Feature Writer Terri Winaught – A Tribute to Pure Love
Martin Luther King, Jr., was born on January 14, 1929 in Atlanta, GA and died on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN where he was supporting striking African-American sanitation workers. Shortly after 6pm, Doctor King left his second story room at the Lorraine Motel to go to dinner when a gunshot to King’s jaw severed his spinal cord.
When I think of Doctor King’s legacy and nonviolent approach to achieving racial justice, I reflect on the Prayer of Saint Francis. To better understand the relationship between Doctor King’s philosophy and Saint Francis of Assisi’s Prayer, the beginning of that prayer is presented below:
“Make me a channel of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring your love.”
Countless were the times during his civil rights leadership that the Reverend Doctor King met the venom of vicious hatred with the soothing salve of love. In his “I Have a Dream” speech to which I will refer several times in this article, Doctor King urged his supporters to respond to hatred with the nonviolent resistance of love.
Where there was a desert of despair, Doctor King brought an oasis of hope. In his now famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Doctor King encouraged the half million people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to go back to their communities and continue fighting for equality and justice (By Googling “I Have a Dream,” you can hear an MP3 version of this August 28, 1963 speech).
Where there was the darkness of discontent, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. brought the light of his dreams for better tomorrow. Again referring to his “I Have a Dream” speech, Reverend King expressed his hope that one day, his four little children would be judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Tragically, Doctor King, Jr. paid the ultimate price for daring to dream of wrongs righted and injustices invalidated. In March, 1969, James Earl Ray, an avowed racist who escaped from a Missouri prison in 1967, was convicted of Doctor King’s assassination.
Another point worth noting here is that, though achieving racial justice and equality was Doctor King’s primary focus, he was also concerned about economic equality. One way Doctor King addressed this issue was by organizing an interracial Poor People’s Campaign that was held in Washington, D.C. in 1968.
What has made Doctor King’s legacy a lasting one is that, out of the ashes of the violence he deplored and the economic inequality he fought against arose new hands, hearts and voices building bridges to peace, highways to hope, and pathways to justice.
When I heard the news of Doctor King’s death, I was doing my homework at the Overbrook School for the Blind where I was a 15-year-old sophomore. Where were you when you heard the news?
Additional Sources: www.doctorkingonline.com, en.wikipedia.org, and www.history.com.