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MARTIN LUTHER KING
AND W.E.B. DU BOIS:
A PERSONAL TRIBUTE

HARRY BELAFONTE

ON ALL LEVELS of life and as each day unfolds, respect for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. grows impressively, and the essence of this respect is the fact that he had deeper insights than most of us have appreciated. It is not mere poetry to call him prophetic. The accuracy of his prophecies is almost uncanny.
By the early 1950's, history had endowed him with a sense of the precise moment that black people were ready for mass action, ready for its risks, and ready for its responsibilities. At a time when there was only limited, especially timid, activity, except for those acts solely confined to the courts, Dr. King realized that blacks were ready to do battle on a series of fronts and to do it defiantly, proudly and militantly in massed ranks. Although he was himself unique and incomparable, even among the foremost of leaders, he was not a believer in elitism. He knew that the power of the isolated intellec-tual had great limitations. He perceived that only in joining indi-vidual brilliance with the strength and steadfastness of the masses can a movement of transforming power be achieved. Thus he brought the people into the making of their own history.
Following his early dramatic triumphs, Dr. King brooded. For he recognized that dismantling segregation was in and of itself not enough. He understood that racism with all of its bestiality was only one of the aspects of the forces that were and are destroying mankind. In the face of this truth, he saw that it was necessary to consolidate centers of power that represent the thrust for liberation. Earlier than others he saw the potential in electoral activity, not on a token scale, but involving millions of black people, poor whites, Chicanos, stu-dents, and women. So he fought for the ballot. However, he did not fall into the trap of posing electoral activity against other forms of
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Harry Belafonte, the internationally famous performing artist, was a trusted advisor and friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These brief remarks preceded his performance accompanied by the Howard Roberts Chorale at the FREEDOMWAYS annual W.E.B. Du Bois Cultural Evening, January 30, 1972.