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During the last decade of his life, Martin Luther King’s civil rights activism took on a universal spin. He started advocating for equal civil rights for the poverty-struck community, not just the African American diaspora.

Universal basic income was a part of this economic dream. Let’s discuss this ideal that was so callously interrupted by the assassination of Martin Luther King.

What is Universal Basic Income?

Universal basic income would’ve guaranteed that every American got a mandatory middle-class income to make ends meet. Also known as guaranteed income, this would have ensured every citizen a set share of living expenses yearly instead of the minimum wage, which is neither realistic nor sufficient for a college student to pay off their loans.

A modernized version of this welfare recipient program proposed by Charles Murray, a conservative scholar, would see every legal adult get a set sum of $10,000 annually.

King’s Universal Basic Income

King’s idea of a universal basic income went beyond anything proposed today. If anything, we should be taking notes from the ideas perpetuated during the ’60s because they were just that ahead of their times.

King’s vision has gone into great detail about the universal basic income in Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? A book that would go on to be his last. While acknowledging the government’s overtures to address poverty through education and housing, King also said they weren’t nearly enough to eradicate poverty.

In his opinion, the government needed a direct approach to ending poverty. In other words, this meant addressing more of the “what” and less of the “why”; the latter wasn’t doing anything to improve their lives.

Create a Universal Basic Income to Create Jobs

It should be noted that King wasn’t trying to make a case for an income whether or not you were employed. When he said the US wasn’t doing nearly enough for the poor despite growing economically rich every day, he meant that the government—the system—was disregarding the poor because it saw them as inferior.

If a decent income is what it takes for the system to see these people as equals and provide them with equal job opportunities, a decent, guaranteed income is what they should get. He wanted everyone to work and the government to guarantee a middle-class income by creating job opportunities for conventional and unconventional skill sets.

The Final Setback

Universal basic income was an important aspect of King’s Poor People’s Campaign. It had already experienced a setback because of King’s ongoing criticism of the US involvement in the aftermath of vietnam war.

Its final setback came in the form of the MLK assassination. Visit Kennedys and King to learn more about the events surrounding his assassination, particularly the threat he presented as an important pillar of the Civil Rights Movement.

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Martin Luther King Day is celebrated on the third Monday of every year, a day before the civil rights leader was officially born. Click here to see how we did it in 2017. It's a day to not only celebrate the life and legacy of a great leader but also to teach his ideas of freedom and racial equality to a whole new generation.

Check out the following ideas to make every third Monday an MLK Day.

Prepare an Interactive Presentation

Keep this unofficial MLK Monday simple by informing young kids about King, but make it interactive through a colorful presentation and lots of opportunities for input.

Treat the quiz part of your presentation as a pop-up book. For instance, blank out the "dream" in "I have a dream" and follow it with a slide depicting the blanked word. Sprinkle these small quizzes throughout the presentation to retain their attention from start to end.

Encourage Mixed Interaction

MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech defined his entire struggle. It spoke of a world where people of all races would unite and create a just and equal world. Unfortunately, a large part of his dream remains unrealized due to a racist system that promotes modern-day segregation.

If you know what we're talking about, you know what we mean by encouraging mixed interactions. Don't let the different experiences of these kids stop them from mingling. You can get your students to sit with someone else for a change if you're a teacher. You can do this during lunch, homeroom, or class. Do this every month for long enough, and you'll see a level of comfort between students.

Speak on Equal Civil Rights

Take this chance to mold your kids into future leaders. King is best known for "I Have a Dream," a speech he gave during the March on Washington. Make your children read the transcript of that speech, and sit with them to write an equally riveting piece of text about equal civil rights.

Encourage your children to write exactly how they want to see the US one day. You can create a bullet point sheet of their ideal future and then ask them to use these points and turn them into a speech, emulating MLK's style.

Assign a Reading Task

You don't have to be a teacher to assign your kids a reading task, not with Kennedys and King at your disposal. Suppose you want your children to learn nothing but the truth behind the Assassination of Martin Luther King. In that case, we suggest taking excerpts from our archives, preparing multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions, and assigning them as an individual, pair-or group-based reading comprehension activity.

Follow suit with the other political figures covered by our platform. Browse our website to take a closer look at the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X.

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The assassination of John F. Kennedy wasn't the first attempt of its kind. Like its predecessors, this unsolved political murder made the people stop and mourn the loss of a great leader. It also led to many changes in the following years. Click here for JFK assassination archives.

Below is an overview of how the assassination revolutionized American politics.

The Civil Rights Act Was Passed Earlier

After President Lyndon B. Johnson took office in 1964, he and his allies got the Civil Rights Act—one of his predecessor's agendas and his campaign pledge—passed. While Kennedy prevented segregation bills from being passed, he faced strong opposition and resistance regarding American civil rights in Congress.

However, despite all the pressure and resistance, he was determined to propose his bill in 1964. After his death, the baton passed to his brother Bobby Kennedy, who was equally determined to see it through. While the bill was always meant to be tabled in 1964, his assassination certainly escalated its passing.

The Cold War Got a New Life

Kennedy gained public favor after the way he resolved the Cuban Missile Crisis by having back-door discussions with Nikita Khrushchev through trusted third parties. Just when the US and Russia were on the verge of a full-scale war, Kennedy extended a well-received deal to the then-Russian premiere.

Unfortunately, Kennedy's assassination happened at the height of the Cold War. Russia restored its aggressive, hardline stance against the US after Presidents Lyndon, Nixon, Ford, and Carter took office, and the Cold War continued to rage on until the fall of the Berlin Wall. Thus, the JFK assassination lengthened the Cold War.

More Lives Lost in the Vietnam War

Kennedy wanted to send advisors instead of troops to Vietnam, as evidenced by the disclosed planning documents dated two days before his death. His previous resolution patterns during the Cuban Missile Crisis and Bay of Pigs Invasion made it clear that he preferred diplomatic solutions to military interventions. Koji Masutani's2009 movie, Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived, supports this idea.

When Johnson took office, he manipulated Congress to approve a disastrous resolution that allowed him to infiltrate Vietnam by sending thousands of troops. In the end, the Johnson and Nixon administrations supported a war that lasted tenodd years and killed 58,220 American troops and more than a million Vietnamese people.

The Civil Rights Act wasn't the only good thing to come out of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, nor were the Vietnam and Cold Wars the only consequences of his death. Learn more about the years following his death at Kennedys and King. Please support our cause, help us learn the truth behind the political assassinations of the 1960s, and be the first to discover newly disclosed documents related to the JFK assassination.

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President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, while passing through Dealey Plaza inside an open motorcade with his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, John Connally, the then-Governor of Texas, and his wife, Idanell Connally. Click here for more details.

Kennedy wasn’t the only person to lose his life in the attack, nor was he the only victim, surviving or otherwise.

John Connally

The Texas Governor met Kennedy the day before the assassination. He had been the governor for tenmonths and had already accompanied the President in San Antonio and Houston. After a quick stop at Forth Worth, they flew to Kennedy’s final destination, Dallas. 

When the first shots rang out a little after noon, Connally clearly remembers feeling like someone had punched him twice in the back. He was soon covered in blood and viscera that he, at the time, thought was his own before passing out.

Connally ultimately survived the attack, but not before undergoing surgery for several injuries encompassing his thigh, wrist, chest, and back. While he generally agreed with the controversial findings of the Warren Commission, he disagreed with the single-bullet theory.

J.D. Tippit

J.D. Tippit has been a law enforcement officer for the Dallas Police Department for 11 years at the time of the assassination. He was no stranger to violence, having served in World War II and sustaining multiple injuries as a cop.

The day of the assassination started just as any other day for Tippit. Official accounts place him on duty patrolling nearby Oak Cliff, and his alleged time of death was roughly 45 minutes after the attack on Kennedy. The official accounts place him talking to the alleged assassin and getting shot to death soon after, but we know to take such testimonies with a grain of salt.

James Tague

James Tague isn’t your average JFK assassination victim. However, before making a career out of the incident, he was a regular car salesman. On the day of the murder, he was stuck in traffic on his way to meet his fiancée for lunch.

As he got out of the vehicle, a misfired bullet reportedly hit the curb next to him and sent debris flying everywhere, including his right cheek. His injury was minor, but it became a turning point in his life. Although he initially agreed with the findings of the Warren Commission, he later recanted his statements and has even published two books presenting alternate solutions to the Warren Commission.

At Kennedys and King, we seek to denounce conspiracy theorists and seek the truth behind JFK assassination. Please contribute to our cause to advocate for full public disclosure ofthe political assassinations of the 1960s, including those of Martin Luther King, Robert F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, and Malcolm X.

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