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April 4
Martin Luther King, Jr., Susanna Salter, Dorothea Dix, and Maya Angelou
David Barnhart
April 04, 2025
Bust of Dorothea Dix at the Oregon State Health Museum of Mental Health. Own photo, 2025.
Today marks the assassination and martyrdom, in 1968, of the Rev. Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr., who was a public theologian and prophet for civil rights. His impact was so powerful that many national leaders who would oppose him today invoke his name. He added and expanded to the philosophy of nonviolent resistance in the pursuit of justice.
Today also marks the date, in 1887, that Susanna Salter became the first woman mayor elected in the United States.
This also marks the birthday, in 1802, of Dorothea Dix, a reformer of the treatment for mentally ill persons. She suffered from depression and likely developmental PTSD herself. Due to her efforts in the United States and Europe, many publicly funded asylums were created. She also stood up for the profession of nursing during the Civil War when many male doctors challenged her authority.
Today also marks the birthday, in 1928, of Maya Angelou, poet and civil rights activist, who shared her life story in a way that inspired many, and empowered Black women especially. Her artistic career spanned dancing, acting, teaching, writing, and community organizing.
Reflection:
On the subject of prisons, Dorothea Dix wrote:
While we diminish the stimulant of fear, we must increase to prisoners the incitements of hope: in proportion as we extinguish the terrors of the law, we should awaken and strengthen the control of the conscience.
While Dorothea Dix transformed the way we generally think of mental health and institutional treatment, it’s important to point out that the largest provider of mental health services in Alabama is still the state prison system. It has been estimated that 80% of people in prison are there, in part, because of untreated mental illness.
Many of her reforms were undone under Ronald Reagan with the “Mental Health Systems Act.” While using the humane language of deinstitutionalization, mental health care funding was slashed and the homeless population exploded.
Dorothea Dix also said:
The tapestry of history has no point at which you can cut it and leave the design intelligible.
Her saying is especially important under this U.S. regime which is attempting to erase the history of anyone but white men.
Maya Angelou wrote:
I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me, 'I love you.' ... There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.
And:
You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!
Like Martin Luther King, Jr., Maya Angelou’s words have been so inspiring that even people who would have stood against her activism quote her.
Of all the many important things that Martin Luther King, Jr. said, I believe this is the most important one for white churchgoers to hear, as often as possible. It is true not just about civil rights, but about every injustice that has become part of policy and the status quo:
The white liberal must rid himself of the notion that there can be a tensionless transition from the old order of injustice to the new order of justice. Two things are clear to me, and I hope they are clear to white liberals. One is that the Negro cannot achieve emancipation through violent rebellion. The other is that the Negro cannot achieve emancipation by passively waiting for the white race voluntarily to grant it to him. The Negro has not gained a single right in America without persistent pressure and agitation. However lamentable it may seem, the Negro is now convinced that white America will never admit him to equal rights unless it is coerced into doing it.
Nonviolent coercion always brings tension to the surface. This tension, however, must not be seen as destructive. There is a kind of tension that is both healthy and necessary for growth. Society needs nonviolent gadflies to bring its tensions into the open and force its citizens to confront the ugliness of their prejudices and the tragedy of their racism.
It is important for the liberal to see that the oppressed person who agitates for his rights is not the creator of tension. He merely brings out the hidden tension that is already alive.
Prayer: God of transformation, Bender of the arc of history, teach us to live lives that inspire even our enemies. Amen.