Martin Luther King Jr.: Independent Black Politics and Third Party Movements

Dr. Omar H. Ali, history professor at Towson University in Maryland, author of Black Populism in the New South and "Those Who Make The Rules, Rule", and a co-convener for the national conference “Choosing an Independent President,” was invited to speak to a multiracial group of 200 soldiers and their families at Fort Myers military base in Virginia a couple of days ago. He spoke of Dr. King's independent political legacy, locating him in a long line of independent movement-building efforts up until the present. The recent history from Perot to Fulani and recent events in Iowa and New Hampshire were well received in the Q&A. See Pentagram article below. Colonel Laura Richardson (the first female garrison commander in the U.S.) introduced Dr. Ali at the event.

Pentagram
Vol. 55, No. 1,
Thursday, January 11, 2008
FMMC holds King Observance
By Dennis Ryan
Pentagram Staff Writer

Professor discusses life and legacy of slain civil rights leader

Omar Ali, a professor at Towson University spoke to the Fort Myer Military Community yesterday about the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The author of the soon to be released In the Balance of Power: Independent Black Politics and Third Party Movements in the United States said King ‘‘epitomized an American who fights for the rights of all of its citizens.”

The son of immigrants considers King’s accomplishments as part of a movement not just to overturn unequal laws, but to change the way people viewed themselves. He told how his father, who was a Fulbright scholar at Georgia Tech, would relate stories of the Jim Crow era to him as a youth.

The professor sees King as ‘‘essentially an independent. This country was founded on the principle of independence.”

Ali said while the United States was founded on the premise of equality, founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington owned many slaves, yet Jefferson’s words were used to promote democracy, he said.

He gave a brief history of the abolitionist movement, which began in the late 18th century to abolish the international slave trade, the movement of poor white males seeking political power, and the moral righteousness of the Great Awakening in the 1820s.

The Great Awakening sparked people to question what the established churches were doing to rid the world of evils such as slavery, war, and alcohol. The Abolitionist struggle eventually helped lead to the Civil War.

The Towson lecturer described how the war cost more than 600,000 lives, ended slavery and not only gave black men the right to vote, it made legislators of some. He called this the first Civil Rights Movement.

The new laws and rights were gradually eroded by Jim Crow laws. These laws disenfranchised voters and made segregation legal. Jim Crow reigned legally in the South and unofficially in the North, Ali said by 1900.

Service members who fought for freedom overseas were not content to return to racism after the war. Religious leaders led the burgeoning movement in the South. King did not start the Birmingham Bus Boycott, but he was asked by veteran activists to lead it because of his character, intelligence, looks, education, and other sterling qualities.

The professor cited part of King’s famous ‘‘Letter from Birmingham Jail” and the famous line, ‘‘Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.” He talked about how exclusive primary laws limit the independent vote.

This is counter to King’s effort to get more different kinds of people involved in the movement. Independent black churches nurture black leaders, Ali said. Neutrality was impossible in the good reverend’s world view.

‘‘People had to fight for their rights,” he said. ‘‘They were led by independents like Dr. King.”
Omar Ali, a professor at Towson University, speaks to members of the Fort Myer Military Community as part of the Martin Luther King Day observance at the post community center Thursday.