Author reveals the 'true' MLK

By Elizabeth Kassab

Daily Staff Reporter

Neuroscience graduate student Dorothy Jones recently found herself debating with her friends about the African American intellectuals' place in society. Her argument struck a chord with DePaul University Prof. Michael Eric Dyson's assertion that blacks who have "made it" cannot neglect those who are still struggling.

"It's important to remember where you came from," Jones said.

Pharmacology graduate student Tigwa Davis agreed. He saw a message in Dyson's closing statement yesterday, in which Dyson asserted that affluent African Americans need to act as "Trojan horses."

"Through your success, you can allow others of less fortunate backgrounds to come through, to flourish," Davis said.

Jones and Davis joined about 300 people in a crowded Rackham Auditorium yesterday afternoon to hear Dyson, a Detroit native, give a speech titled "I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr."

Dyson is the author of a biography of the same name that explores King beyond the myths and exposes that he was far from flawless.

"Despite his imperfections, King was the greatest American we have ever produced," Dyson said. "He was willing to tell the truth no matter the consequences ... here was a man ultimately who was willing to sacrifice his life," Dyson said.

King has been immortalized in the American mind as the "I Have a Dream" man, delivering his famous speech to a sea of listeners in front of the Washington Monument. Today the real King "is all but obscured," Dyson said.

The legacy most Americans celebrate is an incomplete one.

Dyson said King recognized that "while race is important, class is important as well."

"We're still seeing 'Dick and Jane' run in second-hand schoolbooks" while the suburbs are enjoying high-speed Internet access and computers in every classroom, Dyson said.

Dyson said King would be amazed if he saw society today, but he would also be disappointed.

"Black faces in high places" do not necessarily mean that the majority of blacks' interests are represented, Dyson said.

Black conservatives passively live with the inequalities King fought to eliminate, Dyson said.

He continued on to declare that to be part of the struggle, people need to be educated.

Major barriers must be toppled for education to be accomplished, and the barriers relate more to economic inequalities King noticed than the racial inequalities he is revered for fighting, Dyson said.