Martin Luther King

     The Reverend Martin Luther King was one of the most influential civil rights activists in history.

     Born in Atlanta in 1929, he became a Baptist minister, incorporating Christian beliefs and the non-violent nature of Ghandi in his teachings. 

     In 1954,  he became actively involved in the civil rights movement, striving to put an end to racism and segregation through non-violent means.

     I was young when he was struckdown on April 4, 1968 in Memphis Tennessee by James Earl Ray but I remember the riots that resulted from his death and was afraid. I lived well outside of the city but have talked to those who were a witness to the violence that occurred. Below is an excerpt from an earlier post. 

  “I grew up in Baltimore city during the civil rights movement (1954-1968). As a child, I never sensed there was a ‘movement’ of any kind going on. I was blessed that way, I guess…

    I vividly remember the night of Dr. King’s assassination. My sister and I were spending the night with my grandmother. My grandmother lived on a very busy street. I would take great delight in seeing the shadows from the headlights of the cars make funny shapes through the blinds on the walls of her house. That night, there were no dancing lights streaming through the closed venetian blinds as I happily played. What was going on, I wondered?  I remember going to the window, peeking through the blinds and was horrified by what I saw! There were army tanks and soldiers with long rifles riding up and down the middle of the streets patrolling them and the behavior of the residents. There were no cars coming or going about their business anymore. My grandmother said there was a curfew in place because people were rioting after learning of Dr. King’s death. Rioting? I didn’t know what that was. I was blessed that way, I guess. I remember being so afraid and wanting to go home but there was no way out. We were supposed to go home the following morning but were forbidden to leave because of the curfew.  People were being arrested for breaking the curfew. We had to stay put for several days. I was ten years old. ” 

  I would love to be able to say that we have moved well beyond this injustice today but I don’t believe that is true. In some ways we have, but in other ways, we have gotten far worse. Why do we continue to divide people into groups according to race, nationality, sexual orientation, religion… and so on and so on? For what purpose?  

  It is my prayer that we will one day live out the the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.:

“Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.”

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed – we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

“Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.”

God bless you all,

Carol