The Patriotism Behind Martin Luther King Day

Martin Luther King Day celebrates the greatness of America, and so did he. Treating the U.S. flag with disrespect in the name of civil rights would be unthinkable to King. The Stars and Stripes were carried with pride and reverence by the many Americans who rallied to King’s cause.

King embraced America as an exceptional country, conscious of how uniquely possible racial reconciliation is here due to the classical liberalism of our founding and our Christian charity. King always grounded his protest within the American tradition. In his last speech, this great American reiterated that his movement was “really standing up for the best in the American dream, and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers.”

King advocated for race-neutral public policy. He saw the descendants of American slavery as Americans, not a separate people. He wanted the government to treat each race equally, making policy decisions based on the content of an individual’s character, not the color of his skin.

The radical chic of today’s progressive race ideology hasn’t torn down any statues of MLK (yet), but it does consciously reject Martin Luther King’s liberalism. More grounded in universities than churches, today’s activists (and riotors) are rooted in King’s critics, like Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, and H. Rap Brown.

So, celebrate the work of Martin Luther King on Monday, this great American. In doing so you will be celebrating what your employer’s DEI training likely teaches you not to celebrate: our success in reducing racism and thus America itself.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.