Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., The Time is Always Right to Do What’s Right

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929. After receiving a doctorate degree in Theology, King became a scholar and Baptist minister and later the leader of the African American civil rights movement during the 1950 and 1960s. He led the fight against racism and an unjust social system for people of color through non-violent resistance and civil disobedience, inspired by his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. His method of non-violent resistance and activism helped African Americans achieve greater equity in federal and state law in the U.S., played a pivotal role in ending the legal segregation of people of color, helped to create the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and inspired the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Dr. King was assassinated in 1968. 

Dr. King saw the intersection of multiple social justice issues, and clearly saw how one issue was intrinsically connected to another. He acknowledged, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” speaking about how if we allow and accept treating some unjustly and unfairly, that can mean we tolerate treating others unfairly too. In other words, “No one is free when others are oppressed.” If he had lived long enough, instead of having his life cut short at the young age of 39 years old , he may have embraced animal rights in his “justice for all” philosophy by ending the injustice meted out to the billions of animals killed for food every year, entirely unnecessarily.

If we really want to practice equality, justice and nonviolence, we must also extend it to non-human animals who are individuals, like us, and sentient beings, like us. We violate the rights of animals when we exploit them, abuse them, cause them to suffer or kill them—all for entirely unnecessary reasons. Dr. King believed the fight against oppression was not only for African Americans or for select groups, but for all those who suffer under unfair oppression, discrimination and prejudice – and we can logically extend that to animals. 

Dr. King was deeply inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, world-renowned peace advocate, who believed in practicing non-violence to non-human animals as well, and was a committed vegetarian himself. Gandhi famously said: 

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Dexter Scott King, 2^nd Son of Coretta and Dr. King

Dr. King’s son, Dexter Scott King, has been a dedicated vegan and animal rights activist since the late 1980s. He became a vegan after his 1987 visit to a vegan health spa founded by the late Dick Gregory in the Bahamas. After visiting Gregory’s spa, King realized he felt healthier in body and soul when eating plant-based, non-animal foods diet. Dexter came to believe that animal rights were a logical, rational extension of Dr. King’s philosophy of non-violence. As president of the Atlanta-based Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-violent Social Change, he credits his vegan diet with giving him strength to further the goals of equality and justice for all.

Dexter Scott King was just seven years old when his father was murdered. He once told the Vegetarian Times magazine:

“Veganism has given me a higher level of awareness and spirituality. If you’re violent to yourself by putting things into your body that violate its spirit, it will be difficult not to perpetuate that onto someone else.” 

Dexter is also noted for saying: 

“If you’re violent to yourself by putting things into your body that violate its spirit, it will be difficult not to perpetuate that onto someone else.”

Coretta Scott King, Wife of Dr. King

Dr. King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, was said to be so proud of her son when he decided to become a vegan, that she followed his example and became vegan herself in 1995—for the last ten years of her life. She believed animal rights were a rational extension of Dr. King’s philosophy of nonviolence.  

Practicing Nonviolence to Animals

There are many ways in which each of us can take action for justice and nonviolence in our daily lives. We can use our voice to speak out when we see injustice to humans and animals. We can also respect animals by not eating them and supporting the violence done to them for food, clothing, entertainment, and product testing. One of the biggest ways we can practice nonviolence to animals is for food—something so temporary as a meal that uses animal foods we don’t need to live a healthy life. Choosing to be vegan and to live a vegan lifestyle extends deep compassion, respect and justice for animals and is a strong voice against animal exploitation.

To better understand the link between human rights and animal rights, consider the words of  Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu: 

“I have spent my life fighting discrimination and injustice, whether the victims are blacks, women, or gays and lesbians. No human being should be the target of prejudice or the object of vilification or be denied basic rights. But there are other issues of justice—not only for human beings but for the world’s other sentient creatures. The matter of abuse and cruelty we inflict on other animals has to fight for our attention in what seems an already overfull moral agenda. I have seen firsthand how injustice gets overlooked when victims are powerless and vulnerable, when they have no one to speak up for them and no means of representing themselves to a higher authority. Animals are in precisely that position. Unless we are mindful of their interests and speak loudly on their behalf, abuse and cruelty go unchallenged.” ~ Global Guide to Animal Protection 

We can all learn from Dr. King and his family, to rise up against the injustices that are happening to both humans and to animals—behind closed doors, in the dark, on racetracks, in rodeos, in marine parks, in slaughterhouses, and on industrial farms—and work to liberate all animals from enslavement, misery, exploitation, and cruel abuse. Let justice ring for human—and non-human animals alike, everywhere. With animal rights, we address the most oppressed of all—living sentient beings who are defenseless and are completely unable to protect themselves.

Definition of Speciesism:

Treating the fundamental interests of humans and non-human animals differently. Speciesism is injustice and discrimination against animals, giving less moral consideration to non-human animals and treating them worse for an unjustified reason. Speciesism is morally objectionable because like racism, sexism, etc., is uses a morally inappropriate measure (species) to devalue and denigrate their interests as sentient beings, depriving them of justice and respect. You cannot make slavery, child molestation, rape, murder—more “humane.” It needs to be abolished, along with all forms of injustice, in our treatment of animals. Speciesism is very similar to other forms of discrimination against human beings based on their sex, skin color, sexual preference, income, and for many other reasons.

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor political, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him that it is right.” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.