Overview: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. emphasized the importance of economic justice in the Civil Rights movement, and the use of boycotts as a powerful tool for driving change. The article highlights the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott led by King, which resulted in the desegregation of the city's buses and the power of a growing self-respect among Black Americans. The article also discusses the purchasing power of Black Americans and their influence on industries, and encourages boycotting companies that cancel their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs. The article concludes with a call to choose dignity over humiliation and shop with companies that support Black Americans.
S.E. Williams
Throughout the Civil Rights movement, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us over and over again that the battle for racial justice included the struggle for economic justice.
Today, many of the hard fought victories of the civil rights era continue to be gradually stripped away. This includes most significantly, key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Yet, since 1619, with each succeeding generation of Blacks in America, the torch is passed and the struggle for equity and equality continues.
With the passing of this torch comes the lessons and experiences of our past infused with the power of Sankofa, a Twi word originating with the Akan tribe of Ghana that calls on us to retrieve the lessons of the past and bring them forward.
One of the most successful lessons we can bring forward from the civil rights era is the use of the boycott. It was King's successful leadership of 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott-a protest against racial segregation on public buses in Montgomery, AL-that ignited the civil rights movement. The boycott began December 5, 1955, and continued for 13-months to December 20, 1956.
Although the movement was successful, it was not without peril and it certainly tested the mettle of King and others. For example, at 9:30 p.m. on the evening of January 30, 1956, dynamite exploded at the home of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (along with the home of another movement leader, E.D. Nixon). The bomb was a warning to put an end to to the bus boycott. King's wife and young daughter were home at the time.
As supporters gathered around his home, King-who was only 26 years old at the time-remained calm as he addressed them. "I want it to be known the length and breadth of this land, that if I am stopped this movement will not stop. If I am stopped our work will not stop. For what we are doing is right. What we are doing is just. And God is with us."
King continued, "Be calm as I and my family are. We are not hurt and remember that if anything happens to me, there will be others to take my place."
Nearly 52 years later, a man by the name of Barack Obama inspired us to believe that maybe we are the "others" King spoke about. Obama inspired a new generation when said, "Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. "We are the ones we've been waiting for."
We've learned from generations of suffering and activism that power concedes nothing without a demand. We have also learned after long years of suffering and activism that the powerful only hear the cries of the oppressed when the oppressed speak the language of the powerful. That language is "dollars and cents," the one language the powerful appear capable of understanding without translation.
The sight of children on cement floors in cages does not move the powerful. A Black man choked to death by a police officer for the world to see, does not move the powerful. A homeless veteran with PTSD sleeping on the street on a freezing winter night does not move the powerful. But let the stock market crash and the powerful jump from windows. Let Blacks stop taking public transportation for more than a year and the powerful yield to demands to integrate public transportation. Boycotting South African products and pressuring America companies to divest from the country helped bring an end to Apartheid.
In King's 1958 memoir of the Montgomery boycott, Stride Toward Freedom, he stressed a higher meaning for the action of boycotting beyond desegregation of the city's buses. He defined it as the power of a growing self-respect that he believed important to animate the struggle for civil rights. I believe it is still a powerful tool for driving change in the 21st century.
On January 20, 2024, the nation officially entered the new era of "Trump Revisited." This reality makes it more important than ever to remember how King stressed that the battle for economic justice is integral to the struggle for social justice. It is also important to remember how he leveraged the power of economic boycotts.
Trump is now making good on his promise to open his administration with the signing of dozens of executive orders-none of them will bode well for the working class and/or underserved in this country. It is therefore imperative that we remain mindful and vigilant regarding our economic power as Black people in this country and to begin leveraging it as warranted.
Although Blacks are barely 14% of the population we wield immense purchasing power and with that, the ability to influence industries of the powerful in every arena from fashion to entertainment to technology, healthcare and beyond. According to a report by Nielson, Blacks were projected to have buying power of approximately $1.8 trillion dollars as 2024 came to a close. If Black Americans had own nation we would rate among the top 14 largest economies in the world. This level of fiscal influence as noted by economic thinkers means Black power extends beyond consumption into the realms of product development, other areas of innovation and can also shape market trends.
To me, this meant when Trump was sworn in for a second time on Monday, January 20, I joined the millions who called for boycotting the event to deny the narcissist his coveted Nielsen rating. To me, it also means when companies like Walmart, McDonald's Ford, Meta, Toyota, and others, cancel their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, I cancel their institutions as places I will spend my dollars. Instead, I choose to shop with companies that support DEI.
In conclusion, King said of the bus boycott, "We came to see that, in the long run, it is more honorable to walk in dignity than ride in humiliation. So ... we decided to substitute tired feet for tired souls, and walk the streets of Montgomery."
Today, we don't have to walk long miles to boycott injustice or to take a stand against the corporations that are standing against us. We have the ability to shop with the push of a button. The question is, do we have the courage to stop spending with those who take our money but have little regard for the quality of our lives?
To spin off King's words, it is more honorable to spend our money with companies that support us, than to shop in humiliation-as if we are still slaves without choice that must succumb to the whims of the powerful regardless of how they disregard us.
I invite you to choose dignity over humiliation and boycott those who want our dollars but will not stand with us as we continue to make progress.
Of course, this is just my opinion. I'm keeping it real.