x-posted from Street Prophets
He studied Ghandi and brought that discipline and vision to the American Civil Rights Movement.
When he took the stage we were a divided people, and when he left the stage, we were forever changed as a Nation.
He was our Mahatma, (Great Spirit, Saint). He left us better than he found us. He reached into us and drew out the justice in our hearts. Why? What moved him in his inexhorable drive to change us? The need for justice and freedom, the love of his country, and the deep desire to make his country stand for her principles. To make America be the America of our dreams. To make his country better.
In his drive to free his people, he opened the floodgates of freedom for all people.
Let's look at America in his time, on the other side of the fold.
And you know, my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression. [sustained applause] There comes a time, my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation, where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. (Keep talking) There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life's July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November. (that's right) [applause] There comes a time. (Yes sir teach) [applause continues]
We are here, we are here this evening because we are tired now. (Yes) [applause] And I want to say that we are not here advocating violence. (No) We have never done that. (Repeat that, repeat that) [applause] I want it to be known throughout Montgomery and throughout this nation (Well) that we are Christian people. (Yes) [applause] We believe in the Christian religion. We believe in the teachings of Jesus. (Well) The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest. (Yes) [applause] That's all.
I think that little snip should adequately answer the question of why Dr King is the subject of a poetry diary.
The subject of that speech was the arrest of Mrs Rosa Parks, for her refusal to surrender her seat on a bus to a white passenger.
And as we stand and sit here this evening and as we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead, let us go out with the grim and bold determination that we are going to stick together. [applause] We are going to work together. [applause] Right here in Montgomery, when the history books are written in the future (Yes), somebody will have to say, "There lived a race of people (Well), a black people (Yes sir), 'fleecy locks and black complexion' (Yes), a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights. [applause] And thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and of civilization." And we're going to do that. God grant that we will do it before it is too late. (Oh yeah) As we proceed with our program, let us think of these things. (Yes) [applause]
Whereafter, the Montgomery Bus Boycot was enjoined, and MLK's march into history began.
He became the Voice that could not be ignored or dismissed. His voice grew larger than his small church could contain. His one voice became The Voice of Millions. And he, himself, became larger than life.
He had a Dream
And it was The Dream of America. The Vision of Freedom. The Dream of Justice.
No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Dr King is an American Immortal. His place in history will endure. He changed the world. From Montgomery, Aabama to South Africa, decades later, his memory continues changing the world. The struggle for justice, equality and freedom will most likely not end in our lifetimes. Dr King and Mohandas K. Ghandi are the leaders the 20th century gave to humanity for future centuries to study and emulate in the inexhorable desire of all living things to live free. They were the small voices who gave their voices to millions and thus became large.
We are the millions.
And He won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Dr. King's final speech was prophetic, and his final march was to be for the millions. He went to Memphis to walk in solidarity with the Sanitation Workers, who were striking for better wages.
He'd seen the Promised Land
Happy Birthday, Dr King.