It’s Time to Know the True History of Dr. King and Native Americans

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An NAACP flyer campaigning for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but was filibustered to defeat in the Senate. Dyer, the NAACP, and freedom fighters around the country, like Flossie Baily, struggled for years to get the Dyer and other anti-lynching bills passed, to no avail. Today there is still no U.S. law specifically against lynching. In 2005, eighty of the 100 U.S. Senators voted for a resolution to apologize to victims' families and the country for their failure to outlaw lynching. Courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

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Claude, age 23, just months before his 1930 murder. Courtesy of Faith Deeter.

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January 15, 2024

By David Carr, Word in Black

Martin Luther King Jr. advocated for the desegregation of Native Americans and inspired much of the modern-day movement for Native rights, including water rights and tribal sovereignty.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. advocated for more than just the Black community. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

On Monday, January 15^,the United States will celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and pay homage to the civil rights leader who helped move the nation to live up to its potential.

While much has been written about King’s community organizing, his guidance in the Southern Leadership Conference, and his amazing rhetorical skills, we still have much to learn about the civil rights leader who dared to dream. It is not widely known that while King obviously was serious about securing civil rights for African Americans and healing the wounds and divisions between Black and white, he was also a vocal and proud supporter of Native American civil rights.

King specifically advocated for the desegregation of Native Americans and inspired much of the modern-day movement for Native rights, including water rights and tribal sovereignty.

In his 1963 book, “Why We Can’t Wait,” King did not hold back with it came to his feelings on the treatment of Native Americans by the U.S. government.

Learn more about Dr. King’s activism.

Read about the struggle for equal rights in our virtual exhibits.

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