Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Dr. King’s Televised Challenge to Obama: Tavis Smiley's Anti-War MLK
Glen Ford, BAR executive editor
31 Mar 2010
🖨️ Print Article
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Since the onset of the Obama phenomenon, Dr. Martin Luther King’s birth and death days have been “polluted” by false and ahistorical comparisons between Obama and MLK. The two men represent opposite political poles: one, a radical opponent of imperial war and concentrated economic power, the other, an ally of Wall Street and commander-in-chief of “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” In focusing on King, the man of peace, Tavis Smiley’s PBS special corrects a history that has been distorted, sometimes beyond recognition – not the least by the revisionist and poseur in the White House.

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Lexis-Olivier Ray
    Black People Make Up 75% Of All Weed Arrests At LAX, Data Shows
    16 Apr 2025
    Roughly a third of the people who were arrested by LAPD in the city of Los Angeles for cannabis-related offenses since 2020 were arrested in Westchester. Nearly all of those arrests happened at Los…
  • Nora Barrows-Friedman
    Rafah “obliterated” by Israel’s attacks
    16 Apr 2025
    Israel is intensifying its genocidal assault on Gaza—starving civilians, bombing hospitals, and burning journalists alive. Yet amid the devastation, Palestinians persist in acts of defiant resistance.
  • Daniel Noboa
    Oscar León
    Daniel Noboa’s Electoral Theft Will Cement Cartel and Corporate Control Over Ecuador
    16 Apr 2025
    President Daniel Noboa is accused of stealing Ecuador’s election. He’s now poised to consolidate control of a system that has benefitted cartels and multinational corporations – including his family…
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio April 11, 2025
    11 Apr 2025
    In this week’s segment, we hear about a new effort to have an independent, socialist candidate on the ballot in New York City’s upcoming mayoral race. But first, we speak to an academic about the…
  • Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Palestine Solidarity Under Attack: A Conversation with Helyeh Doutaghi
    11 Apr 2025
    Our guest is Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi. She was Deputy Director of the Law and Political Economy Project at Yale University Law School until she was targeted by Zionist groups dedicated to silencing anyone…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us