For many Americans, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s place in U.S. history begins and ends with his famous and oft-quoted “I Have a Dream” speech, which he gave on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1963.
But in the final five years of King's life, his activism shifted from civil rights to economic justice. It was no coincidence that his last public act before he was gunned down on April 4, 1968 was to rally support for striking sanitation workers in Memphis.
King was inspired by the work of Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi and the power of nonviolent resistance to create social change. That power, which Gandhi called satyagraha, or truth force, has powered popular movements from Montgomery, Alabama to Tahrir Square in Cairo.
In a 1961 speech before the AFL-CIO, King summed up why people power ultimately prevails:
“I am convinced that we shall overcome because the arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
“We shall overcome because Carlisle is right when he says, 'No lie can live forever.'
“We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant is right when he says, 'Truth crushed to earth will rise again.'
“We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell was right when he proclaimed, 'Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne, yet the scaffold sways the future.'
“And so if we will go out with this faith and with this determination to solve these problems, we will bring into being that new day and that new America.”
Satyagraha helped end segregation in America. It drove the People Power Revolution in 1986 in the Philippines, when millions rallied to Corazon Aquino's side and ousted tyrant Ferdinand Marcos. It broke down the Iron Curtain in 1989, and it inspired the people of Tunisia and Egypt to rise up this year.
It's a force that can be temporarily held at bay with guns and repression, but it can never be crushed for long.
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Today, around the world, people are rising up against global economic tyranny and reclaiming the ideals of hope, solidarity, and concern for the poor and oppressed - ideals that have been ruthlessly crushed by those in power.
This week, on the anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr., many are grappling with what must be done to push back against the moral crisis of our time - economic policies that favor the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.
How out of balance is our economy?
Of the 33 most advanced economies in the world, the United States ranks 31st in income equality. The gap between rich and poor is greater here than it is in nations such as Guyana, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
We're approaching the three-year mark since the housing bubble burst and $11 trillion of household wealth - most of it the home values and retirement savings of the middle class - vanished. There are still about 26 million Americans who are jobless, can't find full-time work, or have given up looking for employment. Yet these are the people, along with the rapidly thinning ranks of the middle class, who are forced to pay the cost of cleaning up the economic mess.
That's why many believe that it will take direct action - people power in the tradition of Gandhi and King - to turn the tide.
History shows it will not be easy. It will take a long time. And there will be setbacks.
But it is what's needed to take back our economy from the oligarchs and plutocrats.