Dr.Martin Luther King

When we look at the net worth of the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson in comparison to that of Dr. King when he died, one can conclude that Civil Rights Movement has been a very profitable business for some, but not for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Experts report that Al Sharpton's net worth without considering his very lucrative MSNBC contract is $5,000,000 while Jesse Jackson is valued at $10,000,000.  

Many historians and family members of Dr. King reports that the Civil Rights leader died with very little assets.  This is what one historian said about King and his wealth:   

" King left his family with no appreciable benefits from his five books, hundreds of speaking engagements, his ministry, and of most concern to his wife, the $54,600 he earned as recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. While Mrs. King thought some of the award money should be invested for the children’s sake, her husband donated the funds to the movement.

Though he was a prolific writer and public speaker, King viewed his own financial sacrifice as a vow of relative poverty. In keeping with this ethos, King’s funeral procession featured not Cadillacs or Lincoln limousines, but a humble casket drawn by a mule carriage representative of his final mission, the Poor People’s Campaign. It was activists such as Harry Belafonte who raised money to ensure that the King children were supported through childhood and educated.

Not only were Sharpton and Jackson the benefactor's of King's Civil Rights Movement, many others benefitted as well.  Among them include black movie stars, black athletes, black hip hop artist, black business owners and wealthy black ministers.  And despite the wealth of their success, unlike Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., none seem committed to addressing the problems facing African Americans. 

From Beyoncé who recently spoke out on behalf women's equality, to comedian Chris Rock who said 'Bush don't like Black people" and Danny Glover, the outspoken movie star who consistently defended our first black president, they all unlike Dr. King, seem ignore the conditions in the black community.  I have yet to hear Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, or any of those who were benefactors of Dr. King's efforts to call for a national conference of influential wealthy blacks to address the following problems: 

a.  The lack of economic development in black communities
b.  The high drop-out rate among black students & the poor conditions in inner-city schools
c.  Teenage pregnancies and out-of-wedlock births among young black women
d.  The high unemployment among blacks
e.  Black on black crime in the black community
f.  The growing number of single parent households
g.  The drug epidemic in the black community
h.  The declining median income of blacks
i.  Issues pertaining to injustice (i.e. a white affluent teenager kills four people and gets probation in a luxury resort  while the same judge sentence a black teenager ten years in prison who hit a man [one time] who dies later).

Have these successful wealthy blacks forgotten their own history, a history where influential blacks like Dr. George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington were more concerned about their black brothers and sisters than they were about their own personal wealth? 

These two leaders focused on the problems of their people and weren't distracted with other issues like today's successful blacks who seem to more concerned about women's rights and gay rights than they are about the conditions of their own people.  Booker T. Washington, who founded Tuskegee Institute, sponsored an annual national convention to discuss education, economic development, and Christian Character.Lena Horn, Duke Ellington and Louie Armstrong supported the Negro Baseball League and supported many causes that paved the way for future generations of blacks.  Louie Armstrong actually owned a team.  While not condemning gay rights, CNN's  Rowland Martin, is the only well known African American that addressed the issue of racism among the homosexual community, while other black leaders including Eric Holder has ignored this issue.  Approximately four months after exposing the problem of racism in the gay community, CNN fired Roland Martin and Beyoncé, Eric Holder, Chris Rock, Danny Glover and other well-known wealthy blacks were silent.  I wonder what future historians will say about this period of black history.

By Rev. Wayne Perryman
P.O. box 256
Mercer Island, WA 98040