine until he came along and started filling their heads with ideas and disrupting the peace - also untrue, obviously. Later, when I became interested in theology and the ministry as a Southern Baptist, I was told that he was liberal theologically and was an adherent of the Social Gospel, which all good Southern conservatives knew was rank heresy. That description was used to discount all that he ever said about God and the Bible, because everyone knew that you don't listen to liberals on anything. I also heard about how he was influenced by Northern liberal elites and how he had some moral failures.

Basically, I heard everything bad about him and almost nothing good. I was a little amazed at how much my elders knew about Martin Luther King from a negative perspective. I silently wondered why the rest of America didn't how much was wrong with him.  I recall watching one episode of the Cosby Show as a child when they remembered Dr. King and the March on Washington in 1963. They played his I Have a Dream Speech and sat around talking about how wonderful those days were. I was confused. What was so great about this man? Wasn't he just trying to get hand-outs for blacks? Didn't they have enough? That is what I had been told. I thank God that I never really incorporated those views into my own heart, but I still had to work through them with questions and investigation of my own. Children believe what they are told, or at least they have to work through it.

It wasn't until I got to college and began reading the true story that I realized exactly what happened in my native South. Over the past ten years or so, I have read quite a bit of Dr. King's speeches and writings. I have worked through biographies like Taylor Branch's Parting the Waters.  I have lived in Montgomery, AL where Dr. King started his ministry at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and have talked with people who were here when the Bus Boycott took place. I now have a VERY different view of Martin Luther King, Jr. than the one I was given growing up.  I also see our past differently and recognize that "the good old days" of the 1950's that we talk about so much were not very good at all. How could they be when we supported injustice on the level that we did, either through outright support or through silence? I recognize that that was a simpler time and there was much good during those days, but a whitewashed view of our history does not profit any of us.

I am a white Southern Baptist and I recognize that Dr. King will never be considered "one of us." We admire him from afar because we now admit that what he did was right. We now admit that we were dreadfully wrong on racial issues and it is just idiotic to not say that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great man. But, as I think about him and the other ministers who stood up against oppression during that time, I am greatly affected by their courage. I look at my own heritage and see that we were on the wrong side of history and we opposed God. I do believe that Dr. King was wrong on some of his theology, but it is hard for me to blame him. If I were a black minister in the South during that day and the proponents of conservative theology were also the proponents of racism and Jim Crow, then I probably would have gone looking elsewhere for a theology that helped set my people free. Dr. King never completely left his conservative roots, however, and continued to believe that man was sinful and needed a Savior, namely Jesus Christ. He just also believed that all people should experience justice and equality under the law. He spoke straight to the heart of our Christian heritage and called us to be true to who we really were as a Nation. He called us to be true to our God.

I struggle when I hear those on the Evangelical Right say that we need to "Take America Back" and restore us to our Godly heritage that existed before prayer was taken out of schools in 1963. On many levels, that would be a good thing, but I know enough to know how selective we have been when it comes to morality. The America that many of us want to go back to was not alarmed when the police dogs and fire hoses were turned upon protesters in Birmingham, also in 1963. That America did not cry out for justice when Medger Evers was shot or when Emmet Till was lynched. That America did not come to the aid of congregants at First Baptist Church, Ripley St., in Montgomery that summer night in 1961 when a white mob of over 2,000 people surrounded the church and the 1,300 people inside, threatening to kill them because they were harboring the Freedom Riders who had just been beaten. That America did not stand for what was right on these issues, issues that dealt with justice for our fellow man.

But, what if we had? What if Southern Baptists in the South had been convicted of their sins in the 1950's and had repented? Surely we now understand that our Scriptures spoke against our racist attitudes and social policies. Why did we not see it on our own? What if we had led the way in the battle against segregation and injustice since we were the people who held power? What if we had listened to Dr. King and others in the 1950's and had marched hand in hand with them instead of opposing them to protect our "Southern Way of Life"? What if our Christianity had been more powerful than our culture and we had loved our brother and treated them the way that we would like to have been treated? What if the Federal Government had not had to step in and force integration, but if instead, the Bible Belt had led the way? Would Christianity have more influence today? Would the cultural revolution of the 1960's have ever happened? If the Evangelical Church had been the great voice for justice and morality in the 1950's and 1960's, would the unrest of the 1960's and 1970's have ever happened the way that it did? Would we be as marginalized as we are today as believers in Christ? It is altogether possible that the problems that we see in America today, and our "flight from God," as Dallas Willard calls it, would not have happened the way that it did if we had seen then what we see now.

Dr. King was telling the truth all those years ago. It is a shame that we did not listen and he ended up dying from an assassin's bullet. I am glad that we are listening now and that we have repented (at least officially) and are aligning ourselves on the right side of history. But, I wonder . . . in 50 years, how will we look back at these days and realize where we are wrong now? In what ways are we on the wrong side of history and opposing God now? Has our theology recovered from its support of injustice all those years ago? Have we truly looked within our hearts and asked how we could miss truth so badly? Are their other areas where culture is stronger than our Christianity?

I wonder what Dr. King would say to us today?   

Comments

[Lisa]

Alan,
What a great tribute to our brother in Christ. I think the same..what will our children's children say about us as "freedom advocates" for not only those who are of color, but those who have been made to be dependent on a system that enables and blames at the same time. God have mercy on us...have mercy on us!

[Beth D]

You were born in the 70's, yeah? Even when everyone around you talked trash on Dr. King, you still had doubts. Why do you identify with the southern church of the 50's so much? I understand you feel at home in the SBC, and your beliefs now are no guarantee that you wouldn't have followed the majority had you lived back then. But you didn't. I think it's great that you do everything you can to atone for the social and spiritual implications of the actions of your predecessors, but why do you seem to take on their guilt?

[Alan Cross]

Beth, a couple of thoughts here: For one, being a Southerner, I identify with my ancestors and countrymen a great deal, both good and bad. Being Southern is an identity that is hard to shake. Being a Southern Baptist means something as well, not just spiritually, but also culturally. Our communities, traditions, and ways of life are built upon the events of the past in some significant ways. For instance, most do not realize that college football is so huge in the South because of the Civil War and the Southern identity that emerged in the years following. That's another story. William Faulkner once said, "The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past." He was speaking about the South when he said that. So true.

But, I am primarily looking at this issue from a theological and ecclesiastical perspective. Our witness is still marred by the events of the past, in my opinion. There is still division, but not for the same reasons that there used to be. At this point, we just have not dealt with the past pain that keeps us apart, again, in my opinion. I do not feel any sense of personal guilt, nor do I feel that my statements on this issue serve to atone for anyone else's sins. I just feel that there were issues in our theology that led us to have major blind spots in how we saw and treated others. I believe that those issues are still there in many ways, even though we have corrected our views on race. I think that it is easy for our spirituality to become very individualistic and personal and for the prevailing culture to hold sway over how we carry out our faith. I think that we can learn a great deal from exploring this issue from our past and I think that if we learn the right lessons it can help us be a more effective witness in the future.

Actually, I have been talking about this a lot lately because I am writing a book on the subject and I find it fascinating and very helpful. I love history and I love to explore how the events and perspectives of the past impact the present and the future. This is still a "live wire" type of issue, so I think that an exploration of the "why's" and "how's" of Christian theology in the South regarding the race issue can still help us today. As a nation, we are still dealing with this. I am a Southern Baptist from the conservative evangelical position. We still do not have this figured out and we are still NOT offering solutions on this issue to America. In some small way, I want to change that. In my opinion, it starts with going BACK and exploring what went wrong in our hearts, our theology, and our churches. And, I say "our" because I am not sitting in judgment on anyone nor do I see myself disconnected from my ancestors. They were Southerners, as am I. They were Americans, as am I. They were Christians, as am I. There story is my story in many significant ways because we are connected by blood and birthplace. To turn away from their sins and disown them to protect myself would be to disown my heritage, both good and bad. Maybe that's something else that Southerners just understand. You take the good with the bad and you offer it all up for redemption. Redemption is still what we need and it is not found in just ignoring past sins, but it is found in true repentance and in bringing it to Jesus.

Yes, apologies have been given, but in so many significant ways, we still live separately. When we begin to see the problems of our cities as being all of our problems, instead of being a "black" problem or a "white" problem, maybe then we can stop talking about this. I think that the church can lead the way in that and fully represent what God had in mind for the Body of Christ.

[Richard Williamson]

Alan,

I am interested in what issues you think that we might be on the wrong side of today. I found your words to be full of insight and also conviction. As a Souther baptist born in the late 70's I to have come across the remnant of these issues. It is my prayer that we follow God in such a way that we bring Christ to our world not a legacy of repetance given way to late. May we ever be on the lookout for the log in our eye.

Richard

[Beth D]

"And, I say "our" because I am not sitting in judgment on anyone nor do I see myself disconnected from my ancestors."

I suspected the first part and respect it completely, but I sure can't relate to the second part! My parents were born in Oregon and Texas. My grandparents were born in Montana, Chicago and "?". I do identify, somewhat, with my geographical birthplace, but to embrace it all would include extreme liberalism and paganism--along with the micro brews and bike lanes. I've lived in six states in four time zones and attended churches of six different Protestant-Christian "denominations."

Still, I love that there's something (One) bigger than all of that that pulls us together. And I totally brag on you to all my friends for your work down in that strange and foreign land that is the South.

[Michael]

Very interesting post. I want to read more about your research.