Funding Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Today, in the U.S., is Martin Luther King, Jr Day. It is pouring rain in San Francisco, where I write this, but the several hundred people I just marched with in Dr. King's honor were not deterred by the weather.

I think a lot about foundations and philanthropy and strategy. I've heard others ask, as they reflect on the increasing "professionalism" and "strategy" of today's foundations, if any of these organizations would have funded Dr. King's work in the late 1950s and 1960s?

As I walked and chanted up 3rd Street today, I wondered if there were any foundations out there today that would fund Dr. King's 21st Century equivalent? And how would they know who he or she is? We'll all be the better if we can find positive answers to these two questions.

Comments

[Nommo]

Enough of the ghoulish speculations. The man has been dead for forty years just about. He died because of his work, not because of any dreams. The only dream in this nation is that of middle class status.

He died because he recognized, as did Brother Malcolm, the international implications of his work. American was not and cannot be ready for that. America is still waging war against the dark people.

You can imagine how he would have dealt with that.