A ‘nice, kind figure’ or a man who challenged America to live up to its ideals?
Clyde Ford is a psychotherapist, author, mythologist, chiropractor, software engineer and public speaker who founded Bellingham’s Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration in 1991.
He’ll talk about King as “an inconvenient hero” as well as the history of the event in Bellingham and his role as the director of the new MLK Jr. Library Publishing Project at HarperCollins, on Jan. 17 in Bellingham. The event is hosted by Salish Current in partnership with Village Books.
Miriam Karamoko, executive director of the Whatcom Racial Equity Commission (WREC) and WREC founders will also speak.
On the theme of King as “an inconvenient hero,” Ford said, “the convenient hero is the MLK, Jr. who we would rather remember, delivering ‘I Have A Dream,’ instead of the MLK who delivered ‘Beyond Vietnam’.”
Ford believes that most people “would rather see King as a nice, kind figure rather than a man who challenged America to live up to the country’s ideals.”
“I was so pleased that in 2008 we could bring my teacher, mentor and dear friend Vincent G. Harding to speak at that year’s MLK Jr. Day event,” Ford said. “As a close associate and confidant of Dr. King and the person who actually wrote the seminal ‘Beyond Vietnam’ speech, Harding inspired everyone who heard him talk, as he had inspired me and so many students over the years, to understand the importance of knowing Martin as an ‘inconvenient hero’.”
Real conversations
Ford has spoken to numerous college and university audiences, particularly in his “Let’s Talk About Race” presentations. Part of his message is that we need to have a nationwide conversation about unresolved issues that won’t disappear. He has shared in past talks that we’ve been taught to debate, rather than have real conversations about controversial topics.
“It’s certainly difficult in the current social and political climate where everyone feels justified in making up their own alternative versions of the truth,” he said. “But you start by finding a partner who’s willing to have a difficult conversation because you can’t insist on such a conversation with someone who’s not willing to engage, or holds such deeply entrenched beliefs that they have no room to hear the beliefs of others.”
And then, he said, “you learn the basics of good communication — active listening — and you stick to that while talking about your differences.”
Ford thinks “we need to listen without talking, repeat without editing and respect without judging.” He believes we need to come to terms with our history, acknowledge, recognize, converse and reconsider our truths.
Healing: personal and national
“The first thing,” Ford said, “is to recognize that the healing of persons and the healing of nations are mirror images of each other. You can’t have one without the other.”
He added that “unhealed personal issues will give rise to the aberrant political rhetoric and actions we see today, while unaddressed political, economic and social issues will give rise to individuals who are not allowed to live up to their greatest potential.”
Ford doesn’t particularly like the idea of creating “safe spaces” which he said “usually means a place where people can go to hear ideas and beliefs not much different from their own.”
“I am a fan of creating resilient students and resilient citizens who feel safe listening to the beliefs and ideas of others without feeling that means they necessarily accept them” he said.
In June 2021, HarperCollins signed an agreement with the Martin Luther King, Jr. estate. The agreement granted HarperCollins a 10-year exclusive license to republish previously published material from the MLK archives and to publish new works. The MLK Jr. Library Publishing Project was created from this agreement and Ford was named as its director.
The MLK Jr. Library imprint currently has about a dozen books, with more on the way. “Our mission is to bring the meaning and message of Dr. King to a new generation of readers and activists” he said.
Racial equity work in Whatcom
Karamoko became the first executive director of WREC in August 2024, following the commission’s founding in late 2022.
“The Whatcom Racial Equity Commission is a quasi-governmental organization composed of members of the community and elected officials working toward racial equity in Whatcom County,” Karamoko said. It operates under the umbrella of the Chuckanut Health Foundation.
Karamoko conducted research on racial prejudice, discrimination and intergroup relations at Western Washington University and has promoted racial equity by working at Center for Education, Equity and Diversity at WWU, which provides mentorship and counseling to support the academic successes of communities of color and the LGBTQ+ communities.
“As we continue to make strides toward a more equitable world, we must continue to assess the legacy of our change makers,” Karamoko said. “The recognition that we have inherited this legacy and the history of the United States is relevant in January 2025. It allows us to answer questions about how to continue building on civil rights in our current environment.
“King gets quoted a lot and sometimes gets taken out of context. I hope the audience takes away his teachings about the nuances of equality and equity.”
One of King’s favorite poems was Langston Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again.” On its face, Ford said, that poem “stands in sharp contrast to ‘Make America Great Again,’ and in that contrast lies the relevance of Hughes’ poem for today.”
Ford hopes that the Jan. 17 event will be one in support of what he says is “a precious community resource” — the Salish Current — and that its readers will come out to support the online newsroom.
The event will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 17 at the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship at 1207 Ellsworth Street. Admission is by advance registration.
— By Margaret Bikman