Carlos Muñoz, Jr.: Dr. King to President Obama

Carlos Muñoz is a professor emeritus of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of Youth, Identity, Power: The Chicano Movement. He is a founder of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies, and more personally, was my advisor at Cal.

The following are excerpts from a speech, “From Dr. King to President Obama: A Call for an Authentic Multiracial Democracy,” delivered at the University of New England the day after the Inauguration of President Obama:

Dr. King inspired me to contribute to the making of the Mexican American civil rights movement throughout the Southwest. It became known as the Chicano movement. …

Our movement adopted Dr. King’s philosophy of Non Violence and echoed his ideas for racial equality and justice and we applied them to Mexican Americans.  Puerto Ricans in Chicago, New York, and throughout the East coast, also applied them to their civil rights movement.  Our movements connected us directly to the historic common ground of struggle against racial and ethnic injustice that Latinos have shared with African Americans. …

Dr. King would remind us that conditions will get better sooner than later if the people will continue to march for social justice and peace. …

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was able get congressional support for his proposed legislation in the interest of the poor and working class only because a strong and vibrant mass labor movement demanded it.  Social Security and the right to organize unions were two examples. President Lyndon B. Johnson received congressional support for civil rights legislation because there was a strong and vibrant mass civil rights movement that demanded it. …

If we want to truly honor Dr. King’s legacy, we must build Poor People’s coalitions, inclusive of the immigrant poor, both documented and undocumented, throughout our nation.  And hopefully, those coalitions can lead toward the organizing of another march on Washington to demand that the Obama Presidency and the Congress declare a war on poverty.  Not a temporary one like the one declared by President Lyndon Johnson, but a permanent one that would last until poverty is eliminated!

Dr. King did not hesitate to speak truth to power no matter the consequences. We must do the same today.  We must use his legacy as the inspiration for us to become active citizens beyond the time for elections.

We do not have the luxury to leave it up to President Obama to keep hope alive. Neither can we assume he will keep his campaign promises. We must be mindful that he did not win by a landslide in terms of the popular vote. We must also be mindful that he will meet resistance from Republicans and conservative Democrats in the Congress to whatever progressive measures he proposes.

We have joyfully celebrated the election of President Obama.  Now the time has come for us to become active citizens in our communities, in our workplace, and elsewhere. We must become community organizers and continue to carry the torch for hope and fundamental, not symbolic change.  In the final analysis, we are the ones we have been waiting for. …

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