The Juneteenth Message MLK Left Black People Before His Assassination
Black History Year
PushBlack
4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 3 January 2023
⏱️ 3 minutes
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Summary
Juneteenth may be a national holiday now, but long before the celebration of the historic event was widespread, MLK had his eye on Juneteenth for another reason. He wanted to send us a message, and that message is still desperately needed today.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Juneteenth may be a national holiday now, but long before the celebration of the historic |
| 0:05.6 | event was widespread, Martin Luther King had his eye on Juneteenth for another reason. |
| 0:12.8 | He wanted to send us a message, and that message is still desperately needed today. |
| 0:19.0 | This is two-minute black history, what you didn't learn in school. |
| 0:23.5 | Martin Luther King was determined to ensure that poverty and unemployment would be addressed |
| 0:34.0 | in the public arena. With the help of other organizations, he planned a poor people's march |
| 0:40.7 | on Washington. But contrary to how white people make it seem now, some of MLK's efforts were |
| 0:49.3 | extremely unpopular. |
| 0:57.6 | King faced pushback from other black leaders and hatred from white people. |
| 1:03.4 | He was staunchly against the Vietnam War and wanted to focus on the economic hardships faced |
| 1:08.8 | by poor people instead of just respectable black elites. MLK insisted the march had to happen |
| 1:17.5 | on Juneteenth. At the time, the holiday wasn't widely recognized, but King wanted to send a |
| 1:24.0 | message. He planned to return to the same place as his eye-have-a-dreams speech. |
| 1:30.4 | After the campaign was over and protesters dispersed, black people would again equate Juneteenth |
| 1:37.1 | with freedom. The plan was for 50,000 protesters to flood the capital and remain camped there |
| 1:45.3 | until King's plans for addressing poverty and unemployment were met. The message, |
| 1:51.7 | Juneteenth marks freedom for black people, and while Martin Luther King wanted to remain non-violent, |
| 1:58.0 | he was ready to use violence to make that freedom happen. Just over a month before the march, |
| 2:07.3 | Martin Luther King was assassinated. His choice of Juneteenth, however, reminds us that we |
| 2:15.2 | must gain our freedom however we can, even if we have to resort to non-peaceful methods. |
| 2:23.2 | In order to move towards the future, you've got to look to the past. |
| 2:28.0 | This has been Two Minute Black History, a podcast by Push Black. Show your support by sharing this |
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