Martin Luther King, Jr. was a leader and a Christian who left his fingerprint on the American psyche and remains an indelible guidepost for the ethical direction of the United States.
He was also a Black radical.
Today, the word “radical” has had its meaning and purpose stolen by its detractors. Black radicalism is a philosophical source of political power for African Americans, who, by the very exploitation of their bodies, could be nothing but radical in seeking justice from a system designed to enslave them.
“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed,” wrote King in his letter from a Birmingham Jail in 1963.
This year on MLK Day, President Donald J. Trump, whose work would undo the legacy of King, was inaugurated for his second term. Trump’s hyper-conservative inauguration speech revealed the heart of his platform. It promises terror for the families of immigrants, the removal of diversity equity and inclusion, the exploitation of the poor on behalf of the 1% and the undermining of trust in democratic institutions.
King fought to broaden the liberty of all Americans. His Poor People’s Campaign in 1967 sought to expand the minimum wage and create social programs to uplift the poor.
Trump seeks the opposite. During his first stint in office, the Trump administration tried to make it harder to get aid.
“The first Trump administration tried to tighten work requirements and to limit who qualifies for SNAP,” according to an NPR article. “It estimated the measures would save more than $7 billion over time, and end benefits for more than three million people.”
King may have passed through the realm of moderates, but he saw the solution to oppression in the land of the radical, and there he remained firmly entrenched. His primary source of radical idealism, and his greatest ally, lay in Jesus of Nazareth— You may have heard of him.
King’s radicalism was influenced by his faith in Christ and the progressive ideas of those around him, like Bayard Rustin and Kwame Ture. Both men were activists close to King and known for their socialist leanings.

At UC Berkeley he expressed disappointment in the U.S. for entering the Vietnam war and not addressing the triple evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism.
In a letter to his wife he wrote, “I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic.”
King made his own socialist vision publicly clear in his 1967 speech “Where do we go from here?”
“We must create full employment, or we must create income,” said King. “New forms of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised for those for whom traditional jobs are not available.”
The Christ-like selfless sacrifice of one’s own material wealth, the desire to uplift the poor without recompense, the need to express compassion in the face of hate and the idea that love can never be wrong— these are the tenets that defined King.
Civil disobedience was the tool he used. It was loud, inconvenient and disturbing. It got in the way, cost money, upset people and is an American tradition.
King was a Black radical, and there is no world in which he would sign on with the destruction of democracy, the discarding of civility or the punishment of civil disobedience.
That is Trump’s expertise.
The treatment radicals like King have received has not changed. During the 2020 George Floyd protests, under the Trump administration, protesters were met with the same violence that King faced. Mass arrests, attacks on journalists and the deployment of the military in defense of property over life are all things King saw during his lifetime.
Republicans like to misuse the “I Have a Dream” speech of 1963, to promote docility and avoid the issues protesting would address. The following is a more apt quote to disabuse that notion.
“There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights,” said King. “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.”
In the days to come, the country will need a guiding light to find its way out of the dark. The radical philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. could be that light for all of us, if we choose it.