MLK Day 2026: Lessons from the Past for the Struggles of Today
There must be systematic change to eradicate racism, mass poverty and imperialist war
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
Wednesday January 14, 2026
Historical Review
January 15 represents the 97th ancestral birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was martyred on April 4, 1968, while working in solidarity with the African American sanitation workers strike in Memphis, Tennessee.
In the aftermath of the assassination of Dr. King on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel after 6:00pm on that fateful day, mass demonstrations and urban rebellions erupted in more than 125 municipalities across the United States.
Many people within the African American community and beyond began to seriously question whether non-violent civil disobedience would remain an effective methodology to affect social change. The latest strategy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which Dr. King served as president, was to mobilize thousands of impoverished people from various nationalities to occupy Washington, D.C. to demand immediate legislative action by the U.S. Congress on jobs and income.
The Poor People’s Campaign did occur several weeks after the murder of the SCLC leader, yet it was unable to evoke any substantial legislation aimed at eradicating poverty within the Democratic-dominated Congress under then President Lyndon B. Johnson. Just five days prior to the assassination of MLK, Johnson announced during a long and meandering address on March 31, 1968, that he would not pursue or accept the nomination for the Democratic Party that year.
It was Johnson’s failure to end the growing discontent among African Americans and other social forces over national oppression, the ongoing genocidal war against the Vietnamese people and a growing wealth gap between the wealthy and impoverished that doomed his presidency. Although the Johnson administration had shepherded the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Bills through the Congress in 1964 and 1965 respectively, the level of rising expectations among the African Americans fueled militancy and a burgeoning revolutionary fervor.
A combination of ongoing repression, the racist character of the selective service system which disproportionately drafted African Americans into the military and the discrimination prevalent within the labor market, prompted major shifts within sections of the Civil Rights Movement towards an emphasis on Black Power and the right to self-determination.
The Brutal Murders of Sammy Younge, Jr. and Vernon Dahmer, Sr.
During early January of 1966, there were two murders of civil rights activists, one in Alabama and another in Mississippi. Even though the passage of what was perceived at the time as the most monumental Civil Rights legislation since the 1870s, serious impediments to the implementation of these bills remained.
Sammy Younge, Jr. was an activist in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the state of Alabama. He lived in Tuskegee, the location of one of the most well-known Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
While organizing African Americans to register to vote, Younge had been subjected to threats and violence from the white authorities. On the same day he was murdered, Younge and his comrade, Jimmy Rogers, were threatened with serious bodily harm and death.
Later in the evening on January 3, Younge was told by a white man working at the Greyhound bus station in Tuskegee that he could not use a white only toilet. When Younge defied the white man, he was chased on to a bus seeking refuge. The bus driver told him that he must leave the vehicle. When he did, he was shot to death. Just three days after this racist murder, SNCC issued its first public statement opposing the U.S. occupation and war against the people of Vietnam.
According to the SNCC Digital Archives:
“Younge’s murder pushed SNCC to make a public stance on the war, regardless of the political consequences. Three days after Younge’s murder, SNCC’s Executive Committee released a statement on Vietnam according to their ‘right and responsibility to dissent with United States foreign policy on any issue.’ Younge had been murdered, they wrote, ‘because United States law is not being enforced.’ Likewise in the war, the statement read, ‘Vietnamese are murdered because the United States is pursuing an aggressive policy in violation of international law.’ SNCC pointed to the hypocrisy of United States foreign policy on the basis of ‘democracy,’ while cries of protection for those working for democracy in the Black community went ignored. Younge’s murder made the connection between Vietnam and the American South clear.” (https://snccdigital.org/events/murder-of-sammy-younge-snccs-statement-on-vietnam/)
Just one week after the murder of Sammy Younge, Jr. (1944-1966), Vernon Dahmer, Sr. (1908-1966), leader of the Forrest County, Mississippi chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was murdered by the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan headed by Grand Wizard Sam Bowers. Dahmer had been active in the Civil Rights Movement for many years.
In 1962, he had invited members of SNCC to assist in his voter registration efforts in Forrest County. Dahmer was hated by the local white authorities who viewed him as a militant.
Leading up to his murder, Dahmer and his family had received numerous death threats. They were forced to sleep in shifts for fear of a KKK attack which did occur in the early morning hours of January 10, 1966.
In another entry published by the SNCC Digital Gateway, it noted that:
“On January 9, 1966, he (Dahmer) announced on the radio that he was willing to collect poll taxes at his store in the Kelly Settlement in order to encourage voter registration. He said he was willing to pay people’s poll taxes if they could not afford the fee. The next day, Dahmer’s farm was firebombed by local Ku Klux Klan members. His wife Ellie recalls, ‘when I woke up, I heard shooting and blazes; it looked like the house was on fire… you could hear gunshots coming into the house.’ Dahmer’s home and store burned to the ground, nothing was left but ashes. Dahmer later died of smoke inhalation and severe burns. Even on his deathbed, Dahmer still encouraged his community to register to vote. Dahmer’s murder made clear the commitment and risks ordinary Black people were willing to make and take in order to improve their overall quality of life.” (https://snccdigital.org/events/vernon-dahmer-murdered/)
These two murders illustrated that despite Civil Rights legislation, the struggle for African American freedom would require far more serious efforts. Consequently, many members of SNCC, SCLC along with other organizations, began to move in a programmatic manner which challenged the underlying causes of national oppression and economic exploitation.
By June 1966, SNCC would emerge with a new leadership under Chairman Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture), who along with Field Secretary Willie Ricks (later known as Mukasa Dada), advanced the slogan for Black Power. The cry for Black Power coincided with the proliferation of urban rebellions and resistance against the Vietnam War.
Lessons for Contemporary Struggles
Today, after one year of the second non-consecutive term of President Donald Trump, the move toward complete fascist control of the U.S. is well underway. The current administration has openly attacked the remaining vestiges of the gains made during the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements.
Federalized National Guard units have been deployed in several major cities along with an increased presence of the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) and the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). Thousands of migrants and U.S. citizens have been detained.
Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota have been targeted by the Trump administration under the guise of curbing “illegal immigration” and fraud within the childcare sector. Thousands of ICE agents have been sent to the twin cities resulting in arrests and injury of many people.
Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother, was shot to death by an ICE agent in the early morning hours of January 7. Her death was not the first carried out by ICE. Reports from activists indicate that as many as 32 people have been killed by this Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agency.
The Somalian American community in Minneapolis and St. Paul are the focus of ICE agents reinforcing the administration’s anti-immigration policy. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has been singled out for derision by the White House. Nonetheless, she continues to uphold the rights of the people of Minnesota in their struggle against the administration.
The deportations of people by the Trump administration are ostensibly designed to “Make America Great Again” (MAGA). Nonetheless, the economic situation in the U.S. is deteriorating due to the continuing mass transferral of wealth from the working class to the bourgeoisie.
Although Trump told voters that he would end the ongoing imperialist wars in West Asia and Eastern Europe, the situation over the last year has only worsened in Ukraine, Palestine, Sudan and other geo-political regions. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela remains under siege with the bombing of the country and the kidnapping of President Nicholas Maduro and First Lady Cicilia Flores now being held at a federal detention facility in New York City.
With the deliberate reversals of the gains made from the 1950s-1970s and the escalation in imperialist aggression, it is essential that a broad-based united front against racism, fascism and imperialist war be built to ensure the survival and advancement of the masses of people in the U.S. and internationally. This year’s MLK Day must serve as a rallying point to organize, mobilize and defeat the Trump program.
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Distributed By: THE PAN-AFRICAN RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION PROJECT–
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