An Act of State by William F. Pepper
A newly updated edition of An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King by William F. Pepper is due April 7th from Verso.
A hardback edition is in print however I'm not sure if a paperback edition was also previously released.
Pepper wrote an influential expose in 1967 on the effects of the Vietnam War on Vietnamese children for Ramparts, among other publications, that included intense images of children burned by napalm that led to Dr. King turning a great deal of attention to Vietnam in his final year.
Author William F. Pepper spoke at Modern Times Bookstore in February 2003 as part of a book tour following the hardback release.
In his talk he discusses a lot of heavy stuff that went down the last year of King's life as King began to take a radical turn that was much scarier to the powers that be on an international level than anything he'd accomplished in the South, which is saying quite a bit.
For example, Pepper discusses the role of Chicago's Blackstone Rangers in undermining the National Conference for New Politics in 1967 that was intended to create an "umbrella coalition that would effectively coordinate a massive third-party political campaign against the Johnson Administration and Johnson's re-election; but at the same time develop grassroots organizing capabilities in the communities across America."
Pepper went into illuminating detail about the role of these American Gangsters in disrupting social change:
"We never appreciated the extent to which government would go to undermine and undercut that kind of movement. They were responsible for the formation of a first black caucus. That black caucus was largely led by agente provocateurs who came from the Blackstone Rangers, organizations of that sort in Chicago. And they corraled each black delegate who came in and brought them into a room and formed this unity of all-black delegates and this commitment to vote as a block and introduce resolutions as a block."
"We thought, many of us, that this was a good thing because this was typical and representative of a growing black awareness, particularly urban awareness. Although in the caucus they of course brought in rural black leaders as well. We felt this was healthy and there would be then this block that would vote and introduce the concerns of the black community across America. We didn't know that it was government-induced and government-sponsored and government-paid for and that the leaders were gangsters. Blackstone Rangers would surface again and again in the course of the movement as capable of disrupting and causing havoc on behalf of their employers."
"Martin delivered the keynote address at the convention. I introduced him and he delivered this address and the importance of this movement. As he was speaking a note was passed over my shoulder to me and I read it and it said, `Get him out of here after he finishes his speech or we will take him hostage and humiliate him before the world.' They were so afraid that if this man stayed on for the substantive part of the convention that he, as a unifier, might bridge the differences and might overcome the provocation that was designed to disrupt the convention."
I wonder if BET included that little bit of history in their Making Money off the American Gangster series episode on Blackstone Rangers leader Jeff Fort who appears to have monetized his politics quite nicely.
Remember Jay-Z stating to a Fortune reporter that "rap music has done more for racial equality than any other personality or element has done"?
It's hard for me not to feel, though he clearly has not a clue and I hope would not say this, that Jay-Z's ultimately stating that his side won, the side of the American Gangster.
Pepper and King spoke soon after King's Beyond Vietnam speech given at Riverside Church on April 4th, 1967.
During his talk Pepper said King discussed the impact this speech would have on fund raising for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference:
"We spoke very early in the morning following that Riverside address and he said, `Now you know they're all going to turn against me. We're going to lose money. SCLC...will lose all of its corporate contributions. All the major civil rights leaders are going to turn their back on me and all the major media will start to tarnish and to taint and to attack me. I will be called everything even up to and including a traitor.' So he said, `We must persevere and build a new coalition that can be effective in this course of peace and justice.'"
That coalition was intended to emerge from the National Conference for New Politics previously discussed and undermined by some of those American Gangsters so many like to worship.
Reading this, I couldn't help but think of Russell Simmons, the man who will never have to worry about losing corporate contributions because he is Poverty Pimp 2.0.
Hey, that don't mean pimpin' is easy. Russell Simmons is always on the grind and that makes it not only ok but something to emulate! Right?
Come on, you've got to give Simmons credit for being able to transfer money between operations and get hip hop media cred for his "donation". [Note: I know Contact Music isn't hip hop media but hip hop media parrots will be spouting Contact's misreading of the news for weeks to come.]
But I don't want to end this long post with easy jabs at people who should know better.
Let's close with William F. Pepper's take on the man Martin Luther King Jr. had become in the final days of his life and leave it at that:
"He is depicted on King Day as a civil rights leader. And that's the way you're going to see him probably forever. But he was much more than a civil rights leader and that's what no one in official capacity wants you to know."
"He had moved well beyond the civil rights movement by 1964-65 and he had become effectively a world-figure in terms of human rights people and particularly the poor of this earth. That's where he was going."
"That's the area you don't really get into safely when you start talking about wealth, redistributing wealth. Taking, diverting huge sums of money into social welfare programs and health programs and educational programs at the grass roots. When you start going into that you begin to tread on toes in this country, in the United Kingdom, and in most of the western world."
Related Coverage:
Popular view of King ignores complexity:
"At the time of his death, King was working on anti-poverty and anti-war issues...King had come a long way from the crowds who cheered him at the 1963 March on Washington, when he was introduced as "the moral leader of our nation" — and when he pronounced "I have a dream" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial."
"By taking on issues outside segregation, he had lost the support of many newspapers and magazines, and his relationship with the White House had suffered, said Harvard Sitkoff, a professor of history at the University of New Hampshire who has written a recently published book on King."
""He was considered by many to be a pariah," Sitkoff said. But he took on issues of poverty and militarism because he considered them vital "to make equality something real and not just racial brotherhood but equality in fact"..."
""We're living increasingly in a culture of top 10 lists, of celebrity biopics which simplify the past as entertainment or mythology," he [Richard Greenwald] said. "We lose a view on what real leadership is by compressing him down to one window.""
"That does a disservice to both King and society, said Melissa Harris-Lacewell, professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University."
"By freezing him at that point, by putting him on a pedestal of perfection that doesn't acknowledge his complex views, "it makes it impossible both for us to find...new leaders and for us to aspire to leadership," Harris-Lacewell said."
"She believes it's important for Americans in 2008 to remember how disliked King was in 1968."
""If we forget that, then it seems like the only people we can get behind must be popular," Harris-Lacewell said. "Following King meant following the unpopular road, not the popular one.""
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