To All, Happy Martin Luther King Day. This is a holiday in the US, and his name is known throughout the world. When growing up in New Orleans in the American South, I recall listening to the radio. Sometimes they called him by all three names, plus, junior, Martin Luther King, Jr. But some called him by a slightly different name, Martin Lucifer King, or simply Lucifer King. Lucifer is another name of the devil, - so Martin, king of the devils. He was not too popular in parts of the South (and not too popular is parts of the North either).
Today, there is the attempt to make him into a saint, or even a god. King was a man, with virtues and faults of men. He certainly was not perfect. He plagiarized some of his doctoral dissertation. He had many encounters with women outside of marriage. And I am sure other weaknesses and faults can be found.
But there was great oppression of blacks in the South in those days. In Alabama over 20 young blacks were murdered over a 2 year period by authorities or racists. This occurred when the blacks sought to protest some injustices in that state. When King came to Alabama as a minister, he was soon thrust into a leadership role of a bus boycott. Threats against him and his family, and against all involved in the growing organization trying to get people to work without using the regular buses. Union organizers know this kind of organizing is not easy, but add the racial element in the South, and it can be deadly dangerous. Rosa Parks and her husband had been active two decades before she sat on the bus, and in the 1930s, their meetings had a look-out, and weapons on the table in case of a raid by sheriffs. Now, they were using non-violence - but that did not mean the other side would be non-violent.
The Montgomery boycott led to victory against the bus company, and against racism. But there was much to do. And many enemies had been made. The daily struggle to continue a somewhat normal schedule when you know you might be beaten or shot, or your family hurt or killed, and still continue recruiting folks to strengthen the boycott. Pressures most people seldom or never face. Does he crumble, or stumble on? Or stand up bravely, openly? Sometimes one, sometimes two, but most importantly, sometimes the third.
I attended a CORE training institute in Miami in August 1960 in Miami. I joked, it was my first trip North. Actually, Miami was further south than New Orleans. but, many Yanks had moved south to retire in Florida, so its political atmosphere then was more liberal, less racist, than most of the South. We had various teachers during that 3-week institute. One day, Jackie Robinson, the great baseball player spoke to us in the cocktail lounge of the black motel where we all stayed. It was a lounge at night, but we used it during the day for our training sessions, without liquor. It was an election year and Robison was openly for Nixon and the Republicans. We were only about 40 participants, so we could ask questions and it was quite informal. A few days later Martin Luther King spoke to us in the same lounge, but to a smaller group as half of our institute had been arrested when we sought to integrate the restaurant inside Shell's City super market. King was, off the record, for John Kennedy and the Democrats - though his father, a prominent minister in Atlanta, was at that time for Nixon. Like many Protestants in the South at that time, there was still much worry about having a Roman Catholic in the White House. Interestingly, almost no one complains about Pres. Biden being America's 2nd Catholic President today.
For the conference, we were given 2 books: the Bhagavad Gita and a biography of Gandhi to learn about non-violence elsewhere. I speak too much and scribble too much. Anyway, Have a great day.
King continued his activities to free black people even after the victory in the Montgomery bus boycott. King was a very courageous man. He could have sold out to the Establishment, and had a really cushy life. Instead he pushed on. Sometimes mistakes, sometimes defeats, but he struggled on in a general fight for freedom. Martin Luther King was a hero; one who deserves the honor of a federal holiday.
Hugh Murray
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