Even though Richard Nixon, initially Ronald Reagan, and right-wing Republicans and Southern segregationist Democrats fought against turning Martin Luther King’s birthday into a national holiday, they failed.  While they continue to fight against everything that Dr.  King stood for, it is our duty to see that they will fail.  This Marxist IQ is dedicated to the contemporary importance of Dr. King’s legacy.

1. Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus sparked the boycott, was:

a. a woman with no previous involvement in political action;
b. someone who had been involved in anti-racist campaigns since the Scottsboro case 20 years earlier;
c.  someone with a grudge against the bus company;
d.  acting as an individual.

2. Dr. King was chosen to lead the boycott because:

a. African Americans had no elected representatives in government;
b. the trade union movement was very weak because of right to work legislation;
c.  he was new to Montgomery, well-educated and articulate, and the clergy  had great influence among African-American people;
d. All of the above.

3. Dr. King is remembered for his commitment to nonviolence.  What is often obscured was his commitment to “positive peace”  by which he meant:

a. peace achieved by  giving Blacks a “piece of the action;”
b. peace through compromise and consensus;
c. peace through the elimination of poverty and inequality;
d. peace through the establishment of an independent Black nation on U.S. territory.

4. J.Edgar Hoover had the FBI launch a massive campaign of surveillance, harassment  and provocation to destroy Dr. King’s reputation and threaten his very life  by:

a. Blackmailing John and Robert Kennedy into having Dr. King declared a “Communist” agent;
b. Acting on his belief that the Civil Rights movement needed for moderate leaders;
c.  Acting on his belief that Blacks were doing fine on their own in the U.S.;
d.  Acting on his desire to advance the Great Society program.

5. The victories won by the Civil Rights movement made possible major legislative and judicial gains which remain under attack to this to this day. Which of the following is not an example of these gains:

a. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (barring discrimination in public accommodations, employment, and education);
b. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, giving African Americans in large numbers in the South the right to vote;
c. Supreme Court Decisions  civil liberties extending the right to counsel to indigent people  and police interrogation of citizens;
d. Legislation like the Patriot Act against Terrorism and  judicial decisions like Citizens United;
e.  All of the above.

6.  When we honor Dr. King we should also remember the media buried parts of his legacy which remain essential to  the issues of 2019:

a. His opposition to the military industrial complex and the U.S.  involvement in the Vietnam War as a model for opposition to Trump’s  militarist policies and their dangers;
b. His victory against Southern de jure segregation, which functioned as an open de facto  racist dictatorship against the Trump administration attempts to establish an open de facto dictatorship  over the whole country;
c.  His expressed sympathy for the socialist  and national liberation movements of the world as against the Trump administration’s attempts to destroy those movements and launch coups against  countries where they have gained power;
d.  All of the above.

Answers here.

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