The Radical King (King Legacy) by King Jr Martin Luther

Author:King Jr, Martin Luther [King Jr, Martin Luther]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780807012833
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 2015-01-13T08:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

MY TALK WITH BEN BELLA

Originally published by the New York Amsterdam News on October 27, 1962, Dr. King’s conversation with Premier Ben Bella of the new Algerian Republic illustrates the notion that African Americans and Africans are engaged in a common struggle.

A few days ago I had the good fortune of talking with Premier Ben Bella of the new Algerian Republic. Algeria is one of the most recent African nations to remove the last sanction of colonialism. For almost two hours Mr. Ben Bella and I discussed issues ranging from the efficacy of nonviolence to the Cuban crisis. However, it was on the question of racial injustice that we spent most of our time. As I sat talking with Mr. Ben Bella he displayed again and again an intimate knowledge of the Negro struggle here in America. The details of the Montgomery bus protest were immediately at his fingertips. He understood clearly what the issues were. The “Sit-ins” of 1960 were discussed animatedly and he expressed regret at the violence that accompanied the Freedom Rides. He knew all about Albany, Georgia, too, and Oxford, Mississippi, was currently in the headlines. The significance of our conversation was Ben Bella’s complete familiarity with the progression of events in the Negro struggle for full citizenship.

Our nation needs to note this well. All through our talks he repeated or inferred, “We are brothers.” For Ben Bella, it was unmistakably clear that there is a close relationship between colonialism and segregation. He perceived that both are immoral systems aimed at the degradation of human personality. The battle of the Algerians against colonialism and the battle of the Negro against segregation is a common struggle. This points up a sobering fact for our nation. The matter of racial segregation in America has international implications. Either we must solve our human relations dilemma occasioned by race and color prejudice—and solve it soon—or we shall lose our moral and political voice in the world community of nations. Ben Bella said this! Racism in our nation must go or we will be relegated to a second-rate power in the world. We must face the inescapable fact that the shape of the world today does not afford us the luxury of an anemic democracy. The price that America must pay for the continued oppression of the Negro is the price of its own destruction. I must hasten to say, however, that this is not the only reason that America must solve this cancerous, domestic problem.

It must not be done merely to meet the Communist challenge; it must not be done merely to appeal to Asian and African peoples; in the final analysis, equal opportunity without regard to race must be established in America because it is right.

The Mississippi debacle of a few days ago pointed up this sore need in our midst. Somewhere in our ranks of government, education, the church and business, strong, clear voices must be raised to declare that integration in American life is to be effected,

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