MLK’s Legacy, The Civil Rights Movement and Black Wealth Perspective

The Civil Rights Movement’s financial advice is overlooked.

For me, Black History Month kicks off every year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We are inundated with old clips of marches and the fevered spirit of activism. So much so, that the Democratic party has co-opted the Movement. Politicians seized #BHM. It’s now pimping the Black vote in exchange for a couple of seats at the table.

“Don’t @ me, let me cook,” as my friend Marc would say.

The movement is closely tied to racial inequality, boycotts, and nonviolence, however, there was another component – Financial Freedom.

Dr. King was equally passionate about fighting for economic equality. He worked on the Freedom Budget (1966). The proposal planned to wipe out poverty and create “economic justice for all people in the United States.”

However, that proposal never passed. As of 2020, we are truly living in the Divided State of Black America.

See Graphic #1 – Estimated Median Wealth

The Dream of Financial Civil Rights

According to the ACLU’s 1931 Black Justice report, “The Negro has been oppressed. It’s because he has a low standard of living and little economic independence. And the other way around, he is economically servile because he has been oppressed.”

By 1960, we were still fighting for the dream. Dr. King spoke about fighting for economic freedom throughout his life. It ended up being the dream that he died for.

The inauguration of America’s first Black president was supposed to change things. Many Americans believed in a future free of racial discrimination and inequality was finally within reach. Obstructed by the aversion to change, this never happened. Over Barack Obama’s presidency, the median Black wealth dropped to just $1,700 — virtually nothing — even as white wealth rebounded (2013).

As of February 1, 2022, CNBC reported the latest Federal Reserve data. Black Household net worth dropped by 14% to $24k, while Latinos accelerated by 112%. Although Black spending power increased by $1.6 Trillion, home ownership dropped below 40% while investing hovered around 30%. Asians are changing the tapestry of wealth in America.

In the battle for wealth, Blacks are systematically losing.

With student loan and credit card debt soaring, the Dream is officially deferred. And hence, it should be declared comatose. The Black community is trending toward an average of $0 net worth by 2040.

See Graphic #2

The Freedom Budget and Our Civil Rights

For starters, the Freedom Budget provides seven basic objectives which create one goal within 10 years. One of the primary authors added these poignant words. “Here in these United States… there can be no economic or technical excuse for it (poverty). In a sense, it is not only a private tragedy but a public crime.”

Secondly, these solutions aren’t pie in the sky.

My wife and I shifted our net worth from negative $125,000 to over $660,000. At this rate, we will be automatic 9-5 millionaires in 10 years. While reviewing the Freedom Budget, I found that the objectives are in line with what we use 50 years later.

The Blueprint for Financial Civil Rights

The Financial Order of Operation is the secret to wealth. As listed, the Freedom Budget calls for the government and the leadership to:

1. First and foremost, provide full employment for all who are willing and able to work,
2. Secondly, assure decent and adequate wages to all who work,
3. Ascribe a decent living standard to those who cannot or should not work,
4. Wipe out slum ghettos and provide decent homes for all Americans,
5. Provide decent medical care and adequate educational opportunities to all Americans, at a cost they can afford,
6. Purify our air and water. Furthermore, to develop our transportation and natural resources on a scale suitable to our growing needs, and
7. Unite sustained full employment with sustained full production and high economic growth.

How the Civil Rights Movement viewed The false god of money (1953)

In July of 1953, King gave a sermon in Atlanta where he warned listeners about the negative ways money can impact society and their individual lives.

“Money in its proper place is a worthwhile and necessary instrument for a well-rounded life, but when it is projected to the status of a god it becomes a power that corrupts and an instrument of exploitation.

When men arrive at the point of making money a god they become more concerned with what they can get out of society than with what they can give to society in terms of service…

When men bow down and worship at the shrine of money they are being deprived of their most precious endowment—the possibility of living life in its fullness and its endless beauty.”

And until this day, Black America struggles with the measure of wealth as adornment vs a means of production.

The conversation of More jobs and guaranteed incomes (1967)

As far back as 1967, there were conversations about universal basic income. At the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King called for the creation of more jobs.

“We must create full employment or we must create incomes. People must be made consumers by one method or the other. Once they are placed in this position, we need to be concerned that the potential of the individual is not wasted. New forms of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised for those for whom traditional jobs are not available.”

Unfortunately, we didn’t heed these warnings. As of June 2021, McKinsey & Company released a report titled the Economic State of Black America: What is and What could be. Black workers are concentrated in lower-paying occupations and underrepresented in higher-paying ones.

The perpetual state of structural unemployment

Just weeks before his death, King was preparing to launch a Poor People’s Campaign in an effort to gain economic justice. He gave a speech in Detroit called The other America (1968) where he addressed the connection between inequality in jobs and justice.

“The most critical problem in the other America is the economic problem. By the millions, people in other America find themselves perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity…

The fact is that the black man in the United States of America is facing a literal depression. When there is massive unemployment in the black community, it’s called a social problem. But when there is massive unemployment in the white community, it’s called a depression.”

The Civil Rights Movement in its abridged form

We have been fed the Civil Rights Movement in its abridged form.

Palatable for a Tik Tok reel and missing all the crucial pieces, the Black community is head to zero net worth. To avoid the path of the perpetual beggar, I present to you the actionable steps toward a more prosperous future.

1. Establish Black Leadership, its absence is apparent. This is why President Biden got away with saying “if you don’t vote Democrat you ain’t Black.”
2. Survey and inventory the current environment, our human capital, and our available resources
3. Set up a 3-year vision with SMART+ER 12-week objective goals at all levels,
4. Speak from the heart without pulling punches. The change will never be comfortable. This level of drastic change will be very uncomfortable. However, in David Goggins fashion, welcome the challenge.
5. Finally, take action. A constant conversation about the past is a wasted effort toward working for the future.
6. And finally, don’t forget to review and adjust the plan. What doesn’t work, doesn’t work. Move on.

Regardless of how these solutions shake out, two things that can’t coexist. You can’t yell that the system is racist and subsequently beg for the racist system to provide. You will have to move differently. If we want wealth, no matter how unfair, we will have to earn it.

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