Will Somebody Please Stand Up and Tell My People THE TRUTH: The truth about why and how blacks have been detoured from the journey Dr. King envisioned for his people to the Promised Land

By Sammie Madison

Since the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., it seems that we as black Americans have lost our way; we, as did the Hebrew Israelites, have been wandering in the "wilderness of sin and debauchery" for forty-plus years and have not been able to enter into the Promised Land. We have followed blind guides who have led us wandering in the wilderness. We have followed self-proclaimed black leaders whose leadership have been marred by deception, dishonesty, egotism, and a lack of integrity. For several years now, I have wrestled and agonized with the disturbing notion "Will somebody please stand up and tell my people the truth?" We have sabotaged our own selves and are losing the race; thusly, we have been detoured from entering the Promised Land. Sammie L. Madison

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644928943

Book preview

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Will Somebody Please

Stand Up

and Tell My People

the Truth

The truth about why and how blacks have been detoured from the journey Dr. King envisioned for his people to the Promised Land

Sammie L. Madison

ISBN 978-1-64492-893-6 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64492-894-3 (digital)

Copyright © 2019 by Sammie L. Madison

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

The Dynamics of Dr. King’s Leadership Role in Biblical and Historical Perspectives: What Dr. King Says about His Role as a Leader Committed to Nonviolence Based upon His Moral and Ethical Conviction

Dr. King’s Leadership: The Dynamics, Philosophy, and Methods

The I Have a Dream Speech from a Historical Perspective

Relating to Dr. King’s Essay The Dilemma of Negro Americans

Relating to Dr. King’s Personal Testimony: Unearned Suffering Is Redemptive

Letter from Birmingham Jail: Epilogue from a Black Perspective

Somebody Stand Up and Tell Our Black People the Truth Behind Why Community and Civil Rights Leaders Won’t Stand Up and Tell Black People the Truth

Stop the Violence: A Moral and Biblical Resolution for Blacks to Get Involved

Will the True and Faithful Black Brother Please Stand Up

Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Leader with a Vision to Lead His People to the Promised Land, a Land of Liberty and Justice for All

The Birth of King’s Vision: The Journey of His People to the Promised Land

Challenges Blacks in America Must Face in Their Stride toward Freedom: Lessons from King’s Sermon The Birth of a New Nation

Detours Which Served as Hindrances to Keep Blacks from Entering the Promised Land

Blacks Have Been Detoured and Detained in Their Journey to the Promised Land

Detoured from the Promised Land by Black Power Rhetoric: Power by Any Cost Necessary

Blacks Detoured from Entering the Promised Land by the Rhetoric of Victimology

Detoured and Detained from the Promised Land by the Prosperity Gospel

Clarence B. Jones Speaks Up: What He Says Martin Luther King Would Say about Today’s Black Leadership

Conclusion

My Personal Testimony

In Memory of the Legacy and Leadership of Dr. King

*King is living history, not ancient history.

Men and women have a moral obligation to obey just and right laws.

—Martin Luther King

It’s wrong to be dishonest and unjust; it’s wrong to use your brother as a means to an end. It’s wrong to waste precious life that God has given you in rioteous living. It’s wrong to hate, it always has been wrong and it will always be wrong.

—Martin Luther King

This book is dedicated to all the wonderful people who are seeking and determined to know the truth concerning the issues which are plaguing and diminishing the quality of life of blacks living in black America today.

The truth to be learned is that the deplorable state of black Americans has not resulted from poverty, racism, poor housing, the lack of education, equal opportunities, nor any of the social and economic inequities we sometimes hear of today. Yes, it is true, and undeniably so, that all of these social and economic conditions were once and had been at the core and the center of the problems of blacks living in America in the ’60s. But for anyone to make such an outrageous claim and to subscribe to this fallacious way of thinking about the problems of blacks in America today is indeed living in a state of denial amidst incredulous lies.

The unspeakable truth that no one seems to want to acknowledge and very few blacks would even talk about is that blacks are sabotaging themselves and losing the race because they are living in a dreadful state of denial concerning their own destructive behavior and attitude within the black community; the source of the problem for blacks lies within the roots of poor moral choices. These poor moral choices have led to drug trafficking, sexual promiscuity, teenage pregnancy, senseless violence, random crime, and a lack of respect for law and order and moral authority.

It is undeniably so, and inconvertibly true, as so painfully expressed by the writer John McWhorter in his book Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America. Having myself read his book, I agree that the self-sabotage in black America, whereby blacks must blame themselves for, is sabotaging not only to self but to the race as a whole. This self-defeating and self-destructive attitude has truly hindered blacks from entering the Promised Land.

Although this generation of blacks may be living on a higher economic and material plateau than those blacks before the dawning of the civil rights era, this generation of blacks have become morally bankrupt and a spiritually depraved people.

And so, as it was with the Hebrew Israelites that their sinful way of life and their disobedience toward God kept them wandering in the wilderness for forty years, so as it is with black Americans today; we, too, for forty-plus years have been detoured on our journey to the Promised Land because we also have strayed away from moral and godly leadership and have transgressed God’s holy commandments for righteous living, and thusly, we are following blind guides who have not led us in the path of righteousness in our stride toward freedom along the journey to the Promised Land.

Preface

Although this generation of blacks may be living on a higher economic and material plateau than those blacks before the dawning of the civil rights era, this generation of blacks has become morally bankrupt and a spiritual depraved people.

And so, as it is with the Hebrew Israelites that their sinful way of life and their disobedience toward God kept them wandering in the wilderness for forty years, so as it is with black Americans today; we, too, for forty-plus years have been detoured on our journey to the Promised Land because we also have strayed away from moral and godly leadership and have transgressed God’s holy commandments for righteous living, and thusly, we are following blind guides who have not led us in the path of righteousness in our stride toward freedom in the journey to the Promised Land.

Introduction

Over the past several years, I’ve had an intense burden upon my heart to publish a book I felt that most blacks and, for certain, no aspiring black leader who wishes to maintain his popularity among the consensus of black Americans would address. For several years now, I’ve wrestled and agonized with the disturbing notion Will somebody please stand-up and tell our black people the truth?

During the entire time I spent agonizing over the burden God placed upon my heart about publishing this book, I also spent many of those days hoping and quietly praying that God would, in due time, raise up another true, inspired spiritual leader as Dr. Martin Luther King, someone who was God sent and would take the mantle as King’s successor who would continue the journey of leading blacks to the Promised Land. Why wouldn’t God also choose to raise up a successor for Dr. King to continue the journey to the Promised Land as he did with Joshua after the death and leadership of Moses? Perhaps it’s the irony of this entire scenario as how God had dealt with Israel.

Since the death of Martin Luther King, it seems that we as black Americans have lost our way; we as the Hebrew Israelites have been wandering in the wilderness of sin and debauchery for forty-plus years and have not been able to enter into the Promised Land. We have followed blind guides who have led us wandering in the wilderness. We have followed self-proclaimed black leaders whose leadership have been marred by deception, dishonesty, egotism, and a lack of integrity.

Some of these misguided black leaders have indeed misled us and have not told us the truth. These charlatans and so-called leaders came preaching another gospel—not the gospel of hope and salvation and of faith and love that Dr. King preached and proclaimed to his followers. But many of these who succeeded Dr. King came preaching another gospel—the gospel of racism, hostility, fear, disillusion, victimology and distrust toward white society, which sometimes caused divisiveness among their own black sisters and brothers who at times did not share the same racist views as they.

Will somebody please stand up and tell our black people the truth? We have sabotaged ourselves and are losing the race. Thusly, we have been detoured from entering the Promised Land.

Part 1

The Dynamics of Dr. King’s Leadership Role in Biblical and Historical Perspectives: What Dr. King Says about His Role as a Leader Committed to Nonviolence Based upon His Moral and Ethical Conviction

In recent months several people have said to me, ‘Since violence is the new cry, isn’t there a danger that you will lose touch with the people in the ghetto and be out of step with the times if you don’t change your views on nonviolence?"

My answer is always the same. While I am convinced the vast majority of Negroes reject violence even if they did not, I would not be interested in being a consensual leader. I refuse to determine what is right by taking a Gallup poll of the trends of the time. I imagine that there were leaders in Germany who sincerely opposed what Hitler was doing to the Jews, but they took a poll and discovered that anti- Semitism was the prevailing trend. In order to be in step with the times, in order to keep in touch, they yielded to one of the most ignominious evils that history has ever known. Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus. I said on one occasion, If every Negro in the United States turns to violence, I will choose to be the one lone voice preaching that this is the wrong way.

Maybe this sounded like arrogance. But it was not intended that way. It was simply my way of saying that I would rather be a man of conviction than a man of conformity. Occasionally in life one develops a conviction so precious and meaningful that he will stand on it till the end. This is what I have found in nonviolence.

—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Chapter 1

Dr. King’s Leadership: The Dynamics, Philosophy, and Methods

Yet it shall not Be so among you: But whosoever desires to Become great among you, let him Be your servant. and whosoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave.

—Matthew 20:26–27, NKJV

One can easily see how the civil rights movement under the leadership of Dr. King had become such a powerful and dynamic movement simply because of the kind of person and character Dr. King portrayed in his leadership role. When a leader exemplifies outstanding character, it is easy to inspire a multitude of followers who would want to join ranks with such a movement that had a leader as Dr. King at the helm of the organization. Everyone knew that Dr. King was a man whose life exuded Christian virtues and one who possessed outstanding qualities in biblical leadership.

A careful reading of Dr. King’s sermons and literary works reveals much about Dr. King’s role as a leader. If there could be just one outstanding quality among the many that would set Dr. King apart from those leaders who would succeed him in the civil rights movement, it would be his deep abiding conviction for biblical morality coupled with God’s view of scriptural leadership.

Biblical Leadership Is Essential in a True Leader

One may very well ask the question here, And just what would be God’s view of biblical leadership?. Our Lord Jesus provides us with concise mandate on his views of biblical leadership in the passage below:

But whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave (Matthew 20:26–27, NKJV).

The Christian writer and author Dr. John McArthur says in his book The Book on Leadership, Based upon this exposition, and according to Christ, then the truest kind of leadership demands service, sacrifice, and selflessness; therefore, a proud and self-promoting person is not a good leader by Christ’s standard, regardless of how much clout he or she wield. Leaders who look to Christ as their leader and their supreme model of leadership will have servants’ hearts. They will exemplify sacrifice.¹

If one does not know anything else about what comprises true and godly leadership, we can see from what is said here that this is just the kind of virtue that we all have observed in the kind of leadership role that Dr. King demonstrated as leader of the SCLC organization. Unfortunately, we have not seen such nobility of character nor this kind of servant’s spirit in most of the civil rights leaders who have succeed Dr. King in death.

Dr. King’s Life Exudes One of Biblical Leadership

The sacrificial life that Dr. King lived was a true testimony of biblical leadership. And for this reason, this nation celebrates his birthday on January 15 as tribute to the kind of life and service that he rendered as ultimate sacrifice to serve others. I cannot think of a more befitting testimony that speaks of a sacrificial life that portrays and