Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a nation where all people can share in the wealth of the earth is at the root of Texas Housers’ mission to create a state where all can live in a quality home that is affordable, dignified, safe, and in a neighborhood of their choosing. His continued legacy of the Beloved Community is a guiding principle for our organization and has been so since its founding in 1988.
On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as we reflect on Dr. King’s work and vision, we must recognize that the legacy of civil rights in the United States–his legacy–is under direct attack. These times present the perfect opportunity to return to the prescient words of Dr. King to guide us on the path to justice.
The King Center described the Beloved Community as follows:
In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood. In the Beloved Community, international disputes will be resolved by peaceful conflict-resolution and reconciliation of adversaries, instead of military power. Love and trust will triumph over fear and hatred. Peace with justice will prevail over war and military conflict
This must be the spirit we move with to establish the communities we wish to see, where all Texans can live in safe, dignified housing of their choice. But to get there, we must identify the challenges that lay in front of us.
In 2026, the anniversary of Dr. King’s birth is observed in particularly arduous times. Racism and bigotry have creeped from the shadows to mainstream platforms, State violence against lawful citizens has become routine, and the President of the United States has suggested that Civil Rights came at a cost for white Americans, stating “a lot of people were very badly treated,” adding “it was a reverse discrimination.”
On this day celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. King, we do not point out this backsliding out of despair, but rather to show that the solution is also in front of our eyes. What Dr. King devoted his life to was widely viewed as radical by many of his day, and it will take a similarly radical devotion to equality and justice to build a world where all are free.
In his last book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community, King spoke directly to the issue of the federal government gifting subsidy to the well-off instead of the poor in his lifetime, and doubly so with regard to housing equality
Once more priorities have to be reversed, the federal government subsidizes the non poor twice as much as the poor when we include the various forms of subsidies such as middle-income public housing, tax deductions for mortgage interest and real estate taxes. The federal government should be subsidizing housing activities on such a scale that all American housing meets at least minimal standards of adequacy. Housing is too important to be left to private enterprise with only minor government effort to shape policy. We need the equivalent of a Medicare for housing.
These were bold ideas when he wrote them, and they remain bold today. They must not just be merely suggestions, but a leading platform for our elected officials deliver on. Dr. King also notes, however, that the world he envisions goes beyond a vision for shared economic and political power, but to the very moral foundation of our society:
“There is no theoretical or sociological divorce between liberation and integration. In our kind of society liberation cannot come without integration and integration cannot come without liberation. I speak here of integration in both the ethical and political senses. On the one hand, integration is true intergroup, interpersonal living. On the other hand, it is the mutual sharing of power. I cannot see how the Negro will be totally liberated from the crushing weight of poor education, squalid housing and economic strangulation until he is integrated, with power, into every level of American life.”
With this in mind, we must zoom out from solely focusing on the agnostic goal of housing affordability and see the broader picture of true housing equity and justice. This type of call for equality on every level is what justice-minded movements have strived toward since Dr. King’s murder in 1968, and what those who opposed his ideals fearmonger over to this very day, with increasing fervor in recent years. It’s why we must forcefully and unabashedly uphold these courageous and honorable ideals. Dr. King warned us not to be timid or feckless, but be bold, as our adversaries will not hesitate to act:
“In this generation the children of darkness are still shrewder than the children of light. They are always zealous and conscientious in using time for their evil purposes. If they want to preserve segregation and tyranny, they do not wait on time, they make time for their fellow conspirator. If they want to defeat a fair housing bill they don’t say to the public, ‘be patient, wait on time, and our cause will win.’ rather they use time to spend big money to disseminate half truths, to confuse the popular mind. But the forces of light cautiously wait, patiently pray and timidly act. So, we end up with a double destruction: the destructive violence of the bad people and the destructive silence of the good people.”
These are serious times in which many are fearful not just for their futures, but for their present day safety and well-being. Now is the time to act, not passively wait for the perfect opportunity to speak up and demand justice. Thankfully, we have the rubric to fight the injustices that lay before us.
“Like life, racial understanding is not something that we find but something that we must create. What we find when we enter these mortal plains is existence; but existence is the raw material out of which all life must be created. A productive and happy life is not something that you find, it is something that you make. And so the ability of Negroes and whites to work together, to understand each other, will not be found ready made, it must be created by the fact of contact.”
