The Whitewashing Of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Whitewash is a solution that is used to cover up the paint that is currently on the wall – so that it be can cover it with a new coat of paint.  Often that new coat of paint is of a different color of the paint that was previously on the wall.  When a painter whitewashes the wall stays the same however, it now is a new color.  A color that is more acceptable to the people who are looking at the wall. 

A form of whitewashing takes place in the human condition.  We change the facts, forget certain truths, we recreate history so that an event, a situation, or even a person is more presentable in look and feel.   This treatment has many names fake news, alternative facts, taking the fifth.   However, from where I come from in Gray, Georgia, we call it whitewashing. 

Over a half a century after his death Martin Luther King, Jr. is now a figure of history.  His life and work known primarily in speeches and a holiday that portrays King as a happy warrior marching, singing and yes making those speeches. 

The reality is in his lifetime King was a deeply divisive person in American society. 

In August 1966 – as King was bringing his civil rights campaign to Northern cities to address poverty, slums, housing segregation and bank lending discrimination – the Gallup Poll found that 63 percent of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of King,

Today, Rev.Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is viewed as something of an American saint. The most recent Gallup Poll discovered that 94 percent of Americans viewed him in a positive light. 

Matthew 3: 13-17 tells the story of the baptism of Jesus.  When Jesus wanted to be baptized, he went from Galilee to the Jordan River, arriving there he asked John The Baptist to perform the baptism.  John refused saying it was not proper and that he was the one in need of baptism. 

However, in that moment there was no whitewashing of John by Jesus.  In fact, asking John to baptize him demonstrates that God sees more in us than we can see in ourselves.  A concept that is both as radical as it is true. 

Dr. King gave his life proving to the nation that the promise of America had been whitewashed.  For in a land that declared the equality of all people, black folks had been whitewashed into a sea of second-class citizenry powered by Jim Crow. 

Dr. King wanted America to look at black people not as how John The Baptist looked at himself, unworthy of the great task at hand but rather as a capable people worthy of full citizenship in the United States of America. 

John immersed Jesus in the water and as he came up the heavens open with the voice of God saying, “This is my beloved Son, who I am wonderfully pleased with.”    

Dr. King and others did not march and die to be whitewashed.  

Jesus did not die on the cross for his children to be whitewashed.

God made all of us equal and if we truly trust in God, we must keep his commandment to provide equality, equity, and love to each other anything short of that is indeed a whitewash.