Exactly 47 years ago today, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his last speech, at the Mason Temple in Memphis Tennessee.  He described a vision–a vision of struggles for freedom throughout history, beginning with the Exodus from Egypt and the trek “through the wilderness on toward the promised land.”

Here’s what he said right before he concluded: “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”

Like Moses, Martin Luther King, Jr., saw the promised land.  And like Moses, he would not get there himself.  He was assassinated the next day.

What made his speech so powerful?  Partly it was his own powers of oratory.  But mostly it was the power of the story he was drawing on.  The political philosopher Michael Walzer has written that the story of the Exodus provides a model for every struggle for freedom in the West since biblical times.  The story showed how the oppressed could indeed win their freedom.

But that’s just one view.  There is another.  The escape of the Israelites from Egypt was made possible, in part, by the drowning of Egyptian troops chasing the Israelites.  And what did Moses anticipate when he looked at the promised land?  The Israelites conquering it and displacing its inhabitants.

So what was Martin Luther King, Jr., imagining?  A struggle to bring his people from slavery and oppression to freedom?  Or a struggle in which his people would conquer and oppress others?  I say the former; but the logic of many contributors to this listserv would say the latter.  What happens, after all, in the promised land?

If the Exodus were not viewed as a struggle for freedom, however, what happens to all the subsequent struggles that looked to the Exodus as a model?  Could there have been a Martin Luther King, Jr., and a struggle for freedom in the U.S.?

Steven Salaita will be speaking on campus next Monday.  He has been described on this listserv as a martyr to academic freedom.

Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote “Letter from a Birmingham jail.”  Steven Salaita wrote “At this point, if Netanyahu appeared on TV with a necklace made from the teeth of Palestinian children, would anybody be surprised?”

Martin Luther King, Jr.  Steven Salaita.  According to many on this listserv, two martyrs.

Next question: will the moderator of this listserv, so dedicated to academic freedom, respond to this as he has to so many in the past–by censoring it?

Paul Burstein