In the dispute over affirmative action, both sides of the debate
often argue that Martin Luther King Jr. would have supported their
perspective.
In King’s most famous speech, given at the Washington
Monument in 1963, he stated his hopes that his children would be
valued by their personality rather than their race.
This speech, which emphasized the importance of character over
race, is the basis for arguments of many anti-affirmative action
activists who quote him when promoting their cause.
Supporters of affirmative action say King would have supported
the program based on his other writings and actions.
Though much can be inferred from King’s past work, since
the world today is different from that of King’s, it cannot
be known for certain how he would have stood on the issue.
Whatever side of the debate King would have supported, he would
probably have keep his own opinions quiet to promote unity and
instill the most beneficial programs he could, said UCLA history
Professor Brenda Stevenson.
“I think King would take a private stance. He would work
hard with both sides to create an understanding. He wanted an
inclusive society,” Stevenson said.
On the UCLA campus, some students disagree that King would have
taken such a private stance.
“I don’t think he would support affirmative action
in today’s world,” said Tom Hartmann, a member of the
Bruin Republicans.
With affirmative action, people are judged more by their race
than their character or values, he said.
Yousef Tajsar, a member of both the UCLA Affirmative Action
Coalition and the Associated Students of UCLA board of directors,
disagrees with Hartmann and said he believes if King were still
alive he would support affirmative action.
“When neo-conservatives speak of Martin Luther King as an
advocate of what they believe, it shows ignorance of Dr. King and
what he stood for. They are robbing him of what he lived for;
they’re lying and tricking the American people of a great
legacy of a great man,” Tajsar said.
Tajsar’s reference to “neo-conservatives”
refers to individuals such as Ward Connerly, the UC Regent who
spearheaded propositions 209 and 54, and publicly stated he
believes these propositions will bring California closer to
King’s dream of equality.
Proposition 209 ended the use of affirmative action by state
agencies in 1996 and last November Proposition 54 sought to ban the
state from collecting most racial data.
“Judging people by the content of their character rather
than the color of their skin ““ the most memorable idea in
King’s speech ““ was at the very core of Proposition
209,” Connerly wrote in his memoir.
Supporters of affirmative action contend that King supported
quotas and other forms of affirmative action in various ways
through his actions.
Even Connerly wrote that he suspected King might have ended up
supporting affirmative action.
“I knew too that at the end of his life King had been
moving toward what would become affirmative action … and if he
had lived he might well have wilted under pressure from the
preference cartel and evolved a position similar to Jesse
Jackson’s,” Connerly wrote.
Connerly noted, however, that unlike traditional affirmative
action, King wanted programs that helped people based on financial
status rather than race.
In his autobiography, Ralph David Abernathy, who helped King
organize Operation Breadbasket and was second in command of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, wrote that King supported
quotas when finding employment for blacks.
Operation Breadbasket was a program started by King to provide
food and employment to black communities. It was one of many social
programs begun during President Lyndon Johnson’s “war
on poverty.”
Operation Breadbasket officials “asked that blacks be
employed at whatever population ratio was current in that
particular city or county: If the proportion of blacks to the total
population was 12 percent, then we would ask that 12 percent of the
employees be black,” Abernathy wrote.
As to whether King would still support the techniques used by
Operation Breadbasket to promote black employment in today’s
society, Stevenson said it is difficult to guess.
“What King had in mind were strategies for integration of
society in the first phases. … It’s been a long time since
then,” Stevenson said.
Chris Riha, also a member of the Bruin Republicans, said he does
not believe King would still retain this view in today’s
world.
“If you read the (“˜I Have a Dream’) speech he
says he wants everyone to be equal. That’s not going to
happen with quotas. “¦ If someone wants to be equal they
should be treated on the same grounds as everyone else,” Riha
said.
This portrayal of King as being against affirmative action often
upsets its supporters.
“I find it very offensive, not personally, but to all the
people including Dr. King who died in the civil rights movement
fighting for true equality along racial and class lines,”
Tajsar said.
Though it cannot be determined for certain how King would have
felt and acted it he were still alive, many would like to know.
“It’s very difficult to say what views he would have
held, but I’m sure he would have had wise words,”
Stevenson said.