Wealth Redistribution April 3, 1968

On April 3, 1968 the weather in Memphis, Tennessee was frightful, thunderstorms and heavy rain was playing havoc with the attendance at the major meeting of the sanitation workers rally. This meeting was scheduled because the initial march for the Memphis sanitation workers lead by Dr. Martin Luther King has been disrupted by violence. This meeting was to ensure that the next march would follow the guidelines of direct nonviolent action. The weather was so bad that initially Dr. King had told Reverend Ralph Abernathy to give the main speech. However, the emotion of those in attendance that night was so strong that a call was placed to the Lorraine Motel for Dr. King to come and speak. There was no other choice but for Dr. King but to honor the crowd. What followed was the final speech in the life of the Prince of Hope, the Messenger of Love, and the moral center of this nation. The speech came to be known at the Mountain Top Speech but I am highlighting the aspect of the speech that focused on wealth redistribution in this nation. The fact of the matter it wasn’t the peace and civil rights aspect of Dr. King’s works that lead to his assassination. It was Dr. King’s work towards economic equality and his proposed Poor People’s Campaign that frightened the powers in this country. For if King could coalesce all the poor white, brown, red, yellow, and black it could shake the foundations of white economic supremacy at its core. Let’s spend a moment thinking about that possibility as we still experience the multiple aspects of disparity in this nation.