Sociology Tool: Martin Luther King Jr. on capitalism


If you didn’t know, Martin Luther King Jr. was a radical who often criticized America and its policies. He wasn’t always an obedient person who only talked about race relations and equality.

Here is an example. In 1967, King spoke to the staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) about how they must work harder to “revolutionize” society, as well as for fair distribution of political and economic power:
“We have more from the era of civil rights to the era of human rights,, an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society. We have been in a reform movement… But after Selma and the voting rights bill, we moved into a new era, which must be the era of revolution. We must recognize that we can’t solve our problem now until there is a radical redistribution of economic and political power… this means a revolution of values and other things. We must see now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all tied together… you can’t really get rid of one without getting rid of the others… the whole structure of American life must be changed. America is a hypocritical nation and [we] must put [our] own house in order.”
Here’s more on King’s thoughts on capitalism (from The Young Turks):

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