In August of 2006, Dalia Ziada, a young Egyptian writer, discovered her favorite comic-book action hero. He trumpeted justice. He preached of nonviolent pressure. And he had dreams of a promised land that protest might bring. Ziada had just heard the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “It was amazing and really...
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Today we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King (MLK), Jr at a critical moment in American and African American History. The Kwanzaa Guide is pleased to return to devoting blog space to African American History and the heroic figures in our Black History. The narratives of American and African American history are often...
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On April 4th we remember and honor Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr., for the sacrifice he made on behalf of black people and humanity in general. Note that by reframing April 4th as King’s Sacrifice Day, we take focus away from his killer(s) and place it on the heroic and ultimate sacrifice MLK made...
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Lost in the narrative of the uprising in North Africa and the Middle East is the model and inspiration Arabs are drawing from Martin Luther King and by extension the 1960 African American freedom struggle . Depicted as a comic-book action hero, Martin Luther King trumpets justice, advocates nonviolent struggle, and “dreams of a...
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Martin Luther King will forever be associated with the vision of America achieving its aim of a “more perfect union.” King’s speech envisioned a renewal of America, a redeeming of its ‘soul.” Moreover, the “Dream” speech re-set the framework for racial dialogue and the boundaries for political possibility-dismantling of racial segregation. Throughout the speech,...
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The King 2011 celebration will more than likely follow the template of the past, sanitizing his teaching, censoring his more radical speeches, de-contextualizing King from his works and critique of American society, and repackaging his image to make him a non controversial hero. To the contrary, Martin Luther King (MLK) was against the established...
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The study and celebration of African American History is a central component of Kwanzaa. The Kwanzaa symbol, the mat or mkeka (Swahili), is symbolic of the tradition and history of African Americans both here in America and on the continent of Africa. As Malcolm X so brilliantly put it, “History is a people’s memory,...
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Africa was as important to King as it was for Malcolm X
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The 1960s Civil Rights Movement brought to fruition the notion of a nation “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” as articulated by Lincoln at Gettysburg
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