Anti-Racism Resources - January 2025
[Image description: On a red, yellow, and green ombre background is an illustration of three raised fists signifying people of color. Above the main image is the text “Anti-Racism Resources January 2025” and below is the text “MLK’s Radical Politics.”]
Each month, we feature educational resources in the NAAFA Newsletter to support our community in working to dismantle systemic racism. These resources are also shared on our social media, blog, and website. Resources vary from month to month, and may include historical information, tools for personal reflection, or information about how to get involved and make change. Many of the resources we suggest will be introductory resources, and this information is never intended to be full coverage on the complex and nuanced topics that are chosen each month. We encourage you to continue learning, and we especially hope you will seek out and support scholars, artists, creators, and activists who represent the communities most impacted by the topic of the month.
This month we invite you to join us in exploring resources about MLK’s Radical Politics.
Martin Luther King Jr. Was More Radical Than We Remember - OG History is a Teen Vogue series where they unearth history not told through a white, cis-hetero-patriarchal lens. In this installment, writer Jenn M. Jackson explores the radical nature of Martin Luther King Jr., whose legacy, she says, was whitewashed over time.
Beyond the Dream…two sets of quotes reminding us that Dr. King was radical: 5 MLK Quotes Too Radical To White-Wash and 5 Quotes Reminding Us Dr. King Was Radical - MLK’s legacy is too often boiled down to his most approachable quotes, but we loved these pieces offering us some of his more challenging statements to lift up.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Was A Radical - This opinion piece from Politico was written by Georgetown Law School professor and author Sheryll Cashin for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 2024. Professor Cashin reflects on her own family’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. King’s speech on April 7, 1967 at Riverside Church in Manhattan, where he opposes violence and militarism, particularly with respect to the war in Vietnam. Prof. Cashin encourages readers to listen to this speech and reflects on Dr. King’s radical legacy and how he would have viewed America’s role in the Israel-Hamas conflict today.
Fighting Poverty was Dr. King’s Unsung Battle - When growing up, all you may have learned about Dr. King was his fight for racial equality, but the truth is that his fight for equality wasn’t just for racial justice - a big part of his fight was to end poverty.
#MLK: The Three Evils of Society // #Nonviolence365 - Darliene Howell writes, “I was 12 years old, living in the suburbs of Chicago when Dr. King made one of his most politically charged speeches and I’ve only just now heard of it. I feel it’s still true for today.” Listen to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1967 speech at the National Conference on New Politics in Chicago. Here, he speaks about what he calls the Triple Evils: War, Racism, and Poverty.
As we reflect on Martin Luther King’s legacy, remember his thoughts on the white moderate - This is a timely reminder that feigning outrage without meaningful action toward change is useless and is even more dangerous to an equitable culture than to not experience outrage at all (genuine or otherwise). Making change requires sacrifice, including sacrifices of positionality or privilege, and it’s uncomfortable but necessary, which we must remember as we continue fighting for the rights of marginalized communities.
Reclaiming MLK’s Radical Legacy Study Guide - The goals of this study guide are: to build toward a collective understanding of Martin Luther King, Jr. as a leader whose ideas and political organizing on issues of white supremacy, political power, capitalism, and US imperialism cumulatively and increasingly called for a radical restructuring of the economic and social systems in the US.