What Would Martin Say?
a new book delves into the mind of a civil rights icon
2008-04-04
By Gil Robertson IV

     In the 40 years since the Martin Luther King assassination, Americans from all walks of life have tried to speculate about the position that the civil rights leader would have taken on various world issues. Based on his many years working with King as a speech writer and close personal advisor, Clarence B. Jones in his new book
“What Would Martin Say?,” presents some very  provocative commentary about the perspective King would take on such hot-button topics as “black leadership,” “affirmative action” and “America’s current war on terror”. In the process he also reveals some interesting insights into the man considered to be Black America’s last great leader. 

Why did you decide that now is the time to publish "What Would Martin Say?"
     As someone who had often worked with Dr King, in many cases 24/7, over an eight-year period prior to his assassination, and one of the few remaining survivors of those who spent similar committed time, I felt that I had a responsibility to interpret the “Martin” I knew to successor generations.

Tell us about how you feel as you reflect on the 40 years since Dr. King’s death. Have we as African Americans really made progress?
     To be honest, I feel somewhat saddened and disappointed that much of America still has amnesia about the legacy of slavery, segregation and institutional racism which has dominated so much of our 20th century. Notwithstanding this, one would have to be completely out of touch to not acknowledge significant progress by African Americans, especially on an absolute yardstick as to where we were forty years ago.
     On a relative basis, however, the ratio of progress of African Americans as measured by that achieved by majority, white society progress, although positive, has still lagged behind in economic parity, employment, and the generational transfer of wealth.
     According to the 2008 Eisenhower Foundation Report updating the 1968 findings of the Kerner Commission concludes: In 2006, 44% percent of African American households headed by a female with children under 18 years of age live in poverty; amongst high school dropouts, aged 19, only 38% of African Americans are employed, compared to 67% of whites; African American men aged 25-29 are almost seven times likely to be incarcerated as their white counterparts; the rate of incarceration of African American men in America today is four times higher than the rate of incarceration of black men in South Africa under Apartheid prior to the Mandela government!! A recent Brookings Institution study on mobility found that 68% of white children from middle income families surpassed their parents’ income compared to only 31% of middle income children from African American families.
 
Would Dr. King be proud of who we are as a people today?
     Without question he would be proud, but…He would also be saddened, if not angry, at the failure of we as a people to commit ourselves to the pursuit of educational excellence and concomitant failure to assume personal, family and community responsibility for the high incidence of our illegitimate children, rate of HIV infection and the wanton crime rate that can only be described as “black killing fields” within our own communities.

How much of an influence do you feel Dr. King’s efforts have on what we’re witnessing today as Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton make a run for the White House?
     It is the legacy of Dr. King’s successful struggle to transform America and the magnitude of his contribution to our country, especially the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that makes it possible for the first time in America that an African American man or a white woman may actually be elected to be President of the United States.

How would Dr. King feel about the war in Iraq?
     As I am sure everyone knows, Dr. King was spiritually, philosophically and politically committed to non-violence. He opposed all wars as a means for settling disputes between nations. He would have been opposed to the launching of a pre-emptive war against Iraq. I go into great detail in the book to explain how I believe Martin would truly feel about this issue. 
     As such, if in fact, it had been truly and factually established that Iraq was or had become a staging platform and sanctuary for Islamic Jihadist terrorists who planned to attack our country and innocent women and children, making the difficult choice between our country’s survival and military measures against such terrorists, I believe he would have chosen to support those measures of absolute last resort to defend our country. As I wrote in my book, Martin would have “done everything in his power to head off the war, including lobbying the president.  And it goes without saying that, once the war started, he’d want the killing and bloodshed ended as soon as possible. He’d note the domestic disenchantment with the war and find solace that the majority of his countrymen were demanding peace.”
 
What do you hope that people will most take away from "What Would Martin Say?" 
     More than anything, I hope readers will take away some measure of the magnitude of Martin’s contribution and love for his country. Martin sought to save the soul of America. He was a minority dreamer with a majority vision. He challenged us to be the best that we can be as a nation; to end the contradiction between the reality of how black Americans were treated for years in this country and the promises and precepts enshrined in our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I hope people take away a better understanding that Martin was the moral compass of our nation - pointing the way from the legacy of segregation and institutional racism in the 20th Century across the bridge to a 21st Century America based on a color irrelevant multiracial society predicated on the pursuit of excellence and respect for one another, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, sexual preference, age, religion or non-religion.

Gil Robertson IV is an A&E journalist and bestselling author. His work covering the entertainment industry has appeared in numerous publications that include the LA Times, the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Black Enterprise magazine.