Fellowship of Love: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy and the renewal of the Labor tradition

In his other speeches and writings, King invokes some of America’s best traditions to articulate a vision of national renewal that has universal significance precisely because it emerges from a particular place with people bound together by a shared purpose: Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy […] We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline […] Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force […] many of our white brothers […] have come to realize that their destiny is tied with our destiny and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

King’s dream is not the abstract utopia imagined by Lennon but instead a reality that is already actualized (albeit partially and imperfectly) in history – the particular history of the United States and the universal history of humankind’s fall and redemption:

You [King’s black brothers] have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive […] I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed – we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal […] With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

At a time of deepening division within and across nations, King’s prophetic words and his leadership are a rich reservoir for rethinking and renewing politics. His clarion call that ‘[i]n these days of worldwide confusion, there is a dire need for men and women who will courageously do battle for truth’ has even greater resonance today when truth is either determined by absolute technocratic diktat or denied by post-truth relativism.