Fifty years and one day ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. rose to the lectern of a podium on the steps of Lincoln Memorial and was introduced to thousands gathered for the March on Washington. As their applause died to a murmur, he launched into one of the greatest speeches of all time. He told them that he had a dream. History was forever marked.
Speakers from Al Sharpton to Martin Luther King III spoke before thousands in Washington D.C. last weekend to celebrate the anniversary of that occasion. President Obama did the same yesterday. But absent from both the news coverage and speeches of those recent events was the mention of another milestone anniversary from the struggle for equality long left to the shadows — one written by history’s invisible man.
I, like many others, first became familiar with King in kindergarten. The man and his words pervaded my history lessons from grade to grade, eventually augmented by figures like Booker T. Washington and the Black Panthers to form my knowledge about civil rights movement. However, nowhere was I taught about Ralph Ellison.
Ellison, a writer and scholar born in 1914, predated King’s influence by roughly a decade. He was a contemporary and friend of Richard Wright, author of “Black Boy” (who did make his way into my curricula, unlike Ellison). His book “Invisible Man,” released in 1952, is perhaps just as important as “I Have a Dream” in the lexicon of language devoted to equality.
Ellison’s masterpiece, which forwent the protest novel format in favor of a symbolist critique, was groundbreaking in its use of jazz-influenced prose and its revolutionary ideas.
Set during the Harlem Renaissance, it attacked both the corruption of leftist, white-led cadres that claimed to fight for equality and the violence espoused by black militant groups of the time with unapologetic, raw expression. Undoubtedly due to its breathtaking prose and progressive significance, “Invisible Man” won the National Book Award for fiction 60 years ago in 1953.
At no time during the recent anniversary celebrations and their press coverage did I hear this achievement mentioned or even alluded to.
While King, his speech and the March on Washington have been justifiably referenced and commemorated it seems history has pushed Ellison to the margins. King has several monuments across country and even the world, while there is but one lone dedication to Ellison buried deep in Harlem — a looming bronze cutout of a man in a patch of barely-kept greenery along a side street, only erected in 2002.
Perhaps it was his ties to Marxism or his harsh persona in comparison to King that shoved Ellison to history’s back pages. But regardless of the reason, his oft-forgotten role in social progress remains a woeful omission to recent anniversary mentions and educations alike.
Ellison once wrote, “…we can, with a few well chosen, well written words, smash all that crummy filth to hell.”
Even if my words aren’t as well-chosen or as well-written as his, I hope this serves in sending his lack of recognition — with the inequality he helped banish — to hell, too.
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