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

Authors

Owen Greene, Binghamton University--SUNY

Publication Date

2025

Document Type

Book

Description

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.

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Recommended Citation

Greene, Owen, "Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Path to Guaranteed Income: Examining His Motivations" (2025). Research Days Posters 2025. 61.
https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2025/61