Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Path to Guaranteed Income: Examining His Motivations

Author: Owen Greene

Field of Study: Arts and Humanities

Program Affiliation: Source Project Research Program

Faculty Mentors: Will Glovinsky

Easel: 53

Timeslot: Midday

Abstract: With the recent surge in popularity of universal basic income, Martin Luther King, Jr. 's advocacy for a guaranteed income from 1965 until his assassination in 1968, has received heightened interest. Scholars including Tommie Shelby, Roger Bruns, and Jonathan Eig have pointed to numerous factors behind his support for the policy, including unrest due to the Vietnam War, the controversial Moynihan Report, and King’s work with the civil rights movement. Drawing on King’s public addresses, books, and essays, this paper argues for the importance of his evolving understanding of economic conditions and his direct work in impoverished urban neighborhoods as influential factors guiding King toward an embrace of guaranteed income. Discussing King’s distinctive arguments for a guaranteed income and collaborations with groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and National Welfare Rights Organization can teach us how to fight for a guaranteed income today.