Why Rev. Dr. MLK's socialist policy legacy should be embraced - and extended
The fierce urgency of now is still with us
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King self-identified as a socialist. His theologically informed approach of socialist politics is not an embarrassment, but rather a baton that should be picked up, by folks within the streams of black social Christianity and faith traditions more broadly. It’s also relevant for labor movement folks, advocates for multiparty democracy (read building something beyond the democratic party), practitioners of engaged scholarship from the community-rooted spaces to academic guilds, for mutual aid and abolitionists, and lots of other folks. In colloquial terms, get it where you fit in, engage primary sources of Dr. King’s work, and figure out how it applies in your respective contexts.
I can hear someone saying, “sure, sure, King thought some things were wrong with capitalism…he co-started the Poor People’s campaign, and there’s the board retreat moments at the SCLC retreats, but did he really identify as a socialist, though”?
In short, yes. Here’s a brief, non-exhaustive account: There’s the 1952 letter to Coretta Scott, where he argues that “capitalism has outlived his usefulness”, that “he’s always been more socialistic that capitalistic”, where he welcomes not only a “better distribution of wealth”, but the “nationalization of industry”. There’s Cornel West’s account of a conversation with Coretta Scott King, where the latter notes to West that King identified as a black socialist. There’s the New York Times article, published less than six days before King’s assassination, where he described his work as being “engaged in a kind of class struggle”. There’s Coretta’s own account that King told her that he’s not a capitalist in her own autobiography. Additionally, there’s a volume of secondary literature making the point quite clearly, from Gary Dorrien’s three-volume text on the black social Gospel, Douglas Sturm’s journal article on King as a democratic socialist, Loggins and Douglas’s classic text, Prophet of Discontent: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Critique of Racial Capitalism. I also make the case in my latest text, Plenty Good Room.
More pragmatically, I would to outline some actionable ways to honor the socialist policy legacy of Rev. Dr. King. Below, here are four, concrete Rev. Dr. King-inspired steps that can be taken at a local and or state level, to advance his legacy:
One: Adopting and scaling up universal basic income policies.
More than 60 cities have experimented with some form of UBI, inspired in part by King’s advocacy for guaranteed income. This work is well outlined by Mayors for a Guaranteed Income.
Two: Establishing public banks, credit unions, and emphasizing the democratic power of monetary policy
This policy isn’t explicitly advocated for by Rev. Dr. King. However, my contention is that his work with Operation Breadbasket and King’s assiduous fundraising points to his recognition of the pragmatic need to fund and resource social movement, including the one he helped to co-lead. From my own vantage point, I’d contend that public finance is a non-negotiable front for operationalizing socialist politics in a sustainable way. This policy brief makes the case powerfully. Further, I’d make the case that not attending to the monetary and public finance aspects of standing up socialist politics is apart of what imperils the work from gaining needed traction, credibility, and public support from those who could be persuaded.
Three: Reviving the Freedom Budget lens for every appropriations fight, from municipal and county government to state-level government
Rev. Dr. King’s lends his imprimatur to Randolph’s freedom budget, which calls for a robust set of policies, ranging from full employment and universal healthcare, to a strong menu of social and economic rights. Doing this at a federal level is difficult to envision an actionable path in the next two to four years, but state and local governments, in concert with community-based stakeholders like congregations, unions, research and think tank support, and so on, should pilot and approximate smaller scale versions of this policies, to be scaled up as resources, political context, and sufficient policy and community demand allow.
Four: Supporting tenant unions, which King calls for repeatedly, in Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos of Community
This dimension is quite germane, as noted in a recent edition of Hammer and Hope, a journal of black politics, which outlines how tenant unions are fighting for housing justice. In my own scholarship, specifically my dissertation, I make the case for the importance of tenant unions, from a public policy, political history, and normative lens, here.
King’s theologically informed politics do not have to be perfect to merit close consideration, and where merited, extension and contextualization into our current moment. As a pastor and political scientist, however, I would argue that King’s legacy as a grounded political theorist, his popular education pedagogy that used speeches and sermons as teachable moments for the masses, quite literally at mass meetings, and his commitment to ever-deepening expertise is crucial for our moment.