Martin Luther King on being proud of "maladjustment," and calling for starting The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment

1 September 1967:

For a great example of when MLK called for forming the "The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment" read the last few paragraphs of his speech in front of the American Psychological Association Annual Meeting:

http://www.apa.org/monitor/jan99/king.html

Here are some excerpts from that historic speech:

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

There are certain technical words in every academic discipline which soon become stereotypes and even clichés. Every academic discipline has its technical nomenclature. You who are in the field of psychology have given us a great word. It is the word maladjusted. This word is probably used more than any other word in psychology. ...

But on the other hand, I am sure that we will recognize that there are some things in our society, some things in our world, to which we should never be adjusted.

There are some things concerning which we must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will.

We must never adjust ourselves to racial discrimination and racial segregation. We must never adjust ourselves to religious bigotry.

We must never adjust ourselves to economic conditions that take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. We must never adjust ourselves to the madness of militarism, and the self-defeating effects of physical violence. ...

Creative maladjustment.

Thus, it may well be that our world is in dire need of a new organization, The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment.

Men and women should be as maladjusted as the prophet Amos, who in the midst of the injustices of his day, could cry out in words that echo across the centuries, 'Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream'; or as maladjusted as Abraham Lincoln, who in the midst of his vacillations finally came to see that this nation could not survive half slave and half free; or as maladjusted as Thomas Jefferson, who in the midst of an age amazingly adjusted to slavery, could scratch across the pages of history, words lifted to cosmic proportions, 'We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. And that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'

And through such creative maladjustment, we may be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man's inhumanity to man, into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice.

I have not lost hope. I must confess that these have been very difficult days for me personally. And these have been difficult days for every civil rights leader, for every lover of justice and peace.

~~~~~~~~~~

There are many examples of MLK calling for the IAACM for many years, here is a chronology of some of them:

(1) 14 May 1963

In St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights he called for the IMMEDIATE creation of the IAACM:

http://moreinthebox.blogspot.com/2006/01/international-association-for.html


(2) 18 December 1963

MLK repeated that call later that year in at a Western Michigan University lecture:

http://www.wmich.edu/~ulib/archives/mlk/transcription.html


(3) 14 June 1964

Springfield College commencement address (the FBI tried to stop this speech):

http://www.weye.org/2006/03/mlks-springfield-college-address/


(4) 1964

Also, Highlander (where he got training, and where MindFreedom has met a couple of times) says MLK repeated this call in front of a church group that same year 1964:

http://www.wier.ca/~%20daniel_schugurensky/assignment1/1957mlk.html


(5) 21 January 1965

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called for creating IAACM to an estimated crowd of 8,000 people in Recreation Building on the Penn State University Park:

http://www.psu.edu/ur/extra/2003/mlk/

(6) 26 February 1965 

In his famous Sermon at Temple Israel of Hollywood, MLK said he was proud of being maladjusted and called for creating the IAACM.

You may hear an MP3 and read the transcript here:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlktempleisraelhollywood.htm

(7) 21 April 1965

He again called for the IAACM to start, this time in a speech in front of the NY Bar Association... _Time Magazine_ dismissed his call as 'half joking':

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898653,00.html

We are interested in the other half!


(8) 19 June 1965

And also at an Antioch College Commencement:

http://www.antioch-college.edu/news/commencement/mlkspeech.html


(8) 10 February 1966

At Illinois Wesleyan University commencement:

http://www2.iwu.edu/newsrelease06/KingSpeech1.shtml

http://www2.iwu.edu/newsrelease06/KingSpeech6.shtml


(9) 18 May 1966

Plus a major speech in front of the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly on he said the world was in "dire need" of that IAACM:

http://www.uua.org/news/warelecture.html


(10) 1 September 1967

By the most amazing occasion was when he repeated his statement about the "dire need" for this new organization IN FRONT OF THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION:

http://www.apa.org/monitor/jan99/king.html

(11) From his sermons collected in the book Strength to Love

A number of MLK's sermons were put in a book entitled Strength to Love that his widow Coretta Scott King felt summed up his philosophy. He speaks about the "transformed nonconformist." You can read a page from that book that helps define the "transformed nonconformist" here:

http://tinyurl.com/2n62ax

Here's a quote:

“This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Our planet teeters on the brink of atomic annihilation; dangerous passions of pride, hatred and selfishness are enthroned in our lives; and men do reverence before false gods of nationalism and materialism. The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.”

Earlier MLK references to being proud of his "maladjustment":

Searching the Internet, MLK was talking about being "proud" of being "maladjusted" going back to at least 1955, so this theme lasted at least 12 years.

Martin Luther King's ''Montgomery Story'' Address, 1955

by Martin Luther King, Jr.

http://tucnak.fsv.cuni.cz/~calda/Documents/1950s/MLK_55.html

There are certain words in the technical vocabulary of every academic discipline that tend after a while to become stereotype and cliches, there is a word in modern psychology which is now probably more familiar than any other words in psychology. It is the word the maladjusted; it is the ringing cry of the new child, psychology -- maladjusted.

And as a minister seeing and counseling with people very day concerning their problems and their maladjustment's, I'm certainly concerned with those who are maladjusted, concerned to see everybody as adjusted as possible.

But I want to leave this evening saying to you that there are some things in our social system that I'm proud to be maladjusted to, and I call upon you to be maladjusted to. I never intend to adjust myself to the viciousness of lynch mobs; I never intend to become adjusted to the evils of segregation and discrimination; I never intend to become adjusted to the tragic inequalities of the economic system which will take necessity from the masses to give luxury to the classes; I never intend to become adjusted to the insanity's of militarism, the self-defeating method of physical violence.

There are some things that I never intend to become adjusted to, and I call upon you to continue to be maladjusted.

History still has a choice place for the maladjusted. There is still a call for individuals to be maladjusted.

The salvation of our world lies in the hands of the maladjusted.

I call upon you to be maladjusted, maladjusted as the prophet Amos who in the midst of the tragic inequalities of injustice in his day cried out in words that echoes across the generations: ''Let judgment run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.''

As maladjusted as Lincoln who confronted a nation divided against itself and had the vision to see that the nation could not exist half free, and half slave.

Maladjusted as the -- hundreds and thousands -- of Negroes, North and South who are determined now to stand up for freedom, willing to face possible violence and possible death, who are willing to stand up and sacrifice and struggle until segregation is a dead reality and until integration is a fact.

Maladjusted as Jefferson who in the midst of an age amazingly adjusted to slavery cried out in words of cosmic proportions: ''All men are created equal; they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.''

I call upon you to follow this maladjustment. It is through such a maladjustment that we will be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man's inhumanity to man to the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom, equality and justice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Martin Luther King in 1957 at Highlander

At Highlander, Martin Luther King, Jr. was already talking about creative "maladjustment." Highlander is a school celebrating their 75th anniversary this weekend, 1 September 2007.

MindFreedom activist Kristina Yates is attending, and bringing up the important information about Highlander's link to MLK and Creative Maladjustment!

For a PDF of the letter from MFI to Highlander congratulating them on 75 years, and remembering the relevance of MLK and the IAACM, click here.

To read about MLK's early discussion of creative maladjustment at Highlander in 1957 see:

http://www.wier.ca/~%20daniel_schugurensky/assignment1/1957mlk.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Martin Luther King on June 6, 1961 at Lincoln University

by Martin Luther King, Jr.

http://www.indiana.edu/~ivieweb/mlkad.html

Every academic discipline has its technical nomenclature, and modern psychology has a word that is used, probably, more than any other. It is the word maladjusted. This word is the ringing cry of modern child psychology. Certainly all of us want to live a well-adjusted life in order to avoid the neurotic personality. But I say to you, there are certain things within our social order to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I call upon all men of good will to be maladjusted.

If you will allow the preacher in me to come out now, let me say to you that I never did intend to adjust to the evils of segregation and discrimination. I never did intend to adjust myself to religious bigotry. I never did intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I never did intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism, and the self-defeating effects of physical violence. And I call upon all men of good will to be maladjusted because it may well be that the salvation of our world lies in the hands of the maladjusted.

So let us be maladjusted, as maladjusted as the prophet Amos, who in the midst of the injustices of his day could cry out in words that echo across the centuries, "Let justice rundown like water and righteousness like a mighty stream." Let us be as maladjusted as Abraham Lincoln, who had--the vision to see that this nation could not exist half slave and half free.

Let us be maladjusted as Jesus of Nazareth, who could look into the eyes of the men and women of his generation and cry out, "Love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Pray for them that despitefully use you."

I believe that it is through such maladjustment that we will be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man's inhumanity to man into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice. That will be the day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!"