Cornel West Remembers Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Cornel West, professor at Harvard University, author of books including Race Matters and Black Prophetic Fire and contributor to To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Belknap/Harvard University Press, 2018), reflects on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and West's essay "Hope and Despair," which examines the rejection of King by his former friends and allies over his Vietnam war resistance and the Poor People's Campaign. Plus, listeners call in to share their memories of the day Dr. King was shot.
I distinctly remember the moment when I learned of MLK's death. My parents had sent me on an errand to our neighbor's apartment. She answered the door crying, "He's dead," she said. I was ten years old, and I returned to my parents, crying inconsolably.
— Muddle-Age Spread (@muddleagespread) April 4, 2018
I was nine years old, living on Fulton Street in Brooklyn. When the news broke I could hear the shouts in the street below my window and watched as the neighborhood was destroyed. The police drove paddy wagons on to the sidewalk to chase people away from stores.
— Joe Camel (@ny_city_man) April 4, 2018
@BrianLehrer I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa when Dr. MLK was killed. I was deeply puzzled - no DISTRESSED - at the time, how to handle my work and my relationships, how to stand up for my country in the face of this.
— Nicholas Wolfson (@nicholaswolfson) April 4, 2018
@CornelWest says Dr. King "was an extremist of love, he was an extremist for justice, and he was shot down because he was willing to live that kind of life."
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) April 4, 2018
I was 9, living in Pittsburgh. I was in my family's living room, using a tape recorder (yes) to study for my history test. My dad was playing the radio--the jazz program. The news broke in. My heart shattered. I didn't erase the tape for a long time.
— Lady-Friendly Dorito (@Martha_Garvey) April 4, 2018
Cornel West, on @BrianLehrer, reminding us how Wilmington, Delaware was occupied by the National Guard for six months after Dr. King's assassination. "Such was the rage" of the uprisings—and such was the repression.
— siddhartha mitter (@siddhmi) April 4, 2018
