Dr. Michael Honey Lecture: MLK and Memphis in the Obama Era

This past Tuesday, February 17, 2009, I attended the lecture by Dr. Michael K. Honey, “"Going Down Jericho Road: The Legacy of Martin Luther King and Memphis in the Obama Era”. Dr. Honey was invited to come to Rhodes to assist the college in celebrating Black History Month and to talk about his new book “Going Down to Jericho: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign”. Dr. Honey teaches African American and U.S. history, civil rights and labor studies at the University of Washington, Tacoma. I thought that this lecture would be interesting especially because he would be talking about President Obama within the framework of Dr. Martin Luther King so I attended the lecture with high hopes. For the most part, these hopes were met.

Dr. Honey had an eclectic presentation that even involved a live performance. Within the first ten minutes of his presentation he pulled up slides of striking photos taken during the civil rights movement on the projection screen and said that the photos would be accompanied with music. I assumed that music was part of the slide show but no, he pulled out a guitar and began to serenade us. (I have posted a link at the end of this post to Dr. Honey’s video where you can hear his song and see the photos). After his song, Dr. Honey’s lecture took on a much more traditional style. But he felt that it was important to show the photos to give us a sense of how far we have come. When he talked about President Obama he said that we have a lot to be proud of but there are still a lot of challenges for America to overcome. He suggested that in terms of racism there is less personal prejudice using the example of blue-collar workers and other Americans who voted for Obama when many did not think that they would because of Obama’s race. However, Dr. Honey said that racism is institutional and that is the problem that is still a challenge for this country. He compared President Obama to Dr. Martin Luther King by saying that “Martin Luther King didn’t create the civil rights movement, the movement created Martin Luther King”. Obama came at a time when people were desperate for change similarly to Dr. King.

Dr. Honey then discussed King and the three phases of the civil rights movement. Phase one was gaining constitutional rights, phase two was economic equality, and the third phase was against war. According to Honey, King would not be surprised by our financial state today because King believed that war, poverty, and racism were all connected.

I most enjoyed Honey’s discussion of King in relation to Memphis. He said that many people believe that the civil rights movement “stops” at Memphis, however this is untrue. The movement is still going on, King accomplished phase one, gaining constitutional rights, and phase two and three have yet to happen. Honey also remarked on the race riots that occurred after King’s death and how Memphis was one of the few places that did not have a riot. He said that this was because they already had a Union movement in place that they were focused on and could channel their anger and frustration into. This of course was the Memphis Sanitation Strike, which was why King was in Memphis in the first place when he died.

Dr. Honey’s lecture was interesting. I am not from Memphis or the South and whenever I studied or read anything about Dr. Martin Luther King it has been in the context of a formal and almost detached history book. Honey’s lecture offered a much more personal perspective on King and especially on the day that he died. Honey said that in his new book, “Going Down Jericho Road”, he looked at oral histories and interviews from people from Memphis who were there or just within the city and their experience on the day that King was shot. Honey also alludes to a conspiracy theory that he has regarding King’s death, but of course, I have to buy the book and read it to find out what exactly that entails.

http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/streams/JerichoRoad/MemphisStrike.mov