April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.

[H2O Man]

{1} "With that lead-in I began at the beginning – with his birth, his early schooling and then on to college, the beginnings of the civil rights movement, and finally to the current confrontation in Memphis. In doing so I was trying to sum up the greatness of the man in a way I had never done before. I don’t think he quite understood my motives, and I’m not sure even now I fully understand myself. But when I finally gave him to the audience they went wild.

"He turned with a grin on his face and said, ‘You took a terribly long time to introduce me.’ He turned quickly to the crowd and said, ‘I want everbody to know that my dearest friend in the world is Ralph Abernathy.’ Then he addressed the audience for more than an hour and a half. He was at the height of his powers. I had never seen him better. ….

"I had heard him hit high notes before, but never any higher. The crowd was on its feet, shouting and applauding – even some of the television crew. It was a rare moment in the history of American oratory, something to file along with Washington’s Farewell Address and the Gettysburg Address. But it was somehow different than those speeches because it was an eloquence that grew out of the black experience, with its similarities to the bibical story of captivity and hard-won freedom. Everyone was emotionally drained by what he had said, including Martin himself, whose eyes were filled with tears."
--Ralph David Abernathy; And the Walls Came Tumbling Down; pages 432-433

{2}" ‘Ben,’ King said, ‘make sure you play "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" at the meeting tonight. Sing it real pretty.’

" ‘OK, Doc, I will,’ Branch said.

" ‘Jesse,’ King said, ‘I want you to go to dinner with us this evening.’ He spoke affectionately, no longer angry at Jackson as he had been in Atlanta. ‘And you be sure to dress up a little tonight, OK, Jesse? No blue jeans, all right?’

"It was six now and time to go. As Kyles headed down to the parking lot, King stood at the iron railing by himself, facing a row of rundown buildings in some trees beyond Mulberry Street. At that time, there was a report of a highpowered rifle …"
--Stephen B. Oates; Let the Trumpet Sound; pages 471-472.

{3} "Soon they arrived in Indianapolis. Worse news: King was dead. Kennedy ‘seemed to shrink back,’ Lindsay thought, ‘as though struck physically.’ He put his hands to his face: ‘Oh, God. When is this going to stop?’ The chief of police warned the party not to go into the ghetto; he would not be responsible for anything that might happen. Kennedy sent Ethel on to the hotel but was determined to keep his rendezvous. In the automobile he sat wrapped in thought. As his car entered the ghetto, the police escort left him.

"It was a cold, windy evening. People had been waiting in the street an hour but were in a festive, political-rally mood. They had not heard about King. Kennedy climbed onto a flatbed truck in a parking lot under a stand of oak trees. The wind blew smoke and dust through the gleam of the spotlights. "He was up there,’ said Charles Quinn, a television correspondent, ‘hunched in his black overcoat, his face gaunt and distressed and full of anguish.’ He said, ‘I have bad news for you, for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight.’ There was a terrible gasp from the crowd.
--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.; Robert Kennedy & His Times; page 939.

{4}"Shortly after the assassination, a grief-stricken Stanley Levison complained that most Americans already distorted the loss of ‘their plaster saint who was going to protect them from angry Negroes.’ …

"In 1983, President Ronald Reagan announced his belief that secret FBI files one day would establish whether King was a loyal American or a Communist sympathizer.’ "
--Taylor Branch; At Canaan’s Edge; pages 769-770

It was 40 years ago today that Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was murdered in Memphis. I am hoping that older DUers will take a minute to tell about their memories of the events surrounding that tragic time in 1968. Also, if younger DUers would tell us about what they have learned about King, and how he has influenced their lives, it would be appreciated.

Thanks,
H2O Man

[Syrinx]

1. That great man knew the government would kill him

He knew.

I got suckered into watching Soledad O'Brien's special about his assassination on CNN last night.

They hinted that the conspiracy would be revealed.

And they stringed me along for an hour and a half, until they brought out the usual corporate BS.

Dr. King was murdered by the same internal faction that killed both Kennedy's. The same faction that kills anyone that threatens to bring major social change to this country.

They kill anyone that threatens to bring justice to this country.

It's the same people that are controlling this country today.

And if anyone wants to call me a nut (no offense TahitiNut) for knowing the truth, that's okay.

It's important that people know the truth, before it happens again, because I think we may have one true leader rising up in America right now.

That's what I think anyway. Maybe I'm crazy, though..

[H2O Man]

2. Right.

I watched the CNN special last night. Even before it played, I saw Ms. O'Brien being interviewed, and clips of the documentary, during the day. It was apparent that she either was unaware of some of the facts involved in the case, or was unable to present them in a CNN program.

[mmonk]

3. Maybe both.

[bdamomma]

16. it seems like when there is someone good to do something

good for the people, they are taken down by dark side in the government. Yes, I agree he knew he was going to be targeted.

[KharmaTrain]

4. The World Went Silent...

When I think back on that Thursday night and the first reports of Dr. King's murder, I felt a big hole had swallowed up this country...not only was a great voice silenced, but with him a voice that had changed the world. I knew it then as much as I feel it now.

The video of RFK at Indianapolis that night was inspiring...I hope Youtube has it. I also recall a PBS special that ran right after his death...a documentary of the last 6 months of his life, with a camera on his bus and behind the scenes...it showed a very human man fighting his own frustrations and those of others to remain positive. That's the vision I still have of Dr. King...and I know I'm not alone in wondering how he'd feel about the status of race relations in this country today and this ugly war for profit.

Thank you for sharing. It's hard to describe the world as it was in that Spring of '68. Dr. King's death was just one of several things going on. About a week earlier LBJ had dropped out of the race and halted the bombing of North Vietnam that began peace talks...and, just like this year, the Democrats were in the mdist of a very heated primary. Tet was still on a lot of people's mind. The world was moving in a way we'd never felt since...and there was more to come.

There are a lot of memories that flow through my mind of that time...the riots that are still visible on the West Side of Chicago, the touching funeral in Atlanta and all those who just wondered, why? We all knew, but at least this young kid couldn't concieve how evil people be...I sure learned a valuable lesson that night.

Cheers...

[H2O Man]

5. Next on MSNBC (7:44 am est)

They are going to play RFK's sppech from 40 years ago. Very powerful.

[TTUBatfan2008]

6. I'm 22...

and of course the history books never made mention of how the government treated MLK. They taught us as kids about what a great man he was and about how we were a manifestation of his dream (I went to ethnically diverse schools up until college, which was an ethnic shock for me b/c it's 85% white here at Texas Tech). I can confidently say that if only one part of his dream has been achieved, it's that children play together without prejudice for the most part. I recently volunteered at a neighborhood daycare center and it featured a good mixture of kids from all backgrounds, with one thing in common: they are all somewhat disadvantaged economically. But they all love to play and don't give a rat's ass about race, just like I never gave a crap about it when I was little and I still don't to this day. It angers me that the history books gloss over the FBI's treatment of King. In fact, I'm baffled that we would name the FBI building after a blatant racist and McCarthyist. Even with hiding this truth, they taught us the important thing about King's legacy and that is the idea that bringing up children in ethnically diverse environments will give them a great chance of being open-minded instead of bigoted. And this goes for children of all backgrounds. Racism and bigotry in all forms is not a natural thing in my opinion. It's bred by parents. There's still self-segregation going on though where you have almost all black schools and almost all white schools and this is a problem that still keeps tensions going. But I believe that we have at least planted the proper seeds to fully realize Dr. King's dreams at some point. We've at least made it a long ways in the nurturing department. Raise the kids right and it can change society as a whole. It's a powerful and effective message from Dr. King and I am happy that if nothing else, we at least heard him and implemented his advice on this point.

[H2O Man]

7. Very good!

Thank you.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

8. I was 16 and involved in the anti-war movement and it shocked and saddened me

when I heard of Dr. King's murder. He was such a powerful voice for equality and peace. I still cry when I hear his speeches.

Growing up on Long Island and in NYC I didn't really know about segregation until we took a family car trip down to Florida. Before then, it was just an abstract for me. I was just 12 at the time. My parents decided to make the trip by driving straight through. I remember waking up in the morning in South Carolina at a gas station, and there were three bathrooms. Men, Women and Colored. I will never forget that. I just couldn't comprehend it. People, no matter what color, religion, ethnic group, were all human beings to me.

I also weep uncontrollably for Bobby Kennedy when I see footage or hear tapes of him, and I think it's because his untimely death was the accumulation of both of their assassinations that year.

A few years later after Dr. King's death, I found myself working for the law firm that handled Dr. King's estate and had the privilege of talking on the phone and meeting Mrs. King and felt myself personally touched by greatness/history.

[Me.]

10. The Bleakness Of The Diametrically Opposed Views

presented here, his words in contrast to the the thinking of people like Reagan, which has been in the ascendance in this country for far too long. We are, at this moment, poised to make a change which the full significance of won't really be apparent for decades, should it come to pass. Forty years is such a long time and yet in the blink of the eye, a black man may soon be president. I wonder what Martin would think of that?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

11. And that is why I was brought to tears (once again) by this

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen - is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. - Barack Obama 3/18/08

[Annces]

9. My memories of him

I was a child when he was assassinated, so I don't have a direct memory of that. However my father worked for Commission on Human Relations that King started in Chicago, using his political muscle and savvy with Mayor Daley. Our own experiences are the biggest lens of our lives, unless we become "enlightened" or some such. Our neighborhood in Chicago, Austin, became a black neighborhood in the late 60s and the racial tensions were so high, I had to be driven to school.

However my own older views of King when I could read about him and such, was that he was some kind of supernatural person, with the amount of influence and positive effects he had. And I attribute this to his own talent and a true grounding in teachings of Jesus Christ. And then his development as a great speaker in the Southern Churches.

[H2O Man]

12. From: "The 16th Round"

I never had a chance to meet Martin Luther King, Jr. But I have a friend who had been friends with both Martin and Malcolm. Here is a quote from his 1974 book:

"I didn't know a damned thing about politics. But ignorance is no excuse. Our history has proved, down through the years of legalized slavery, that the real danger lies not in the possession of power, but in the abuse of it. On August 4, 1964, the mutilated bodies of James Chaney,Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner -- three young civil rights workers missing since June of that year -- were unearthed by the FBI from under a pond dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi, where they had been buried. The sheriff of Nebraska County, Lawrence Rainey, and his deputy, Cecil Price, were among nineteen of those indicted for violating the civil rights of the three murdered victims. Price and six others were convicted in October 1967 and sentenced to three years in prison. Rainey and seven others were acquitted. The Federal Government dropped the charges on the remaining eight. ....

"Only one time during this period did my wife ever interfere with anything I was doing. It happened a month after Malcolm X was assassinated. I had just returned home from a successful tour of Europe, the highlight of which had been my nine-round knockout of the British middleweight champion in London. The telephone rang early one morning. Mae Thelma answered it. It was from Dr. Martin Luther King. He wanted to know if I would consider coming down to Selma, Alabama, to march in his demonstration to dramatize the voting discrimination. I had made the March on Washington with him in 1963.

" 'Alabama!' I exclaimed aloud, and saw the fright on my wife's face. She emphatically shook her head from side to side, telling me, 'No! Hell, no!' Her grandparents lived in the South, and she went to see them quite often, but would never let me go with her. She was scared that scared that them honkies would get me down there and kill me because of my arrogant attitude .....

" 'No, I can't go down there,' I told the good Reverend. 'That would be foolishness at the risk of suicide. Those people would kill me dead. I wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell.' And it's a good thing I didn't go, too, because the march was brought to a swift and violent conclusion by Alabama dogs and law enforcement officers -- which I would say are synonymous." (pages 234-235)

[Me.]

14. That March In Selma Was Brilliantly Strategies

to hear Brokaw tell it. They knew what that police chief was like and how brutally he would react. They also knew it would be captured on film. It changed a nation.

[H2O Man]

15. It is a fascinating chapter

in the civil rights movement's history. There was a lot of confusion in the first of the episodes, as documented in the better books, because the different leaders other than Martin were divided on what approach to take.

[wovenpaint]

13. found this to watch/listen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0FiCxZKuv8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gigsZH5HlJA


I remember that time through the teenage hazed focus of rock music, friends, politics, etc. When I look back on that time, political discussions were embedded in our days along with frequent speaking out at demonstrations-so unlike today-yet so similar.

For me, 1968 was the year of Lydon Johnson, Gene McCarthy, Martin Luthur King, Robert F. Kennedy, Jimi Hendrix, Vietnam war, Vietnam war, more Vietnam war... protests, Phil Ochs, Beatles, OMG! Jim Morrison and the Doors...on and on it seemed a very "rich" time for us (i.e. lots of intellectual inspiration)

I remember the shock of losing MLK, the year turned strange for me after that. And then, RFK in the summer! It was almost too much....lights dimmed, in a way...hard to describe.

After listening to Bobby Kennedy's speech today, I once again realize how similar the times seem to be. 40 years later.

Except, we now have an African American running for president! Maybe we've made a little progress after all....


edited: forgot to add link

[Karenina]

17. Water man...

:loveya: You are deeply loved. :loveya:

[H2O Man]

19. Thank you. n/t

[Me.]

18. Mid-Day

:kick:

[H2O Man]

20. Freedom

Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
A long way from my home

Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom

Sometimes I feel like I’m almost gone
Sometimes I feel like I’m almost gone
Sometimes I feel like I’m almost gone
A long, long, long, way, way from my home

Clap your hands
Clap your hands
Clap your hands
Clap your hands
Clap your hands
Clap your hands
Clap your hands
Clap your hands
Hey…yeah

I got a telephone in my bosom
And I can call him up from my heart
I got a telephone in my bosom
And I can call him up from my heart

When I need my brother…brother
When I need my mother…mother
Hey…yeah

Ritchie Havens

[Jed Dilligan]

21. Born in 1974 here

I had to memorize "I Have a Dream" in school, and I somehow got the idea as a kid that he was shot immediately at the end of that speech.

That misconception was very influential in forming my vision of America. Come with a beautiful message of peace and get shot dead immediately. It wasn't that far from the truth, after all.

[spanone]

22. the day the music really died

i work in the music business and many of my friends were working in memphis at the time of King's assasination. up to that point, the music business had been fairly color blind. all the great stax records that came out of memphis (otis redding,soloman burke, johnny taylor, carla thomas, rufus thomas, sam & dave, on and on) were all done with mixed race musicians.....although memphis was a hotbed of racial relations, the music industry was well integrated. the murder of Dr. King put an end to that....practically overnight...soul music has never recovered imo

there's a great book that chronicles this time called 'Sweet Soul Music' by Peter Guralnick

[H2O Man]

23. "House Burning Down"

by Jimi Hendrix is about the rioting after King's assassination. I think that he would soon be pressured to stop being part of the integrated music scene that you speak of.

[annabanana]

26. yes yes

I wondered about that recently. We were all dancing to the same music for awhile there.. knew all the lyrics, felt the same rhythms..

then not so much

[maxpower]

24. Thanks H2O Man

He died before I was born. I have read of him and listened to his speeches. It was a terrible shame such a waste. I can't imagine what the world would be like if he and RFK had not been murdered. It seems the bastards always win in the end.

[horseshoecrab]

25. my memories

My memories have been washed with tears for all of these years. I can barely think of that year, 1968 without feeling complete sadness. Sadness and grief at his murder and at the events that followed.

Martin Luther King was one of my biggest influences and a personal hero. To think of what he accomplished using his beliefs, his ideals, his magnificent voice, and non-violent resistance. It's astounding really.

I believe that we would not have African Americans in any major political or even business offices, nor would we have a black man running for the office of President of the United States, without the profound influence of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. His influence will be never ending.

Forty years after his assassination it's tempting to some to say that there's been little to no change. Not true. It would have taken a much longer time to integrate society to the degree that we are now integrated, without the works of Dr. King.

I will never forget the image of the completely grief stricken Bobby Kennedy telling a crowd that Dr. King had been killed. There are tears in my eyes as I write this. The two of them - stolen from us by murderers within just two months of each other. It was terribly hard to bear.

I was just a skinny white girl and I knew then what we had lost. A lot of people, white and black knew what had been stolen from us. I think many of us still struggle with that loss to this very day.

Later that year, we had the clubbing and beating of protesters at the Dem. Convention in Chicago and the election of the awful Nixon. It felt as though we were being clubbed into submission during the whole year of 1968.

We all know that we were lied to about the assassinations that year, just as many of us knew it then. I hope some day that it all comes out, whatever the real story is. We deserve it. Bobby Kennedy and of course, Dr. King both deserve it as well. The American people need to know what really was done, in their name, to the very people who were trying so hard to bring peace to this land.

Rest in Peace Dr. King. I still miss you and I will never forget you.


horseshoecrab

[GreenInNC]

27. Where he was supposed to be that day

Before Dr. King was summoned to Memphis to support the striking workers, he had planned to be in Charlotte supporting Dr. Reginald Hawkins. Dr. Hawkins was an African American dentist who was running for Governor of North Carolina. They were to start a statewide road trip that day to register voters and to drum up support for other AA candidates.

You can read more about it at: http://www.charlotte.com/observer/story/565844.html

[bleever]

28. I just want to say

that I've been thinking about this a lot today.