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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Eric Morrison-Smith

This Black History Month, the leaders of the past can teach real resistance

fanny lou hamer speaks in 1964
‘Fannie Lou Hamer made it clear that neither wealth nor formal education were prerequisites for resistance.’ Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

Nearly 60 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr posed a question that still haunts us. In his final book, published just a year before his death, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, he argued that we were standing at a crossroads: one path leading toward chaos – deepening poverty, violence, and repression – while the other required us to collectively choose and build community.

Too few of us answered his call. At times, we chose distraction, comfort and complacency. At others, we turned away from the violence this country inflicted on the world, allowing the corruption of those in power to harden and accumulate. We can blame politicians and corporations, or those who remained neutral – but the truth is, we all carry some level of responsibility.

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