« Martin Luther King was a non-violent revolutionary »
We interviewed Sylvie Laurent, Associate researcher at the
University of Harvard and specialist on the United States
Fifty years ago, a series of peaceful marches, led by Martin
Luther King, were organized from Selma to the state capital of Alabama, Montgomery.
Their purpose was to protest against the restrictions imposed on Black people’s
right to vote in the Southern states. On the 7th of March 1965, 600 demonstrators
were attacked by police using tear gas and wielding batons : the pictures
of this « Bloody Sunday » shocked the whole of America. In August of
the same year , Congress voted through the Voting Rights Act which put an end to
such discrimination. Martin Luther King had won. Professor Sylvie Laurent, a specialist
on the United States who teaches at the Institute of Political Science in Paris
has produced a biography of King, (published by Seuil), in which she shows how
his personality and his legacy have been watered down as the years have gone by.
Her book brings back to us all of his radical nature.
Q : In the USA, the statue of Martin Luther King at his
memorial is very pale. Why is this ?
A : It is indeed quite ironic to see that the memorial
is in white granite, and so is a pinkish white. This monument was only
inaugurated in 2011, by Barack Obama. The watering down of the pastor’s message
began straight after he was murdered, on the 4th April 1968. After having been
so widely denounced, he suddenly appeared to be a martyr for America, and was
set up as an icon of reconciliation. His murder set off a national consensus, and
everything radical or subversive about him was conveniently forgotten.
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