It was a prominent photo on page 3 of the Local section of the Tampa Bay Times. The Rev. Charles McKenzie of Tampa was leading placard-carrying marchers and their placard-carrying children to help spread a message about race. The headline read: “In The Spirit Of MLK.”
Then I took a closer look at the placards. The mantra of “Black Lives Matter” was there, to be sure, but so also was “No Justice, No Peace.”
The latter is more than problematic and a reminder of how easily and shamelessly the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message can be misappropriated when his holiday comes around.
MLK, lest we forget, was in the non-violent, civil-disobedience tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau. He is not to be confused with Malcolm X or H. Rap Brown.
Dr. King famously and unambiguously said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
That’s not tantamount to “By Any Means Necessary” or “Burn, baby, burn.”
Want to honor Dr. King? Don’t misrepresent his message. It says something about content of character.