"I Fear I May Have Integrated My People Into a Burning House" - Martin Luther King Jr.
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NeighborhoodNomad.
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Harry Belafonte speaks on last conversation between him and MLK.
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/architects-of-peace/Belafonte/essay.html
Midway through the Civil Rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. realized that the struggle for integration would ultimately become a struggle for economic rights. I remember the last time we were together, at my home, shortly before he was murdered. He seemed quite agitated and preoccupied, and I asked him what the problem was. "I've come upon something that disturbs me deeply," he said. "We have fought hard and long for integration, as I believe we should have, and I know that we will win. But I've come to believe we're integrating into a burning house."
That statement took me aback. It was the last thing I would have expected to hear, considering the nature of our struggle, and I asked him what he meant. "I'm afraid that America may be losing what moral vision she may have had," he answered. "And I'm afraid that even as we integrate, we are walking into a place that does not understand that this nation needs to be deeply concerned with the plight of the poor and disenfranchised. Until we commit ourselves to ensuring that the underclass is given justice and opportunity, we will continue to perpetuate the anger and violence that tears at the soul of this nation."
“I fear, I am integrating my people into a burning house.”
~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
Dr. King said the above statement to Harry Belafonte in a conversation they had before his death. Belafonte startled at the statement said to him “What should we do?” Dr. King told him that we “Become the firemen, Let us not stand by and let the house burn.”
On the flip side of that, you have a speech by Malcolm X. It was entitled “The House ? and the Field ? .” He spoke about how the House ? loved the Master more than he loved himself. And that if the Masters house caught on fire, the House ? would try to put the fire out. On the other hand you have the Field ? . The Field ? hated the master and despised his very existence. If the Master’s house were to catch on fire, the Field ? would pray for a strong wind to come along.
Here you have two black thoughts that are on opposite sides of the spectrum. The feelings are as true today as they were when both these statements were proclaimed in the mid 60’s.
What are your thoughts on this?
How can one fight for something they don't believe in?
or
Why would someone fight for something they believe will ultimately destroy the people they are supposedly fighting for?
Comments
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Mlk cooning as usual
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Dont slander mlk like that ruffin. He wasone the best leader that blacks in america have had.
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Interesting. America definitely looking like a burning house right now
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Forget mlk and integration
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Integration was a terrible idea smh
We shoulda went with Black Nationalism and became self sufficient and support ourselves -
I hate when Mlk and Malcolm are pitted against each other directly or indirectly..
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I knew when I read the title it had something to do with the Malcolm X quote.
In any event, MLK meant well. He just wanted equality and peace, he couldn't have foreseen the damage integration would cause.
I mean we could have been like S. Africa on a different scale because Jim Crow was only a step or two away from being full fledged Apartheid anyway.
Things couldn't stay as they were, it was getting unbearable for all parties. -
spiritgod87 wrote: »Dont slander mlk like that ruffin. He wasone the best leader that blacks in america have had.
Critical thinking doesn't equal slander. And it was a quote from MLK himself.
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playmaker88 wrote: »I hate when Mlk and Malcolm are pitted against each other directly or indirectly..
It was indirectly, but these two are the perfect example for the premise of this thread:
1. Because of the obvious "House ? /Field ? quote by Malcolm. I may be wrong but it's very likely MLK heard this quote/phrase before he was killed. This may have been a moment of clarity for MLK, realizing he was a House ? and a ? of his/our oppressors, that's why he specifically said "burning house". Maybe it was his sub-conscious, maybe it was just a coincidence.
2. The very purpose of this thread was to ask and get answers to the questions in the o/p.
Why would one fight for something they don't believe in?
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Why would someone fight for something they believed would ultimately be detrimental/destructive for those they are supposedly fighting for?
When Malcolm believed the NOI was not the best thing for the people, not only did he publicly speak on it, he took action and left and started his own movement/mosque.
When Martin believed that integration was not the best thing for the people, he continued to publicly speak and demonstrate actions that were completely contrary to his beliefs.
So again the real questions are:
Why/How would one fight for something they don't believe in?
Why would someone fight for something they believe will ultimately be detrimental/destructive to those they are supposedly fighting for?
And being that we live in a physically integrated country now, How do you (the people) feel about about the fact that one of the most prominent figures in the movement for integration secretly believed that it was not the right thing to do, but was fighting for it anyway? -
preferring integration over segregation = ? status now?
it's ironic that some of y'all negroes have it so easy you wax poetic on the days of jim crow thanks to to MLK. -
Sneak Dissa wrote: »preferring integration over segregation = ? status now?
it's ironic that some of y'all negroes have it so easy you wax poetic on the days of jim crow thanks to to MLK.
It's not that we are not thankful for him fighting for "equal rights" but what we are ? about is that the black businesses, unity, love, strength of the community was lost for us to be integrated with whites. What they should have realized was to protect our investments, our wealth, our economics, education and etc. We just been integrated and haven't build up off of that. -
YOu ever ask yourself why whites only teach about Harriet TUbman & MLK but not Nat Turner & Malcolm X?spiritgod87 wrote: »Dont slander mlk like that ruffin. He wasone the best leader that blacks in america have had.
The answer to that question will explain why he would call MLK a ? .
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Sneak Dissa wrote: »preferring integration over segregation = ? status now?
it's ironic that some of y'all negroes have it so easy you wax poetic on the days of jim crow thanks to to MLK.
No sir. That's not what I'm saying at all. I believe integration is what Life is all about. I look at Life and all things that exist to be just different parts in the body of life.
It's all about what we are integrating/uniting for. Are we integrated/unified to progress the body or is our unification destroying the body/ourselves/"the burning house"?
Integration becomes ? status when you are trying to integrate with those who consider you their enemy.
Integration becomes ? status when you are trying to fit in or "fix" a system that is specifically designed to exploit and destroy you.
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YOu ever ask yourself why whites only teach about Harriet TUbman & MLK but not Nat Turner & Malcolm X?spiritgod87 wrote: »Dont slander mlk like that ruffin. He wasone the best leader that blacks in america have had.
The answer to that question will explain why he would call MLK a ? .
harriet tubman would have shot a cracka in his cracka face with no hesitation if she had to. -
The problem with MLK is that he died so we don't know what kind of integration we would have gotten had he lived.
I doubt it would have been this ? . In retrospect, we should learn from the conculsions of Mlk movement, that black people have to embrace principles and ideals not leaders because when they die their movements get co-opted. -
Come on now. Comparing those two quotes just because they both have fire in them is stupid. MLK wasn't saying that Black people needed to save America for white people. He was saying that we needed to work so as to change America's ways of feeding off of and stepping all over the poor and disenfranchised. Being that Blacks are disproportionately poor and disenfranchised, he was still looking out for Black people. To me, he kinda looked forward and saw that integration would be pointless if America could just use economics to keep Blacks down in place of law.
Also, I agree with Zombie. I don't think we would be in quite the same position we are now if MLK had lived. The large part of the Black Communities problems is that everyone saw Integration as the "Great Success" instead of the first victory in a long war. So once integration came a long, that unity disappeared as everyone went to try and get thier own piece of the pie and what leadership we had disappeared or took the form of people more interested in photo ops than effecting real change. I think if MLK was still around, he would have tried to keep people focused. And these comments if they are true suggest he was of that mindset. -
poverty should have been secondary, the world needs to work on knowledge first
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The Lonious Monk wrote: »Come on now. Comparing those two quotes just because they both have fire in them is stupid. MLK wasn't saying that Black people needed to save America for white people. He was saying that we needed to work so as to change America's ways of feeding off of and stepping all over the poor and disenfranchised. Being that Blacks are disproportionately poor and disenfranchised, he was still looking out for Black people. To me, he kinda looked forward and saw that integration would be pointless if America could just use economics to keep Blacks down in place of law.
Also, I agree with Zombie. I don't think we would be in quite the same position we are now if MLK had lived. The large part of the Black Communities problems is that everyone saw Integration as the "Great Success" instead of the first victory in a long war. So once integration came a long, that unity disappeared as everyone went to try and get thier own piece of the pie and what leadership we had disappeared or took the form of people more interested in photo ops than effecting real change. I think if MLK was still around, he would have tried to keep people focused. And these comments if they are true suggest he was of that mindset.
Why continue to speak and demonstrate for something you believe will be pointless?
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some could argue that integration has done more harm to black people than good.. pre-integration or pre-civil rights era I should say you had very strong tight nit black communities... (Black Wall street in Tulsa OK in the 1920's as well as in Durham NC) and in many other cites and towns across the country Black people knew that they had to do for themselves. All those strong Black communities were either burned down or integrated..
Today you don't have a Black community, you have Black neighborhoods, but not a community...
So in many respects I feel like Martin King fought a good fight but at the end of the day why ask to sat at the table with other people when you have the ability to set you're own table. -
Maybe I'm misunderstanding this current discussion, but I don't think that some of you guys are doing MLK justice. And not giving him enough credit. Read more of his writings and listen to more of his speeches. The man was very strong and smart. He wasn't about cooning for the white man. He was simply about demanding equal rights, destroying racism, and unity. The Civil Rights Acts and Brown v. Board (courtesy of Thurgood Marshall, a man just as great as MLK if not greater imo) were hallmarks in the black struggle. Why is it that any black man who has some kind of "good" relationship to whites is automatically a ? ? White racists hated MLK more than Malcolm.
If segregation and separatism are your thing, you can still practice it. I'm ambivalent about forced integration, but MLK didn't necessarily prevent black people from forming the black communities that exist today, right? He just gave you more options. He wasn't anti-black nationalist either. People talk about doing your own thing as black people, but that's much easier to say now partly because of MLK, but I'm sure it wasn't so much easier back then. -
Imo MLK and MX are like ying and yang. They were not perfect.
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NeighborhoodNomad. wrote: »The Lonious Monk wrote: »Come on now. Comparing those two quotes just because they both have fire in them is stupid. MLK wasn't saying that Black people needed to save America for white people. He was saying that we needed to work so as to change America's ways of feeding off of and stepping all over the poor and disenfranchised. Being that Blacks are disproportionately poor and disenfranchised, he was still looking out for Black people. To me, he kinda looked forward and saw that integration would be pointless if America could just use economics to keep Blacks down in place of law.
Also, I agree with Zombie. I don't think we would be in quite the same position we are now if MLK had lived. The large part of the Black Communities problems is that everyone saw Integration as the "Great Success" instead of the first victory in a long war. So once integration came a long, that unity disappeared as everyone went to try and get thier own piece of the pie and what leadership we had disappeared or took the form of people more interested in photo ops than effecting real change. I think if MLK was still around, he would have tried to keep people focused. And these comments if they are true suggest he was of that mindset.
Why continue to speak and demonstrate for something you believe will be pointless?
Did you miss the second part of that sentence: "...if America could just use economics to keep Blacks down in place of law." In other words, he realized that there would have to be a second phase of black financial empowerment to go along with the Civil Rights movement.young_reezy wrote: »some could argue that integration has done more harm to black people than good.. pre-integration or pre-civil rights era I should say you had very strong tight nit black communities... (Black Wall street in Tulsa OK in the 1920's as well as in Durham NC) and in many other cites and towns across the country Black people knew that they had to do for themselves. All those strong Black communities were either burned down or integrated..
Today you don't have a Black community, you have Black neighborhoods, but not a community...
So in many respects I feel like Martin King fought a good fight but at the end of the day why ask to sat at the table with other people when you have the ability to set you're own table.
I think you basically make the case for why integration was necessary though. What happened to Black Wall Street? It was wiped off the face of the Earth. That was only possible because of the position blacks had in the country at the time. Say what you want about integration, but it's made it impossible for something like that or Rosewood to ever happen again.
The fact is, integration was necessary. Blacks are a minority in this country. To really succeed, we had to get to the point where we were recognized by the law. Like I said before, the problem is not that integration happened. It's that people saw integration as THE victory, and basically abandoned everything that came before it. -
"...if America could just use economics to keep Blacks down in place of law."
When did he say this? -
IMO, I think what MLK realized is that integration would open the door to the same "liberties" available to whites at the time. But I think he saw the big picture towards the end.
Not only would integration not solve the deep rooted issues facing the black community do to years of exploitation and targeted destruction, buy it would also further dissolve the cohesiveness of the black community. Integration ultimately just caused class warfare between blacks who were already divided enough. When mlk was alive, it probably was a time were blacks were most unified. But because if what he was trying to do, we just became apart of a broken system.
There are still people who are poor and less fortunate suffering from the same manufactured situations as they were back then just to a different degree. With integration, blacks will now just look to become apart of the "white man's" system to survive, when we could have used the unity to build and help our own. Now we have just become apart of a broken system. And it has become even more obvious as of late. Thus him saying he walked his people into a burning building.
I think he regretted what he originally set out to do and just felt as if he could have put the same message across, just with a different end goal in mind. -
The ic has some of the dumbest ? on earth.
They were using the burning house in two different ways MLK was using it as a metaphor and Malcolm was talking about a literal house.
MLK talked about putting out the fire because it would affect black people. He saw that America's economic system was flawed and had to be changed in order for black people and poor people of all colors to truely be equal and free.
The whole reason he was in Memphis in the first place was to support underpaid black sanitation workers. MLK dedicated his life and lost his life fighting for the rights of black people, in what way does that make him a ? or a house ? ?
