The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in His Own Words
The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born January 15th, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just 39 years old. While Dr. King is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People’s Campaign to address issues of economic justice. Dr. King was also a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy and the Vietnam War. We play his “Beyond Vietnam” speech, which he delivered at New York City’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, as well as his last speech, “I Have Been to the Mountain Top,” that he gave on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated. Click here to go to video and text.


2 Years After Devastating Earthquake, Haiti’s Rebuilding Weighed Down by Legacy of Foreign Meddling
Memorials are being held in Haiti to mark the second anniversary of the devastating earthquake that killed roughly 300,000 people and left more than 1.5 million homeless. Two years later, the recovery process is just beginning in parts of Haiti. Half-a-million people are still living in crowded camps. According to the United Nations, of the $4.5 billion pledged after the earthquake, only about $2.4 billion has been delivered. Only half of the debris littering the capital of Port-au-Prince and its surrounding areas has been cleared.

President Michel Martelly led a solemn ceremony that paid homage to the dead at Titanyen, a mass burial grave north of Port-au-Prince:

PRESIDENT MICHEL MARTELLY: [translated] Ladies and gentlemen, today, on January 12, 2012, we are inspired by the passage to the other side of those who died in the tragedy. They inspire us, not to lament them and to cry, but as an example, as we manage and build a Haitian habitat and construct in accordance with our nature’s security, rules and regulations. It is in this spirit that my presidency will lead the reconstruction of our country. Ladies and gentlemen, in this space of memory, I extend, on my behalf, on that of my spouse and my family and of the entire government, public institutions, my deepest sympathy to the families of all the victims of the earthquake of January 12, 2010, sympathy to those who are still alive to this tragedy, one in which we recall the responsibility of Haiti to invent another destiny.
The United Nations estimates international donors gave Haiti over $1.6 billion in relief since the earthquake and more than $2 billion in recovery aid over the last two years. But critics say little of the funding made it directly to the Haitian people, instead going to international non-governmental organizations and private companies involved in the relief effort. Meanwhile, Haitian residents say entire neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince have been ignored during the recovery process.

OTELIER HERMAN: [translated] Two years after, nothing has been done in the poorest neighborhoods. As a citizen within the poor neighborhoods, we have found that there was not a policy for housing, and that’s why so many people have died.


The Mass Incarceration of Black America
Mass incarceration of African Americans has rolled back many achievements of the civil rights movement. Today there are more African Americans under correctional control, whether in prison or jail, on probation or on parole, than there were enslaved in 1850. And more African-American men are disenfranchised now because of felon disenfranchisement laws than in 1870. Alexander, whose book "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" is newly released in paperback, argues that "[n]othing less than a major social movement has any hope of ending mass incarceration in America or inspiring a recommitment to [Martin Luther] King's dream... My view is that this has got to be a human rights movement. It’s got to be a movement for education, not incarceration; for jobs, not jails; a movement that acknowledges the basic humanity and dignity of all people, no matter who you are or what you have done."

MICHELLE ALEXANDER: Yes, yes. You know, I think we’ve become blind in this country to the ways in which we’ve managed to reinvent a caste-like system here in the United States, one that functions in a manner that is as oppressive, in many respects, as the one that existed in South Africa under apartheid and that existed under Jim Crow here in the United States. Although our rules and laws are now officially colorblind, they operate to discriminate in a grossly disproportionate fashion. Through the war on drugs and the "get tough" movement, millions of poor people, overwhelmingly poor people of color, have been swept into our nation’s prisons and jails, branded criminals and felons, primarily for nonviolent and drug-related crimes—the very sorts of crimes that occur with roughly equal frequency in middle-class white neighborhoods and on college campuses but go largely ignored—branded criminals and felons, and then are ushered into a permanent second-class status, where they’re stripped of the many rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement, like the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, and the right to be free of legal discrimination in employment, housing, access to education and public benefits.


Emergency Manager Law Protested in Michigan
In Michigan, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. John Conyers and religious leaders held a protest on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day outside the home of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. They were protesting Michigan’s increasing use of the state appointing unelected emergency financial managers to take over management of predominantly cities and school districts that have a large African-American populations.


Tucson Suspends Ethnic Studies Program under Threat of Funding Cut
In Arizona, the Tucson Unified School District has voted to suspend its acclaimed Mexican American Studies program under the threat of a loss of funding for allowing it to continue. A school administrator had previously ruled the program violates a new state law that bans the teaching of any class designed for a particular ethnic group or that "promote[s] resentment toward a race or class of people." Under the ruling, the district would have lost up to $14 million in funding this fiscal year had it allowed the program to carry on.

Tucson school district officials have also released an initial list of books to be banned from the school system following last weeks’ vote to suspend the district’s acclaimed Mexican American Studies program due to a state ban on the teaching of ethnic studies. The banned books include: "Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years" edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson; Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest”; “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by Paolo Freire; “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos” by Rodolfo Acuña; and “Chicano!: The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement" by F. Arturo Rosales. Salon.com reported teachers have also been informed to stay away from any books where “race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes."


Dozens Arrested in Anti-Torture Protest Outside White House
And nearly 40 people were arrested outside the White House on Thursday in a protest against torture and the indefinite detention of prisoners by the United States. The group Witness Against Torture staged the action as part of a series of protests marking this week’s 10th anniversary of the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay.


Report: Israelis Recruited Militants to Carry Out Covert Operations Against Iran
Foreign Policy Magazine is reporting Israeli Mossad agents have posed as American spies to recruit members of the Pakistani militant group Jundallah to carry out covert operations against Iran. According to the report, the CIA learned about the so-called false flag operation several years ago. It is unclear if the program continues. The magazine report was published just days after Iran accused Israel of assassinating one of its nuclear scientists.


Karzai Condemns Video of U.S. Marines Urinating on Afghan Corpses
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned a video appearing to show four uniformed U.S. marines urinating on the corpses of three Afghan men. Karzai said in a statement, "This act by American soldiers is simply inhuman and condemnable in the strongest possible terms." The video was posted online Wednesday. In the video, one marine says, "Have a great day, buddy." Another jokes, "Golden, like a shower." The Marines said it had launched an investigation. CNN reports the marines in the video are carrying 30-caliber sniper rifles and wearing helmets issued to members of Marine Corps sniper teams. Desecration of a body by U.S. troops could be considered a potential war crime. Local Afghan residents warned the video could derail the possibility of peace talks with the Taliban.

Afghan resident: "We condemn this action by U.S. soldiers who have urinated on the dead bodies of Taliban fighters. It will harm the peace talks. It seems that the U.S. never want peace talks to happen in Afghanistan, and this action will increase misery in our country."


Nigerian Unions Call for Strike to End
The Nigerian government has announced a partial cut in gas prices following nine days of strikes and protests backed by many of Nigeria’s largest trade unions. On Monday, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress called for the strike to end but a third organization, the Joint Action Front said the protests should continue.

Abdulwahed Omar, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress: "In the last 24 hours, the labor movement and its allies who had the historic responsibility of coordinating these mass actions, have had cause to review the various actions and decided that in order to save lives and in the interest of national survival, these mass actions be suspended."

In other news from Nigeria, two oil workers are missing after an offshore oil rig owned by Chevron caught fire on Monday.


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