| The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born | | | | strategy of "stealing" back what had always been |
| in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929, was | | | | his by right. |
| ordained minister at the age of 19, and rose to | | | | Sophia did the unforgivable. She taught him to |
| national prominence as a leader of the American | | | | read. "Just at this point in my progress, Mr. Auld |
| Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. | | | | found what was going on and at once forbade |
| Martin Luther King was committed to nonviolence | | | | Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among |
| but he was not passive. His celebrated letter from | | | | other things, that it was unlawful, as well as |
| the Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963) is a true battle | | | | unsafe, to teach a slave to read." |
| cry. "We know through painful experience that | | | | And here's the subversive joke. Douglass, in |
| freedom is never voluntarily given by the | | | | running away, was an admitted thief. What did he |
| oppressor; it must be demanded by the | | | | really steal? He "stole" himself! "All the education I |
| oppressed ... For years now I have heard the | | | | possess, I may say, I have stolen as a slave. I did |
| word 'Wait.' It rings in the ear of every Negro | | | | manage to steal a little knowledge of literature, |
| with piercing familiarity. This 'Wait' has almost | | | | but I am now in the eyes of the American law a |
| always meant 'Never.'" | | | | thief and a robber, since I have not only stolen a |
| His example is teaching us that wherever there is | | | | little knowledge of literature, but have stolen my |
| oppression and the freedom of speech and the | | | | body also." |
| freedom of the person are restricted, we can | | | | In the spirit of the Rev. King, isn't it our job to |
| become subversives and even tricksters to turn | | | | steal back what rightly belongs to all of us, |
| the world of those who claim to have a handle on | | | | without exception? Douglass, by simply writing |
| reality upside down. A good example is that of | | | | and speaking, undercut plantation culture. The |
| the Sophia Auld - a naive, well-meaning woman, | | | | assumption was that such things belonged |
| who, in 1826, taught an 8-year-old slave boy to | | | | inherently and eternally to whites. So, let's ask |
| read. She was unwittingly subversive because she | | | | ourselves, "What things do we think of as |
| didn't know the "proper" way to treat him. That | | | | inherently ours and yet, in reality, belong to |
| slave was Frederick Douglass, who wrote that | | | | everyone?" Education, health care, security, a |
| Sophia "did not deem it impudent ... for a slave to | | | | living wage, a safe environment? That's as much |
| look her in the face." Underneath Douglass's | | | | a question for today as it was a 150 years ago. |
| statement lies a brilliant strategy for change - the | | | | It's also an essential question for this election year. |