MLK's Three-Fold Work of Social Change

When I think of MLK's project I break it down into three parts (I know it's not this neat in the historical narrative, but still helpful as far as distinctions go).

1. Prophetic Action.  This is the work of non-violent protest and direct action by which the injustice at hand was brought before the broad public consciousness. Naming truths and unmasking powers is essential.  I believe that the most radical prophetic actions in the years to come will be concrete acts of love: feed the hungry, house the homeless, welcome the stranger, befriend the powerless. Acts of love build trust, become the roots of beloved community, and make denying the humanity of others impossible.

2. Advocacy, Alliances, and Enactment of Power: This was the work of seeking out advocates, alliances and the building of constituencies for the work of precise legislative change.  This is the work of protecting the vulnerable, releasing the oppressed through the mechanics of law and social power. In the US nothing is more valuable here than the power of organized voting.

3. Radical Love - (Nonviolent love for one's enemies): This is the building of the Beloved Community in which each of us belongs to the other, where the first will be last and the last first. In the Beloved Community racial conciliation is possible.


In MLK's understanding each of these parts of social change required a deep commitment to radical love of one's enemies in submission to the divine will that we love one another with the same love that Jesus demonstrated in his life.

Civil Rights, The Left, Liberalism and the Beloved Community

I think the major obstacle for the left right now is not the ancient mistrust between liberalism and socialism, but that the left hasn't fully reckoned with the legacy of racism and what that means for the possibility of social change. Have you ever wondered why Vermont and Oregon, two of the states that are most progressive in terms of social care of its citizens, also happen to be states whose percentage of white citizens are in the mid to high 90s? Or why states with a legacy of Jim Crow laws are least likely to provide social benefits to their citizens? Racial resentment makes it nearly impossible for America to rally around shared social benefits. Currently, for all its flaws, the liberal wing of the Democratic party has found the most in common with the Civil Rights movement. To a large degree this has to do with the historical experience of social improvements almost never trickling down to people of color, or in many cases, socialist movements in the US making sure to cut out people of color in order to get a broad enough coalition to get movement (see the history of social security passage, or low income housing and redlining, or public education, or health care, etc.) Meanwhile, liberals have found common cause with the civil rights movement in the building of Martin Luther King's Beloved Community.