Another look at MLK

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

I love this photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. because it reminds me of his humanity. King was not a saint. He was a man with a radical (yes, radical) vision and was deeply committed to social justice and eradicating injustice not just in the United States, but as it occurred throughout the global community. We do men and women like King a great disservice when we put them on a pedestal. Not only does it take the bite out of what they stood for and gave up their lives for, it also creates distance between them and us.

We think we are too ordinary. We think there is no way we can do the work that King and his contemporaries did. We think we have to perfect our diction first. We think we have to go to church every Sunday (or mosque or temple, etc.) first. Pull up our pants first. Get a job first. Make enough money first. Earn enough bona fides first. And so on and so forth.

But none of that really matters. What matters is being so deeply committed to real, effective, lasting change, that you are not afraid to put in the work to make that happen and, perhaps most importantly, you are not afraid of the consequences of that work.

And one does not need to be perfect to do any of those things.

I’ll leave you with a few more photos that illustrate King’s humanity …

 

1956 mugshot of a 27-year-old King, taken shortly after the Montgomery bus boycott

 

King with his father and son, 1963 Photo by Richard Avedon

The Kings leave court in Montgomery, Ala. after Dr. King was found guilty of conspiracy to boycott city buses.

Photo by Gene Herrick/Associated Press

Cross posted from here.