I have a dream ...that my four little children will one
that my four children day livelittle in a nation where they will will notone day be judged where by the color of their skinnot be live in a nation they will by the contentof of their character. judged bybutthe color their skin but by the content of their character.� – Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Pepco salutes the
Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial
and Dr. King’s vision for justice, hope and opportunity for all.
May his dream become reality.
The Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper 2519 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 554-8200 The Washington Afro-American Newspaper 1917 Benning Road NE Washington, DC 20002 (202) 332-0080 Publisher John J. Oliver Jr.
Table of Contents Sponsor’s Note......................................................................... 4 Publisher’s Note........................................................................5 King Beginnings..................................................................... 6 Montgomery Bus Boycott Pushes King to the National Stage .......................................................... 9
Global Markets Benjamin M. Phillips IV, Director Edgar Brookins, Washington Manager Sammy Graham, Baltimore Manager
Catching Fire, Taking the Heat...........................................11
Researcher/Writer Talibah Chikwendu
It’s Not Easy to Kill a Dream.................................................17
Copyeditors Dorothy Boulware Zenitha Prince
The Dream Lives On..............................................................21
Director of Advertising Susan Gould Sales Robert Blount Marquise Goodwin Annie Russ
Working Hard and Scaling the Heights...........................14
The articles from the AFRO Archives were reproduced to be read, but are not presented in their entirety. Please visit afro.com/afroblackhistoryarchives/ to read these articles in their entirety.
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SPONSOR’S NOTE
August 28, 2011 Friends,
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The Afro’s March with King
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PUBLISHER’S NOTE
During the 119 years the AFRO-American Newspapers has been publishing, no person has occupied the headlines as much as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That fact is not surprising, however, given the magnitude Dr. King has had in changing the American culture to eliminate the Jim Crow discrimination the African-American community had been compelled to endure. From his initial emergence as a leader during the Montgomery Improvement Association through the many campaigns that followed, King’s will to overcome the physical and legal impediments of Jim Crow eventually captured the attention of the entire country and indeed the world. During that period, reporters from the AFRO and other Black newspapers helped to ignite the Black community’s attention to the just cause this young Birmingham, Alabama pastor was committed to undertake. From the voluminous materials on the many King campaigns contained in the AFRO Archives, we have compiled many of the articles, photos and other materials accumulated over the past 60 years from our coverage “...King’s will to overcome the physical and legal impediments of of the King quest Jim Crow eventually captured the attention of the entire country to make America a better place for all it’s and indeed the world..” citizens. On this momentous occasion of the dedication of the new Martin Luther King Memorial on the Washington D. C. Mall, the AFRO is pleased to offer this historical publication in recognition of the King legacy and journey towards diversity and equal opportunity. We hope you will enjoy this “keepsake” publication as a memento of King’s life and, together with the symbol represented by the King Memorial, the lessons we cannot risk ever forgetting.
John J. Oliver Chairman/Publisher
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The Afro’s March with King
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K
ingBeginnings
By Talibah Chikwendu
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Timeline
By 1957 the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had become something of a sensation. His work with the Montgomery Improvement Association had gone “viral,” and even those who resented or feared his involvement wanted to know who he was and what drove him. The media, including the AFRO, was happy to oblige, running articles not only about his current activities but about his past. Born on Jan. 15, 1929, to Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King, Martin Luther King Jr. was the second of three children and their first son. But there was a problem with his name, related to a two-generation mix-up, compounded AFRO Archives by the same doctor attending the births undated photo of of King Sr. and junior. the Rev. Dr. Martin According to his father, quoted in Luther King Jr. in an AFRO Magazine article, his birth what appears to be a certificate listed him as Michael Luther lighthearted moment.
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1929
1953
1955
1948
1954
1957
Jan 15 Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Ga. Jun 8 King graduates from Morehouse College
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Jun 18 Marries Coretta Scott at her home in Alabama Sept King arrived in Montgomery to take over Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
June 5 King receives a doctorate in Systematic Theology from Boston University May 27 King speaks to 25,000 during the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington
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King Jr. The doctor, believing the father’s name to be Michael Luther – which it was not –completed the birth certificate incorrectly. This led to the first of many of King Jr.’s nicknames: Mike or Little Mike. Friends described King as small and tough. They said, while he didn’t fight as often as they did, it was probably because no one wanted to tangle with him; he was scrappy and wouldn’t back down. They also said he had a gift for talking any situation to a conclusion. “I don’t know why,” King said, “but I never liked to fight, even when I was provoked. I don’t think it was because of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee leaders religious scruples, because I didn’t have many when I was little, even though I grew at Hampton University in an undated photo. (AFRO Archives photo) up in a church-minded family…Whenever I was pushed to the limit and fought back, I always regretted it. It’s [non-violence] always been a part of me, I guess.” Martin seemed to completely engage himself in everything
“Whenever I was pushed to the limit and fought back, I always regretted it.” he worked on. He graduated from high school two years early and at age 15 headed to Morehouse College, the alma mater of his father and grandfather. He went to college thinking of being a doctor or even a lawyer, but not a preacher. At Morehouse, he
By the Nose? – No, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., above photo, is not having his nose tweaked as he mounts the stand at Philadelphia, Pa’s Girard College picket site during his triumphant two-day visit, it’s just a hand reaching forth to lend assistance. (Aug. 14, 1965 AFRO Archives photo) Martin Luther King Jr. with Sydney Poitier (left) and Harry Belafonte (right) and others (AFRO Archives photo)
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was influenced by Dr. Benjamin Mays, head of Morehouse, and Dr. George Kelsey, religion and philosophy teacher at Morehouse – both ministers. He said, according to the AFRO article, “I could
“Well, I guess God was looking out for me even then. He must have given me a hard head just for that purpose.”
see in their lives the ideal of what I wanted a real minister to be.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with C. G. Gomillion, He gave his trial sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1947. president of Tuskegee Institute. (AFRO Archives photo) While at Morehouse, King pledged Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in sociology on June 8, 1948, the same week his older sister graduated from Spelman. Shortly thereafter he was ordained, then off to Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. At Crozer, he began studying writers and philosophies consistent with non-violent methodologies. One of only 11 African Americans at the seminary, King was class president in his third year, and valedictorian of the class of 1951. From Crozer he headed to Boston University School of Theology for doctoral studies. There “Thank you, Dr. King,” says Dr. S.D. Proctor, president of Virginia Union University. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., completed Friday night his series of speeches for Religious he met Coretta Scott. They were Emphasis Week at the university. Onlookers are Mrs. Coretta King (second from left), married June 18, 1953.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Timeline
the wife of the dynamic leader and; far right, Miss M. E. Simmons. (March 6, 1957 AFRO Archives Photo)
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Oct 29 ‘Sabotage’ blacks out King 47-minute radio and TV interview telecast in the Montgomery area. A short, caused by a chain across the transmitter’s power line kept the power off for 46 minutes, slightly longer than the length of the program.
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1958
Jun 23 King, along with A. Phillip Randolph, Lester Granger and Roy Wilkins, met with President Eisenhower Sept 20 Izola Ware Curry, 42, stabbed Dr. King, 29, by plunging a seven-inch steel letter opener into the upper left side of his chest
while he was signing his book Stride Toward Freedom in the shoe department in Blumstein’s Department Store in Harlem, NY.
1959
Feb King spends a month in India studying Gandhi’s non-violent march techniques as a guest of Prime Minister Jawaharal Nehru.
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
Pushes King to the National Stage By Talibah Chikwendu Just months after King turned down the presidency of the Montgomery NAACP branch, Rosa Parks was arrested for not relinquishing her seat on the bus. Parks was just what Montgomery activists were looking for, a person above reproach for the cause to champion as representative of the mistreatment of all Blacks. A meeting was called with area leaders, which included King, to plan a one-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system. They
decided on Dec. 5, 1955 for the event and spread the word. And spread it did, getting unexpected local media coverage. On day seven of the “one day” boycott, the little known King spoke to the AFRO in his capacity as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). He said about 75 percent of the bus company’s business was from Black patrons and the boycott was 85 percent effective. He added that it was costing the company about $3,000 each day coloreds refused to ride. According to the AFRO, the MIA met with
“We have no intention of riding their buses until our demands are met. We are not going to give them our dimes to be insulted or humiliated.” bus company officials on day four to negotiate an end to the boycott. King said they presented three demands: 1) That drivers display more courtesy towards colored riders, 2) that seating be on a first-come-firstserved basis and 3) that colored bus drivers be hired. The company, King said, rejected all three demands, saying their drivers were always courteous and the seating issue would break Alabama
segregation laws. “We pointed out to them that we were not asking them to violate the law requiring segregation,” said, King. “We merely wanted them to follow a policy of having the colored passengers fill the bus from the rear and the whites fill the bus from the front.” By the fourth
Revs. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy in the Montgomery Improvement Association office with an un-named volunteer. (AFRO Archives photo)
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“We pointed out to them that we were not asking them to violate the law requiring segregation. We merely wanted them to follow a policy of having the colored passengers fill the bus from the rear and the whites fill the bus from the front.”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Timeline
week, King reported to the AFRO that the boycott was 99 44/100 percent effective and that the bus company had withdrawn 2/3 of their buses from service and ceased operations altogether Christmas Day and Christmas Monday. MIA estimated $150,000 in lost revenue for the bus company in the first month. Two months into the boycott, while King was at an MIA meeting, a bomb exploded on his front porch while his wife and baby daughter, Yolanda, were inside. He rushed home and after finding his family okay, addressed the restless angry crowd that had gathered, ready to act. He said, “Don’t get your guns. Go back to your homes. For he who lives by
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the sword perishes by the sword. We must love those who hate us.” The AFRO interviewed Joe Azbell, a white editor for a Montgomery daily newspaper, to get a perspective on the passive resistance movement and all that happened in the first four months of the boycott. “It’s the first new The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a story, in installments, about the Montgomery Bus Boycott that was published over his byline in the AFRO. This is the third installment. (AFRO Archives article)
(AFRO Archives photo)
Dec 12 Reception is held for King where he announces his decision to give up pastorate of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and leadership of the MIA and return to Atlanta to co-pastor with his father and provide leadership to SCLC.
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1960
technique in racial protests since the NAACP first began using the courts to accomplish its aims,” Azbell said. “I am not saying whether it is good or bad. But I do feel that in the wrong hands it can be dangerous. But whatever
Mar 5 King returns to Montgomery, Ala. from California to surrender himself on perjury charges. He is alleged to have falsified his tax returns. He was released on $4,000 bond.
happens, you are seeing history made in race relations right here in Montgomery.” The Montgomery boycott lasted for 381 days, and ended when a federal court order abolished city and state segregation laws.
May 4 King arrested in DeKalb County, Ga. for driving without a Georgia driver’s license. He was fined $25 and given one year probation (of which he was not aware). Oct 19 King was arrested during a sitdown demonstration at a downtown Atlanta department story
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Catching Fire, Taking the Heat
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. pulls up the four foot cross that was burned on the front lawn of his home in Atlanta, Ga. last week. The cross, symbol of Ku Klux Klan, was among many that were burned at a number of colored dwellings throughout the city. With King is his 2-year-old son, Martin Luther King III. (AFRO Archives photo)
By Talibah Chikwendu By early 1957, wherever King went, he was the headliner and keynote speaker. He was the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity’s Citizen of the Year in 1957. During his acceptance speech at their annual convention in Baltimore, he didn’t let them off the hook, attacking, according to
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a happier mood earlier in the afternoon of the day an attempt was made on his life at an autographing party held in a Harlem department store on the occasion of the publication of his book, “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story.” With Dr. King is Anna Hedgeman, assistant to Mayor Wagner, and two unidentified ushers from Wadleigh High School. (AFRO Archives photo)
the AFRO, fraternity extravagance. “We spend more for frivolity than we do for freedom,” King told the approximately 1,000 attendees at the banquet, “and we have bought the finest cars let loose in history. It is tragic that at the height of the century we spend more for frivolity than for the cause of freedom and it is an indictment upon our
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intelligence.” He also took a swipe at the class system saying, “We have got to do away with our hateful class system. Aunt Jane who doesn’t know the difference between ‘I is’ and ‘I are’ is just as good as you Ph.D.’s. We want to be able to say that the whole team made All American when they record the history of this
momentous period in civilization.” For King, 1958 was big. His book, Stride Towards Freedom was released. King, along with Randolph, Wilkins and Lester Granger, met with President Eisenhower. He was an organizer and the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Council, headquartered
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The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., integration leader who was stabbed by a colored woman in a Harlem department store Sept. 13, 1958, waves to the crowd on hand to greet him at the airport in Montgomery, Ala. About 100 of King’s friends and neighbors greeted him upon his return. (AFRO Archives photo)
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Timeline
in Atlanta, Ga. He was the commencement speaker at what was then, Morgan State College. He was still pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and president of MIA. It was that year that more than mere threats were made on his life, when on Sept. 20, while signing his book in the shoe department in Blumstein’s Department Store in Harlem, N.Y. he was stabbed. Izola Ware Curry, 42, plunged a 7-inch steel letter opener into the left side of his chest, so deeply the tip rested against his aorta. Because there was little bleeding, King was stable but in a very dangerous position until he was taken to surgery about four hours later. King’s first concerns were with letting people know that he harbored no ill will towards Curry and to ask about the state
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of MIA and SCLC members, making sure they all understood he was okay and that there was no need for any retaliation. His first public statement, delivered through his wife was, “God was with me just as He stays with all of us all of the time, even though we may feel He has completely forsaken us at times. I am prepared to die. We’re in for a long period of suffering because the white man is only beginning. All of us must
be prepared for death. King had been receiving general threats and death threats for several years by this time, though it was not widely known. He had made peace with
The paper knife in his chest, Dr. Martin Luther King sits calmly in the police station awaiting an ambulance to take him to the emergency room in Harlem Hospital. Friends wipe off his hands. Note: There is no blood on his shirt bosom. (AFRO Archives photo)
Nov 5 King released and returned to family in Atlanta after being incarcerated for eight days for a violation of his probation. He had been sentenced to four months in prison for the violation. He was released on bail pending the appeal.
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1961
Oct 23 King rejected the role of a Georgia senator in the highly controversial movie Advise and Consent, citing pressure from Hollywood as one of the reason for turning it down.
1962
Oct 16 Met with President Kennedy in the White House
1963
April 12 King was arrested and jailed in Birmingham, Ala. on Good Friday.
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The Atlanta community welcomes King home from prison. (AFRO Archives photo)
the precariousness of his life, knowing that he had to do so to maintain the credibility needed to lead people worldwide that signed onto his vision of how to accomplish social change. In an interview with Mike Wallace in February 1961 he said, “When you are aware of the fact that you are a symbol, it causes you to search your soul constantly, to go through this job of self-analysis, to see if you live up to all the high and noble principles that people surround you
“AFRO,” of course — Dr. M.L. King Jr., photographed in jail, is seen reading The “AFRO-American,” in this picture appearing in the current issue of Life Magazine. It was the Oct. 15 issue of the national edition. (AFRO Archives photo)
with and to try at all times to keep the gulf between the public self and private self at a minimum, to bridge this gulf, so that it serves at least to inspire the individual to seek to rise from the is-ness of his present to the eternal ought-ness that forever confronts him.” For King, 1960 seemed to be the year of random attacks, resulting in a lot of time in police stations, prison and court. In June, the state of Alabama held King’s perjury trial, based on an accusation that he
falsified his 1956 tax return. When the return was audited, King, while disagreeing with the auditor’s findings, paid the additional sum requested, but the state pursued perjury charges anyway. The all-White jury deliberated for three hours, 45 minutes before returning a not guilty verdict. King said, “This reaffirms my hope in the ultimate good of man.”
Parade ends in police alley – Negro demonstrators protesting the imprisonment of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., were jailed today for parading without a permit. Thirty-two Negroes taking part in a “freedom march” were booked and placed in cells. King was convicted Tuesday of parading without a permit during a demonstration last December and elected to serve a 45-day sentence rather than pay a fine. Bicycles stacked at right have nothing to do with today’s arrest. (July 11, 1962 Albany, Ga. AFRO Archives photo)
Handcuffed like a dangerous felon, Dr. Martin Luther King is led into the DeKalb County (Ga.) Courthouse where he was sentenced to serve four months at hard labor. Dr. King was immediately whisked 200 miles away to the infamous Reidsville State Prison to begin his sentence. His attorney however, succeeded in getting a judgment that pending an appeal, Dr. King will be free on $2,000 bail. (AFRO Archives photo)
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W
orkingHard
S
and
By Talibah Chikwendu
In April 1962 King was in Petersburg, Va., walking door-to-door for his voter registration promotion and speaking to large audiences. He told a crowd of 2,000 at Virginia State College that there are three things we have to do to stay awake. “Initially,” he said, “we
H
caling the
must rise above our individualistic pursuits and achieve a world perspective. We will learn to live as brothers or we will perish as fools. [Secondly] we must achieve excellence in our various fields of endeavor.” The final thing was continued engagement in creative protest. He reminded them, “There is no need
eights
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Timeline
Unlawful in Albany – Praying is against the law in Albany, Ga., if you are colored and if you are praying against the city’s oppressive segregation laws. This is what more than 1000 members of the Albany Movement, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have discovered when they were arrested by Police Chief Laurie Pritchett (in uniform) seen standing on City Hall steps where this picture was made. (There is a note attached to this with the year 1959 on it, but the written date on the caption is different. (Aug. 4, 1962 AFRO Archives photo)
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Aug 28 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the march on Washington Aug. 28, 1963 which ended at the Lincoln Memorial. Sept 15 The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. was bombed, killing four little girls.
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1964
end to the war.
Dec 10 King receives the Nobel Peace Prize. All the prize money was given to the Civil Rights Movement.
1967
Apr 15 King led an anti-war demonstration at the United Nations Headquarters with Benjamin Spock and Harry Belafonte.
Apr 4 King speaks out against the Vietnam War at NYC’s Riverside Church. He called for an
Nov 29 King announced the Poor People’s Campaign.
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for immoral means to achieve moral ends.” In May, SCLC leaders King and vice president Dr. C.O. Simpkins met with Attorney General Robert Kennedy. He later announced that Kennedy promised to immediately pursue any irregularities in voter registration. Later that month, the AFRO story “MLK plans ‘second’ emancipation’” announced that King’s 111-page plan for how the president could issue an executive order outlawing segregation in American life was ready. The plan was to be presented to President Kennedy on May 17, commemorating the eighth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board ruling. In 1963, shortly after the birth of his fourth child, Bernice Albertine, he spent eight days in jail in Birmingham, Ala., arrested on Good Friday, along with the Rev. Ralph Abernathy for violating an injunction against civil rights demonstrations. While there, on the backs of envelopes and other scraps of paper, King wrote a response to some of his ministerial critics that eventually became known as the “Letter from Birmingham The article to the left appeared in a January 24, 1959 edition of the AFRO. (AFRO Archives article)
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“Let us not fear going to jail if the officials threaten to arrest us for standing up for our rights.” Jail.” He wrote: “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. ... and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the GrecoRoman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom far beyond my own hometown. ... “Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly… “I must confess that over the past few years
I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace, which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace, which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action;’ who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’
“Never before have I written so long a letter. I’m afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?”
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“Through these days, I have been increasingly able more deeply to understand the hard blows and tragic suffering to many of my people and other members of minority groups experience – all too often without cause or reason.”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Timeline
Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” The jailing of King and other leaders did not stop the protests, much to the dismay of city officials in Birmingham. Shortly after his release on bail, King went to court, charging that the 350 arrests in Birmingham were a violation of the First, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. Children joined the movement in Birmingham just as the response from law enforcement increased. Dramatic images of children being hit with blasts of water from high pressure hoses and attacked by
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police dogs spread across the nation, bringing additional pressure to the region. King’s work didn’t go unnoticed, as he found out when he was notified he’d won the Nobel Prize for Peace, which was awarded to him in 1964. King said, “There are many wonderful pilots today, charting the sometimes rocky, sometimes smooth course of human progress; pilots like Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young and A. Phillip Randolph. And yet, if it were not for the ground crew, the struggle for human dignity and social justice would not now be in orbit. “That is why I like to think of this Nobel Peace Prize as a reward for the ground crew. I am speaking about the ground crew of 50,000 colored people
1968
Apr Leads 6,000 protestors through downtown Memphis in support of striking sanitation workers; delivers last speech –” I’ve been to the mountaintop.” Apr 4 King assassinated on hotel room balcony
The Afro’s March with King
Montgomery, Ala. – After order restored – Floyd Mann, right, state public safety director, stands in Montgomery early today with Maj. Gen. Henry Graham, National Guard adjutant general, after troops, federal marshals and police quelled a racial outburst. Background, 2nd from left, is the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., integration leader. (May 22, 1961 AFRO Archives photo)
in Montgomery, Ala., who came to discover that it is better to walk in dignity than to ride in buses where they are fellow-passengers with humiliation… “Members of the ground crew will not win the Nobel Peace Prize. Their names will not go down in history nor splendor ... “Yet, when years have
rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we are now living – men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization – because of the ground crew which made possible the jet flight to the clear skies of brotherhood.”
Apr 8 Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich, presents first bill in Congress to honor Martin Luther King with a national holiday.
millions of signature” to Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind. asking that January 15, Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday be made a national holiday.
1971
1977
Jan 15 Rev. Ralph Abernathy, after arriving on Capital Hill on a mule drawn wagon, January 15, presents a petition “with
July 11 King was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter
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It’s Not Easy to Kill a Dream By Talibah Chikwendu By 1968, Dr. King Jr. was an honored national figure, a sought after leader and speaker, a beloved preacher and a dedicated patriot for the causes of civil rights and justice. But he was living in turbulent times that regularly came to his front door in the form of vicious threats, violent responses to non-violent protest, and arrests. But none of this appeared to faze King. He seemed to be settled into the role the people placed him in. His focus seemed absolute as he continued to champion the cause of civil rights
wherever he saw people gathering to change their circumstances. By now a regular newsmaker, King’s presence was sure to get the circumstances or event national press coverage. Early in the year, in the wake of several indictments of people for speaking out against the Vietnam War, there was speculation about whether King would be next, as he had recently become involved in efforts to end the war. He took some criticism for connecting the war to civil rights. He continued his promotion of the Poor Peoples’ March scheduled for mid-April in Washington, D.C. The goal
A family grieves – Dr. and Mrs. Martin Luther King Sr., parents, and the Rev. A.D. King, fight tears as they witnessed journey’s end for their famous son and brother. Before Dr. King Jr. was placed in the tomb the Rev. Abernathy told mourners “no cemetery can hold the spirit of Martin Luther King.” (April 20, 1968 AFRO Archives photo)
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was to unite people across economic lines instead of racial ones, and he was seeing some success. Despite reports of groups coming on board with this effort, there was still some talk of people being against it. Interspersed with those speeches and meetings – because King was not to be stopped from Condolences from Stokely – Militant Black doing what he believed was right Power leader Stokely Carmichael tenderly grasps the hand of Mrs. King to convey his – were anti-war sympathy for the death of Dr. King, with activities, like the whom he (Mr. Carmichael) has conferred peace prayer in Arlington National frequently prior to the assassination. (April 20, 1968 AFRO Archives photo) Cemetery. The strike by Black garbage men that we can stick together.” in Memphis was King asked the colored starting to heat up. King workers in Memphis to showed up in Memphis stay home from work for near the end of March a day in solidarity with and tried to encourage the sanitation workers. the workers and generate “You let the day come wider support for their when not a colored efforts. He told the person in this city will striking workers “not to go to any job downtown, get discouraged.” when no colored person “Nothing is gained in domestic service will without sacrifice,” he go to anybody’s kitchen, said. “You have a great when no black student will movement going here. attend any school. They You are demonstrating will hear you then. The something that needs to city of Memphis will not be demonstrated all over be able to function that this country. And that is The Afro’s March with King
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“All of you who believe in what Martin Luther King stood for, I would challenge you today to see that his spirit never dies. We must carry on because this is the way he would have wanted it to be.” – Coretta Scott King day.” The strike continued and some marches were scheduled, one, near the end of March, which resulted in riots that left one dead, 62 injured and brought in the National Guard. King said, “Riots are here. Riots are part of the ugly atmosphere of our society now.” King, still promoting the Poor Peoples’ March, left Memphis, promising to come back soon. And he did, on April 3. It was his last trip anywhere for anything. He gave a speech about
10 hours after landing at the Mason Temple Church of God, a precursor event to another march for the striking workers. He said, “ …We’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in
Memphis. We’ve got to see it through. And when we have our march, you need to be there…You may not be on strike, but either we go up together or we go down together… “Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge, to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation… “Well, I don’t know
what will happen now; we’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. 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
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Timeline
Memphis, Tenn: Mrs. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, successor to the slain civil rights leader as head of his SCLC, lead a mass memorial march April 8. Also in front row are King’s sons, Martin III, left, and Dexter, and the Rev. Andrew Young, right, another King aide. (AFRO Archives article)
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1983
2000
1986
2004
Ronald Reagan signs Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Bill into law. Federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday goes into effect, celebrated on the third Monday in January.
The Afro’s March with King
All 50 states have Martin Luther King Day as a paid state holiday. Oct 25 Congressional Gold Medal approved for Rev. Dr. King and Coretta Scott King
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to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And so I am happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” Approximately 24 hours later, he was dead. Just before 11 a.m. April 9, what was supposed to be a private memorial service , led by Rev. Abernathy, began at Ebenezer Baptist Church – the place where all King’s significant spiritual milestones took place, including this, his final one. The private service was massive, overflowing the church and taking over five or six blocks around the building. Reports say approximately 200,000 people marched silently behind the mule-drawn carriage that transported Rev. Dr. King to the Morehouse campus for the public service where Dr. Benjamin Mays gave the eulogy. “Martin Luther King should not have had to go to Memphis to help garbage men get decent wages and working conditions,” he said. “He should not have had to go to jail 30 times to achieve for his people the things those of light hue get as [a matter] of course in America…If we love and respect him, we must see that he did not die in vain.”
Dr. Ralph Abernathy, the new SCLC head, as he views the remains of Dr. Martin Luther King at the R. S. Lewis Funeral Home in Memphis Friday morning before shipment of the body to Atlanta. Unidentified mourners are in the background. Shortly after this picture was made, a brief eulogy was said for Dr. King prior to the body’s being shipped to Atlanta for Tuesday burial.
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The grief of his people is mirrored in their faces as they viewed the body of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lying in state at Sisters Chapel of Spelman College in Atlanta Sunday. Funeral services for the assassinated civil rights chieftain were April 9, 1968.
The Afro’s March with King
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with daughter Yolanda
leading a group of some 5,00 people on a “thank you march” to the White House following a rally (Left to right) Bishop Paul Moore, Mrs. Walter Fauntroy, the Rev. Mr. Fauntroy, Dr. King and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy
with Stokely Carmichael and Jesse Jackson with civil rights activist Daisy Bates
at the 1963 March on Washington
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The Afro’s March with King
in a meeting with President Lyndon B. Johnson A publication of the Afro-American Newspapers
The Dream Lives On By Talibah Chikwendu No one knows why James Earl Ray fired the bullet that killed Dr. King. But now, 43 years later, though King has not physically been here with us, it’s clear his spirit has. King’s left a legacy that is remembered each year in many ways both big and small. A mere four days after King was assassinated, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich, and Sen. Edward Brooke, D-Mass, introduced bills to make King’s birthday a national holiday. It took 18 years of demonstrations and legislative persistence before the significant and well-deserved national holiday was observed for the first time on Jan. 20, 1986. In recent years, efforts have been made to provide more meaning to the King holiday. President Barack Obama has been leading by example on this, turning the day of observance into a day
of service to others. It is clear that his vision lives on in and that many share his dream. “I still have a dream,” he said. “It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream
judged by the color of their skin but by their character. “I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day…little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and “You might have killed the dreamer but you could brothers... not kill the dream.” – Benjamin Hooks “With this faith we will that one day this nation will rise up be able to transform the jangling and live out the true meaning of its discords of our nation into a creed. We hold these truths to be beautiful symphony of brotherhood. self-evident that all men are created With this faith we will be able to equal. work together, to pray together, “…I have a dream that my four to struggle together, to go to jail little children will one day live in together, to climb up for freedom a nation where they will not be together, knowing that we will be free one day. “…And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.”
The late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is buried in this vault surrounded by a reflecting pond. The memorial, in a quiet courtyard adjoining Ebenezer Baptist Church, is visited daily by hundreds of pilgrims from around the world. (AFRO Archives photo)
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The Afro’s March with King
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AFRO artist Thomas Stockett has won first place in several art shows for his original oil painting of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Stockett, who has been an artist for more than 25 years says he painted the oil painting from a photograph that was taken in 1965 on the march to Selma. A copy of this print hangs in the AFRO American Newspapers’ Baltimore office.
Visitors to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn., earlier this month read the plaque under the balcony where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was slain in 1968. The former Lorraine Motel, gutted and reopened in 1991 as a museum, is just one stop along an increasingly welltraveled Southern circuit of new memorials to the Civil Rights Movement. (AFRO Archives photo)
To capture and honor his legacy, streets and schools across the nation have been named or renamed for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (AFRO Archives photos)
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The Afro’s March with King
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For more info visit www.DedicatetheDream.org
“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of georgia, sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” – M artin Luther King, Jr . August 28, 1963, Washington, D.C.
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On the anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech, history will once again be made on the National Mall. The Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial will be unveiled as the first and only tribute to a man of peace and to a person of color. This August 28 th, why just read about history when you can be a part of it? Come to Washington, D.C. and celebrate what will forever stand as a testament to his timeless ideals and legacy of peace.
Awaken his spirit in all of us Chevrolet is honored to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.