Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King and Archbishop Desmond Tutu
As the nation takes time this month to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, we at The Green Book Project find ourselves contemplating and mourning the recent loss of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Reflecting upon the lives of both men, it’s undeniable that their global impact is immeasurable. The values and ideals of these two men epitomize our mission. At The Green Book Project, we call it passionate optimism — a belief in the dignity and humanity of all people regardless of race, religion, ability, gender, or sexual orientation. Upon close inspection, there were many surprising parallels in their lives and legacy. In this article, we seek to recognize their activism, struggles, and unflinching fervor to secure the rights of all people.
Parallel Lives
Dr. King and Archbishop Tutu were both champions of nonviolent resistance, both were ministers, and both were Nobel Prize winners. A further parallel between the lives of these two great men was the way they both opposed the more militant approaches of some of their fellow activists at the time. For King, it was Malcolm X and for Tutu, it was Nelson Mandela. However, this does not mean that either man saw their more militant counterpart as enemies. Both King and Tutu measurably influenced the activism of their opposites. Dr. King convinced Malcolm X to seek a more non-violent approach and Tutu ended up partnering with Mandela. As for the influence of Malcolm X on King: Dr. King continued to hold out for pacifism. Whereas Tutu at one point conceded Mandela’s assertion that there might come a time when violence would be the only recourse.
While Dr. King focused on an appeal to the constant denial of constitutional rights to Black citizens, Bishop Tutu had no such leverage. The South African constitution explicitly denied people rights based solely on skin color. Another common thread in King and Tutu’s public lives was the vilification they both faced due to their stance on certain controversial and/or unpopular topics.
Stirring Controversy
Tutu’s Beliefs Concerning Gender Equality and Gay Rights
Archbishop Tutu embodied King’s famed words: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” He was the enemy of injustice wherever he saw it. This led him to speak out against many issues that put him at odds with certain world leaders, with many of his fellow Africans, and with the Anglican Church.
Tutu was unswervingly committed to gender equality and the rights of LGBTQ people. He used his influence to bring women into the clergy. He likened the ban on women in the priesthood to the discrimination of apartheid. In speaking about women’s and LGBTQ rights, Tutu stated:
“I cannot keep quiet when people are penalized for something about which they can do nothing. I oppose such injustice with the same passion that I opposed apartheid.”
Tutu also criticized the African Anglican Church’s refusal to endorse gay priests and same-sex marriage, saying “I would not worship a God who is homophobic.” Though his impact on homophobia is most noticeable in his home country of South Africa, homosexuality is still outlawed in more than 30 of Africa’s 54 countries.
In 1996, thanks to Tutu’s influence, South Africa was the first nation in the world to adopt an anti-discrimination clause in its constitution, listing sexual orientation as a protected freedom. Ten years later, it became the sixth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.
Tutu’s unpopular views brought him a lot of vitriol, including hate mail, death threats, and censure from other church leaders — but he never wavered. And, his persistence led to a great deal of change for good.
King’s Beliefs Concerning Gay Rights
There is no proof that King was either an advocate for or an enemy of gay rights. Whereas Coretta Scott King has cited certain of his writings in her campaign for gay rights, his daughter has used them to denounce same-sex marriage.
The March on Washington is not remembered as such, but it was a radical undertaking for many reasons. Possibly one of the most overlooked facets being who King chose to partner with. The march was organized by an openly gay man, Bayard Rustin, inspired by labor union leader A. Philip Randolph. And although Dr. King’s historic speech is all that is remembered from that day, both Rustin and Randolph also spoke to the crowds.
Even prior to the March, King worked closely with Rustin. Rustin helped to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and introduced Dr. King to the idea of nonviolent civil resistance. Considering the era and the views of many in American churches at the time, Rustin’s full inclusion and leadership is a testimony to King’s beliefs about the dignity of all human beings.
King’s Anti-War Stance
Although Dr. Martin Luther King Jr is now held in high regard, while he was alive, he was considered an extremist and an anti-war radical. This made him quite unpopular during his lifetime with any number of groups. In 1967 the civil rights leader publicly denounced American involvement in Indochina, which caused him to lose support from every side. This stance may not seem controversial now, but it was considered extremely divisive at the time. On April 4, 1967, in his seminal speech* at Riverside Church in New York City, he declared:
“This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love,” he warned. “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
King went on to state plainly the dangers of choosing nationalism over moral conviction concerning the humanity of those we call our enemies:
“We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation, for those it calls ‘enemy,’ for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.”
He boldly stepped on and crushed many political toes when he continued fearlessly to speak truth to power:
“I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government.”
As those closest to him predicted, friends and foes alike turned on him. The liberal establishment who had so openly embraced King, moved swiftly to condemn him. A total of 168 newspapers denounced him the following day. President Lyndon B. Johnson, calling him a “g-ddamned nigger preacher,” equated King’s public opposition to his war efforts to betrayal given his administration’s passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. After this speech, King was never again invited to the White House. Surprisingly enough, even the NAACP turned on him — as did the National Urban League and famed baseball player, Jackie Robinson.
Tutu’s Support of Palestinians
Tutu experienced major backlash for his support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel. “When you go to the Holy Land and see what’s being done to the Palestinians at checkpoints, for us, it’s the kind of thing we experienced in South Africa,” he told The Post in 2013.
“We are opposed to the injustice of the illegal occupation of Palestine. We are opposed to the indiscriminate killing in Gaza. We are opposed to the indignity meted out to Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks. We are opposed to violence perpetrated by all parties. But we are not opposed to Jews.”
Although many in Israel disagree with Tutu’s stance, a recent edition of The Jerusalem Post (an Israeli newspaper) lauded his even-handed commitment to caring for victims of violence on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Though the article strongly disagrees with Tutu’s criticism of Israel’s policies, it does acknowledge the fact that perhaps Tutu was so critical of Israel because Israel had strong military and diplomatic ties to apartheid South Africa. It thus concludes with this: “Lenk cautions us not to rush to label all critics as antisemites [sic]. He is right.”
Passionate Optimism
As we ponder the lives and legacy of Dr. King and Archbishop Tutu, we recognize that both men were passionately optimistic. Passionate about peace, passionate about human understanding, passionate about justice. Optimistic that people can and will do better, optimistic that we should not give up on seeking the highest good for our fellow humans.
We believe that both of these great leaders embodied a quote often attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo:
“Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are Anger and Courage; Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.”
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