One21: A New Revolution in the Urban Environment

Martin in the City

Although the third week in January is federally designated as Martin Luther King Day and the inauguration of President Obama was pushed up one day from January 20, January 21 also recalls the urban origins of King's non-violent strategy specifically and the Civil Rights Movement generally. Like Gandhi, King's strategy for national reconciliation was influenced by the urban environment.

The deployment of a non-violent strategy by Dr. King in the contestation for equality is a well-rehearsed and well-published fact; Americans of color took part in boycotts, sit-ins, and coalition marches. It is also well-known that the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi exerted a significant influence on the development of King's non-violent strategy; King openly admitted so.

Mahatma Gandhi did not only inspire King; he developed his strategy for obtaining independence from Great Britain as a result of his exposure to the metropolitan environs of South Africa. In his autobiography, Hind Swaraj, Gandhi admitted that "South Africa gave the start to my life's mission." There, he encountered the impact of the discriminatory policies of British rule on the various communities of color- Africans, Indians, Arabs, and Turks.

Before returning to India, the urban environment of South Africa germinated, nurtured, and harvested the prinicpal concept of Gandhi's and King's non-violent strategy- swaraj, or self-rule. South Africa effectively provided the laboratory for Gandhi's experiments in emancipatory politics and served as an excellent testing ground for his ideas.

The presidential inauguration of the first American of color on One 21, the observed birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is not simply a calendric coincidence. The confluence of these dates declare a new revolution in the urban environment, one that involves the harmonization of the design of the built environment with its ecology based on the Geddesian motto, "By Leaves, We Live."