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With the Annual Celebration of the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King completed, it’s time to breath life back into the King Center.  It would be a horrible shame to let the resource decay any further. 
First, let’s recognize where we are.  The King Center itself need $11.3 Million in repairs, but that’s the least of the problems.  The true problem is that the King Center is not effective.  The board and family are split over how to proceed.  One group, including two of Dr. King’s Children and Andrew Young want to sell the King Center to the United States Government while another group including Dr. King’s two other children wish to hold on to the Center.
Which direction they go should be determined by what they really want to accomplish. 
If the goal is to keep the historical record in tact, to educate people about the life and accomplishments of Dr. King, and to provide an archive for scholars, then the National Park Service and the National Archives should take over the center.  They will keep the building up, provide a historical record, help people from all over continue to build a body of scholarship about Dr. King, and encourage visitors to the site.  They will absolutely preserve the legacy of  non-violent social change.
What they will NOT do is actively ferment non-violent social change.  If actually creating change is the goal, then the center should remain independent of the government and get new leadership in.  Right now, Adbusters (whether you agree with them or not)  is a more effective vehicle for social change. 

This country does need social change.  We need courageous leaders who will non-violently engage the government about equality in education and other issues.  The King Center has not lived up to it’s potential in these matters.  It’s training programs have not lead to effective non-violent leadership either here or in other troubled parts of the world.  They have not been effective in reducing racial tensions in cities such as Cincinnati.  They have not incorporated new technologies to improve their techniques and to harness the power they provide to move masses of people.
They need to assemble a coalition of brilliant and imaginative people who are highly motivated to address the issues Dr. King cared about but we haven’t solved.  They need help from the Carter Center, former State Department officials, gang intervention specialists, negotiators, and entrepreneurs. 
Non-violent Social change can still be effective and the King Center should still be it’s home.  Either that or a new center needs to be created and the King Center should effectively work along the lines of a Presidential Library .

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 17th, 2006 at 1:25 am and is filed under Venues and Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.