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MLK assassination: 40 year anniversary

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    MLK assassination: 40 year anniversary

    Tomorrow marks the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. Which means today is the anniversary of his "I've Been To the Mountaintop Speech," ostensibly about the fight in Memphis for justice for striking sanitation workers, but really about so much more:

    Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world. And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, "Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?" I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch God's children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't stop there.
    I would move on by Greece and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon. And I would watch them around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality. But I wouldn't stop there.

    I would go on, even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldn't stop there.
    I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance, and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and aesthetic life of man. But I wouldn't stop there.
    I would even go by the way that the man for whom I am named had his habitat. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church of Wittenberg. But I wouldn't stop there.
    I would come on up even to 1863, and watch a vacillating President by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. But I wouldn't stop there.

    I would even come up to the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation. And come with an eloquent cry that we have nothing to fear but "fear itself." But I wouldn't stop there.
    Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, "If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the 20th century, I will be happy."
    Now that's a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around. That's a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding.
    Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee -- the cry is always the same: "We want to be free."
    The speech is famous in part because he talks about threats against his life, and not "fearing any man," something some take as being prophetic in what happened the next day, a kind of "ooh, that's eerie."

    Here's the conclusion:


    Don't know what to say really. I get choked up every time when I watch that.

    "But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!"

    Here's hoping.

    #2
    MLK assassination: 40 year anniversary

    Inca,

    That speech chokes me up as well. When I first heard it (age 15), the line that stood out to me was: "But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars." It was one of the first times in my life that I wished that I had a true sense of religious faith. Surely, faith isn't necessary to retain a clear sense of purpose and hope in difficult times, but it seemed to imbue MLK with an amount of strength that struck my 15-yr-old self as remarkable. Then again, his linking of just law to the law of God in his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" made me a little queasy about his religiosity.

    Anyway, though I know I'm babbling a bit, I'm very glad you put down a marker to the anniversary. I wish I knew more about MLK than the snippets of history and his writings that I've come across. I wonder if there is a good, comprehensive history of his life? I'd be especially curious to learn more about his personal/political relationship with LBJ, as it swung from one extreme to another in just a few short years.

    Comment


      #3
      MLK assassination: 40 year anniversary

      Actually, "a clear sense of purpose and hope in difficult times" is a pretty good definition of "faith." But faith need not be religious or faith in the unseen.

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        #4
        MLK assassination: 40 year anniversary

        Not knowing much about MLK, and knowing the anniversary was coming up, I've been reading up on the assisination and whatnot. Two things I found....weird: when they called the Lorraine Motel switchboard to get an ambulance for MLK, the operator didn't answer. It's because she witnessed the shooting moments before, had a heart attack, and died.
        And when the Lorraine closed, but prior to it being converted into the MLK museum, its last resident (a former employee) had to be forcibly removed. She crossed the street and set up a protest booth, where she sits to this day after 20 some-odd years.

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          #5
          MLK assassination: 40 year anniversary

          Does her protest have anything to do with MLK, or does she just hold a grudge over being kicked out?

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            #6
            MLK assassination: 40 year anniversary

            Tschh. Like anyone would remember him today if it wasn't for Bono...

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              #7
              MLK assassination: 40 year anniversary

              Embarrassingly, Bono certainly helps me remember the day. Now if he'd only write a song about the birthdays of my various nieces and nephews, I'd be a much better uncle.

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                #8
                MLK assassination: 40 year anniversary

                Gyuri, from the NYT: "Ms. Smith, 39 years old [in '90], a former motel employee who once lived there, is protesting the decision to remodel it into a museum in honor of Dr. King, who was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
                Ms. Smith said she wanted the motel to be used to serve the poor, asserting that ''this sacred ground is being exploited.''

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                  #9
                  MLK assassination: 40 year anniversary

                  Thanks, WOM. I found a 2001 article that provides a little more context (basically, the museum was part of a larger development/gentrification effort). This is all pretty interesting and something I had never heard of. Thanks for posting about it.

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                    #10
                    MLK assassination: 40 year anniversary

                    Gyuri wrote:
                    Anyway, though I know I'm babbling a bit, I'm very glad you put down a marker to the anniversary. I wish I knew more about MLK than the snippets of history and his writings that I've come across. I wonder if there is a good, comprehensive history of his life? I'd be especially curious to learn more about his personal/political relationship with LBJ, as it swung from one extreme to another in just a few short years.
                    Thanks, Gyuri.

                    Michael Eric Dyson wrote a book about King titled I May Not Get There With You. I haven't read it, but I know it complicates the image of a saintly figure, while trying to reclaim him from conservatives trying to use him to defend their politics.

                    A book I have read and enthusiastically recommend is Parting The Waters by Taylor Branch. It's the first in a massive three-part history from the early 50s to 1968 that he subtitled America In the King Years. It's not just about MLK, but for looking at the background political maneuvering between him and the JFK and LBJ administrations you can't beat it. I haven't read the other two books (the third of which just came out recently).

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                      #11
                      MLK assassination: 40 year anniversary

                      Thanks, Inca. The Branch book sounds like exactly what I'm looking for.

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                        #12
                        MLK assassination: 40 year anniversary

                        The Taylor Branch series is good but the more they go on, the more they, like, go on - too digressive and unfocussed.

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                          #13
                          MLK assassination: 40 year anniversary

                          That said, Parting The Waters is an undeniably good read. There's interesting stuff, for instance, on the way that the Rosa Parks episode was managed by the emerging Civil Rights movement - another woman had made a similar protest about having to give up her seat but they decided that, unlike Parks, she wasn't of sufficiently impeccable character to build a campaign around.

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