Activism

COMMENTARY: Schools and streets have been named after Martin Luther King Jr.

Those who misrepresent King and Critical Race Theory are illogical, and they only reveal their fear of him. There is no need to fear this American Black preacher who preached nonviolence and love. King was a peaceful warrior who was radically obedient to Jesus, who taught us to love even our enemies.

Published

3 years ago

January 13, 2022

Oakland Post

Striking members of Memphis Local 1733 hold signs whose slogan symbolized the sanitation workers’ 1968 campaign. (Via Walter P. Reuther Library/Wayne State University)

By Dr. J. Alfred Smith Sr. | Baptist News Global

J. Alfred Smith Sr.

Churches and libraries are named after him. He is the only African American and the only American clergy honored with a national holiday. In many countries around the world, he is numbered with global heroes like Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela.

Some discredited him by calling him a communist, a detractor and troublemaker. Sophisticated ideological historians are deconstructing his history in order to distort the powerful truth of his ministry. Those who pass laws against teaching Critical Race Theory are making sure that present and coming generations will not learn as Professor Cornel West said, that King’s universal religious commitments led him to internationalize the American ideals of democracy, freedom and equality.

“There is no need to fear this American Black preacher who preached non-violence and love.”

Forgive us, Lord, for our ignorance

Forgive us, Lord, for reducing Martin Luther King to being only a civil rights leader. Forgive us, Lord, for our ignorance. All many people know about him is that he had a dream. He was more than a dreamer. Forgive us for ignoring your calling of Martin Luther King as a minister with good news for a bad news world.

In keeping with Luke 4:18-19, King — like Jesus — had a deep commitment to the poor, pushed down, left out, disrespected Black sanitation workers of Memphis. He addressed, to the displeasure of the white power structure, the basic constitutionally guaranteed rights of the Black population — equitable education, decent housing, jobs that paid living wages, and equal justice in the courts. The sanitation workers had lost their lives working long hours for dirt-poor pay with unsafe trucks that had taken the lives of several workers.

The workers had a strike with the support of many in the community. They carried signs that said, “I AM A MAN!” Some critics of King did not understand his identification with the cause of sanitation workers.

On March 28, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy, right, lead a march on behalf of striking Memphis sanitation workers. (AP Photo/The Commercial Appeal, Sam Melhorn)

Professor Luther D. Ivory states in Toward a Theology of Radical Involvement that King used the teaching of Imago Dei to counter the notion of Black inferiority. Everyone irrespective of race, gender, education or economic status is to be valued and treated with respect and dignity. Blacks needed this message to overcome feelings of shame, inferiority and self-hatred caused by the absurdities of racism.

With this understanding, the foundation is built for Blacks and whites to live together in the beloved community. Living in the beloved community calls for Blacks and whites to work together to transform existing injustices in institutions and public life.

Forgive us, Lord, for our distorted gospel

Martin Luther King speaks to an overflow crowd at a mass meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church in Memphis. (AP Photo/Gene Herrick)

Lord, forgive American Christians — Black and white — for their middle-class captivity with a distorted view of the gospel. This understanding of the gospel was concerned about life after death and not life after birth, addressing only the sweet by and by while ignoring the nasty now and now. This gospel condemns the personal sins of the individuals while ignoring corporate and institutional evils. This gospel refused to oppose chemical and nuclear waste dumps that are built on the edge of communities where the poor and politically powerless live.

In his book Stride Toward Freedom, King corrects the distorted view of the gospel saying: “The gospel deals with the whole man, not only his soul, but his body; not only his spiritual well-being, but his material well-being. … Any religion which professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the conditions that scar the soul is a spiritually moribund religion only waiting for the day to be buried.”

Forgive us, Lord, for our white nationalism

Forgive America, Lord, for her ethnocentrism and white nationalism that justifies her behavior whether it is right or wrong. American arrogance has been promoted by persons who have held the highest leadership positions in the nation. America has promoted herself as being No. 1 among the wealthy nations of the world.

In “A Lament for Humanity” on Humans Rights Day 2021, pastor, author and judge Wendell Griffen wrote, “The world’s richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people. Nearly half the world’s population of 3.4 billion people lives on less than $5.50 per day. Every year, 100 million people are pushed into poverty because they must pay out-of-pocket for health care. Currently 258 million children (one out of five) will not be allowed to attend school.”

Pastor Griffen adds: “And it came to pass that humanity appears to have cursed itself and the world by that greed, lust for power, inequality and bigotry that make community seem like a global fantasy instead of a human imperative.”

The inequality is not accidental; it is deliberative, calculated and purposeful.

Forgive us, Lord, for we were warned by King in his last book, Where Do We Go from Here? He wrote, “We have inherited a large house, a great world house in which we have to learn to live together, Black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Muslim and Hindu. A family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest, who because we can never live apart, must somehow learn to live with each other in peace.”

Forgive us, Lord, for our violence

Martin Luther King delivers a sermon on May 13, 1956, in Montgomery, Ala. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Forgive us, Lord, for our worship of guns. There are more guns in America than people. Our money says “In God We Trust” but there are 121 firearms for every 100 residents. And 75% of homicides are related to guns. America leads all other nations in gun deaths. Our children have fears of being killed in school by a student. Black Christians in churches and Jews in synagogues have been killed while worshipping. Our shopping centers have had mass killings.

On Jan. 6, 2021, the U.S. Capitol was invaded by persons with guns attempting to stop the counting of the Electoral College votes. The reports say the lives of the vice president and the Speaker of the House were marked for death.

Guns are used to settle differences. The United States is the No. 1 seller of arms to the countries of the world. Forgive us, Lord, for giving deaf ears to the apostle of nonviolence. He preached against what he called the triplets of evil: war, poverty and racism. It was he who said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

A prayer for hope

May those of us who have become discouraged because racism seems to be on the increase find hope. May those of us who have become discouraged because white supremacy and white nationalism are boldly obtaining a stronger foothold in state and national governments find hope. May those of us who have become discouraged because voting rights for which people shed their blood so we could vote are now being stolen, placing democracy in jeopardy find hope.

Forgive us, Lord, if we forget how Martin Luther King told us in his very last speech that we would face difficult days. Those days are here.

Two months before his assassination on April 4, 1968, he spoke powerful words of hope. We must not forget them. He said, “We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.”

Yes, the immediate future may not look promising. Negative news about climate change may haunt us. Young college graduates are uncertain about career opportunities. The COVID-19 virus and its mutations trouble us. These finite disappointments multiply geometrically, but we must not lose infinite hope.

I am not speaking of blind hope but an infinite hope that presses forward believing that if we do our part, our way-maker God, who brought us through the Middle Passage, the horror of runaway slaves chased by bloodhounds and beaten with many stripes if caught, the sexual abuse of the slave woman bearing a mulatto child for the slave owner, and the way-maker God of liberation who helped us survive the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan and inspired our preachers to preach on after their churches were burned and to rebuild them back bigger — that this God will inspire us and create in us the power to keep the dream alive.

Not the God of the slave master’s preacher who told us not to steal the master’s chickens when our babies were crying from hunger, but the God of infinite hope, the God who creates ex nihilo, who makes a way out of no way. The way-maker God inspires us and creates in us the power to keep the dream of Martin Luther King alive.

Dante Stewart reminds us how Pastor James Bevel spoke about infinite hope: “There is a false rumor around our leader’s death. Martin Luther King is not our leader. Our leader is the man who led Moses out of Egypt. Our leader is the one who went with Daniel in the lion’s den. Our leader is the man who walked out of the grave on Easter morning. Our leader never sleeps nor slumbers. He cannot be put in jail. Our leader is still on the case. Our leader is not dead. One of the prophets died. We will not stop because of that.”

Alfred Smith served four decades as pastor of Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, Calif. Now pastor emeritus, he is a member of the American Baptist Churches in the USA and dually aligned with the Progressive National Baptist Convention, where he served as the organization’s 12th president.

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Undocumented Workers Are Struggling to Feed Themselves. Slashed Budgets and New Immigration Policies Bring Fresh Challenges

Founded more than 20 years ago, Street Level Health Project started with a handful of nurses and volunteers visiting day laborer sites in East Oakland to provide medical assistance and other resources to newly arrived immigrants. They quickly spotted symptoms common among day laborers: nausea, fatigue, and headaches. Sitting in the sun for hours waiting for work is typical. Once on a job, some men shared incidents of nearly passing out while working. Volunteer nurses also noticed signs of hunger among the men, with some going days without eating a proper meal.

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2 weeks ago

March 4, 2025

Oakland Post

Day laborer zone sites are scattered across several streets in East Oakland, California. The sites allow workers to find temporary jobs in skilled labor such as construction, landscaping, and agriculture. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

By Magaly Muñoz

Up and down the streets of the Fruitvale neighborhood in Oakland, immigrant workers head to empty parking lots and street corners waiting for a job. Some are as young as 14 and as old as 60.

Diego, a man in his late thirties, is a construction worker who arrived in the United States nine months ago. He, like many of the men standing beside him at the day laborer site, came to the U.S. in the hopes of providing a new life for his family. Now, Diego and other immigrants are worried as threats of deportation increase from the Trump administration.

Also worried are organizations such as Street Level Health Project, an Oakland-based nonprofit dedicated to providing access to health care and basic services to these laborers.

Street Level Health Project’s funding primarily comes from federal and local grants, These are in jeopardy because of city budget constraints and proposed cuts to federal social service dollars.

Already, the nonprofit’s local funding has been cut. The City of Oakland decreased one of the organization’s grants by $35,000 in one of its latest rounds of budget cuts, with city officials citing a looming budget deficit.

“Our primary day laborer program funding right now is secured, but we do have concerns in this next budget cycle if it will continue to be secured, given [the budget shortfall], and the recent cut to 13 community grants across the city,” said Executive Director Gabriela Galicia.

“We’re the safety net to the safety net,” said Galicia. As Oakland’s sole organization devoted to helping undocumented workers, Street Level is often tasked with “picking up the leftovers” for groups that provide resources to the larger immigrant or underserved communities, she added. Now, that mission is under threat.

Level Health Project is a nonprofit organization in East Oakland that provides health and employment resources for immigrant day laborers and their families. The staff upped their efforts to provide information about immigration rights in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

At day laborer sites in East Oakland, several workers said that they often skip buying groceries or meals for themselves in order to save money for rent or other necessities.

Diego, who like others interviewed for this story asked to not share his full name because of his undocumented status, said he’s lucky if he makes $300 a week. He said that is enough to pay for the small room he and his son rent in the Fruitvale – but not enough to feed them both. Diego said that he will sometimes go days without food.

The family Diego rents from is more fortunate, he said, because they’re able to afford meat and rice. At times, Diego said, it’s hard to ignore the savory smell that finds its way to his bedroom. Diego tells his son to look away from his landlord’s table to avoid feeling envious about what they cannot buy themselves.

“It’s hard because I know there’s food at the store, but there’s never enough [money] to buy it,” Diego said. “We barely have enough to pay our rent every month.”

On top of paying for the basics here in the U.S., day laborers also face pressure to support relatives in their home countries.

Pedro, interviewed on his BART ride home after an unsuccessful day of trying to find work in East Oakland, said his family in Guatemala regularly goes days without eating because he can’t make enough money in the Bay Area to send home to them.

“A lot of [day laborers] have their families back in [Latin America], making it harder to keep up with our needs here,” Pedro said. Some days he said the only thing he eats is the fruit that some local organizations hand out to workers like him.

Street Level Health Project is providing weekly grocery bags to immigrant day laborers and their families to address the growing need for food in the community. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

Bracing for bigger challenges

Before the pandemic, Street Level Health Project had a hot meal lunch program at their central office in the Fruitvale, where the organization provided meals twice a week for over 50 people. The organization also had a hot meal breakfast program where they prepared 50 to 90 meals, three times a week.

Understanding the food insecurity that many day laborers face, the project launched a food distribution program in 2011, distributing nearly 70 bags of groceries weekly. Thanks to additional funding, they were able to increase that to 150 food bags a week during the pandemic.

In recent years, Street Level Health Project reduced its weekly grocery distribution back to 70 bags and cut its hot meal program completely. Galicia, the director, said that’s because of the end of COVID-19 funding and staffing reductions.

Street Level Health Project also receives regular donations from the Alameda County Food Bank, but Galicia said it has not been enough to restore the food distribution program to what it was during the pandemic.

Currently, Street Level has a $100,000 grant from the city of Oakland to provide wrap-around services for day laborers, such as getting jobs for the workers, providing assistance with CalFresh and MediCal applications, and referring people to legal aid or immigration assistance. Galicia said that funding is barely enough to do the amount of work that the city expects.

Meanwhile, the $35,000 cut in funding has impacted the organization’s workers’ rights outreach and education services, she said.

The Oakland Post tried reaching out to city and county officials several times for comment but did not get a response.

Galicia fears city leaders will make even harsher cuts during the upcoming budget cycle this spring to balance a $130 million shortfall. Last year, Oakland cut funding for public safety, arts and culture programs, and 13 other nonprofits that serve the city’s most vulnerable populations.

Yet the budget concerns don’t stop with local government.

In the wake of Trump 2.0, organizations across the country are handing out “red cards” with the rights that immigrants should be aware of when encountering immigration officers. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

Since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, immigrant communities and the organizations that serve them have been in crisis mode.

Trump, who ran on a promise to deport millions of immigrants, has signed executive orders to stop birthright citizenship, shipped migrants to Guantanamo Bay, and attempted to freeze federal funding to social programs. Undocumented residents are increasingly anxious that their families might get separated.

Galicia said this is the time for local and state governments to invest in their organizations’ staff and direct resources, not take them away, from the people on the frontlines.

“I think that it’s just as important that funders are able to give to our teams, not just for the community but because the people doing the work have to be well, and we need ample resources to be able to do this work to support our community,” Galicia said.

For Pedro, the day laborer in Oakland, the combination of less support from nonprofits like Street Level Health Project, along with fear raised by the Trump administration’s deportation threats, has left him fearful. He is not alone, he said. He has noticed fewer day laborers showing up to their usual spots. Pedro said he himself fears encountering an immigration officer on his way to work.

“We don’t want to leave our homes, but at the same time, if we don’t go outside, we don’t work,” he said. “If we don’t work, we can’t afford to live.”

Oakland Post reporter Magaly Muñoz produced this story as part of a series as a 2024 USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism Data Fellow and Engagement Grantee.