I can tell you the exact day I first heard of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was 50 years ago today. I was 8 years old. The TV program we were watching was interrupted, and the assassination of Dr. King was reported. I always hated news interruptions of TV programs, and this interruption was no exception, but it’s telling that I remember this interruption, but I no longer remember what program was being interrupted. Ultimately, the important message got through.
At that age, I had no idea who Dr. King was. I was a white kid growing up in a solidly white neighborhood in Baltimore. In my environment at that time, I only occasionally saw black people: the black men leading horse-drawn carts through the neighborhood shouting “Strawberries!” in the summer, or Miss Eunice, an employee at my aunt’s beauty parlor, whom I would follow around when my mother went to get her hair done. Like most 8-year-olds, I didn’t follow the news, so I didn’t know much about the civil rights movement or King’s role in it. I remember my parents talking about “colored children in the schools” one time, and all I could imagine were children colored bright red or green or blue, like the markers for board games. Could that be what “colored children” were? Eventually, I did learn about the “I Have a Dream” speech, and learned the comforting myth of Dr. King as promoter of cross-racial brotherhood. The activism, the brutal risks, and facing-down of violence, and the breaking of Jim Crow were muted in the background, and there was no mention of his advocacy for the poor, or his anti-war activism. Nor did anybody mention that Dr. King was never popular among white people during his lifetime. I learned much more about Dr. King’s history and legacy, and the broader history of the civil rights movement, through reading on my own many years later.
I attended integrated junior high and high schools, and discovered the issue of “colored children in the schools” was mostly a non-issue. I made friends with black students and learned we really weren’t different at all. For the most part, we all got along. I was innocent enough to think that perhaps we had gotten to that place that King talked about, where black children and white children could join hands and be at peace. A mere decade later, Baltimore schools were effectively resegregated by most white people removing their children from Baltimore City public schools and/or fleeing to the suburbs outside the city. I didn’t understand how deeply ingrained racism is in this country (or in myself, even) such that it could never be eradicated from our culture in just a few decades. That’s clear to me now, but it was not to the hopeful teenager I used to be.
Martin Luther King, Jr., was a prophet, and nations do not treat their prophets kindly. Prophets do not provide their nations with comforting messages. They demand repentance, painful alterations in the lives of the people, in order, ultimately, to improve the life of the nation and all its people. Afterwards, everyone can agree that the prophet was right to do what he or she did, but in the moment, the prophet brings turmoil, and there is no unity of opinion. King relentlessly hammered on how the US fell short repeatedly in its treatment of black people. Those in power and privilege resented being called out. It is hard to imagine withstanding the wrath such people would call down upon King and his family, but somehow they withstood it.
The last sermon given by Dr. King was his “Mountaintop” sermon, given the day before he was assassinated in Memphis. The most famous paragraph from that speech follows:
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
Here, now, 50 years later, we’re still wandering in the desert looking for the Promised Land. Sometimes we think we may be getting close, but we’re diverted again. Under current circumstances, we are clearly headed in the wrong direction. But I think we have a good idea of what the Promised Land will look like. Though there is ever more work to do, I still have hope that we can get there.
And so now let’s turn to the main purpose of this post: the comments, below the fold.
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Top Comments (April 4, 2018):
From elfling:
In response to Oklahoma governor likens teachers asking for school funds to teens asking for 'a better car’ (Walter Einenkel’s recommended post), bubbnomics wrote what I was thinking, but much funnier.
ZenTrainer contributes two:
This comment by samanthab in my dairy started the egg ball rolling and boy did others pick it up!
McGovern78's reply to this comment by annieli really did make me laugh out loud for a very long time. From my Kitchen Table Kibitzing diary about stick bugs.
From your humble diarist:
In ZenTrainer’s KTK diary, Fordmandalay posts an appropriate song for the day. Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out today’s Google doodle, which celebrates Maya Angelou’s 90th birthday with a reading of her poem “Still I Rise” recited by her and a star-studded cast. I will only reflect that perhaps her 40th birthday was not a happy one.
Top Mojo (April 3, 2018):
Top Mojo is courtesy of mik! Click here for more on how Top Mojo works.
Top Photos (April 3, 2018):
Tonight’s picture quilt is courtesy of jotter!