This is the book Coretta Scott sent to MLK while he was in seminary and before they were married. In a letter he wrote to her:
“By the way (to turn to something more intellectual) I have just completed Bellamy's Looking Backward. It was both stimulating and facinating.”
“By the way (to turn to something more intellectual) I have just completed Bellamy's Looking Backward. It was both stimulating and facinating.”
https://twitter.com/ErikLoomis/status/1614292825029607424
In the letter MLK goes hints at his ideas about an economic agenda for uplift.
“I welcomed the book because much of its content is in line with my basic ideas. I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic.”
“I welcomed the book because much of its content is in line with my basic ideas. I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic.”
But MLK had his critiques of Bellamy’s book:
“On the negative side of the picture Bellamy falls victim to the same error that most writers of Utopian societies fall victim to, viz., idealism not tempered with realism.” kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/do…
“On the negative side of the picture Bellamy falls victim to the same error that most writers of Utopian societies fall victim to, viz., idealism not tempered with realism.” kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/do…
Even with MLK’s realism (influenced partly by his reading of Reinhold Niebuhr) he was hopeful:
“Let us continue to hope, work, and pray that in the future we will live to see a warless world, a better distribution of wealth, and a brotherhood that transcends race or color.”
“Let us continue to hope, work, and pray that in the future we will live to see a warless world, a better distribution of wealth, and a brotherhood that transcends race or color.”
I’ll have more to say about this letter and King’s economic agenda on my #MLKDay episode of Footnotes. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/foo…
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