MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.  (1929-1968)
“A BELOVED COMMUNITY PERFECTING THE UNION”

by Bill Grimmette

In 1896, the Supreme Court ended the 19th century by reinvigorating the malevolent foundation of the slave society with its ruling on Plessey v. Ferguson. This case affirmed the constitutionality of the separate but equal doctrine on which the institution of slavery was perpetuated. In one act, the court gave the malignant principles of racial segregation legitimacy for the first time in the nation’s history. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  began his drive to rid the nation of this oppressive restriction to its moral and intellectual blood supply, he made a conscious decision to avoid the antiquated 19th century battles of fighting “fire with fire.” King said, “an eye for an eye” will leave everybody blind. King borrowed phrases from the nation’s founding documents to animate a vision of the American dream as the precursor to “a more perfect union.” So for King, freedom was the affirmation of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that would inspire the 20th century to rethink the damning pseudo-science of eugenics, to recast the astringent artistic works of birth of a nation, and to reassess the corrosive hate-based, race theories undergirding some of our institutions of higher learning.

When King set out to develop a strategy to counter these oppressions suffocating our Democracy, he focused first on the elimination of overt racial barriers that expressly denied citizens their full measure of freedom. Yet, King never lost sight of the fact that the shadow extends beyond the reach of the tree. So where hatred stood like a giant oak blocking the light of love beneath its branches, its shadow continued long after the tree was cut down.  Thus, King fought to remedy the travails of the White poor who, while not the subject of the poisonous tree of racial oppression, were very definitely the object of it – caught in the devastating shade of its shadow. King defined freedom as shining a light on discrimination, poverty and war. Those opposed to him countered that freedom was the presence of states’ rights, personal responsibility and private immunity. So where King saw love and inclusion as the remedies to hate, his adversaries saw hatred and exclusion as the ultimate expressions of love. Thus the 20th century was born deeply engulfed by the same forces with which the 19th century ended – hatred, derision and division. 

There is no fail-safe way to gauge the power and effectiveness of visions except by the strength of their endurance over time and place. So perhaps the extent to which others take up the challenge and replicate the words of freedom might be as good a measure as any to determine if a vision has been realized. When the Poles and East Germans took up singing “We Shall Overcome” twenty years after King’s death, his vision took on new meaning. When the students at Tiananmen Square stood in front of rolling tanks in defiance of the communist Chinese oppression and summoned the name of King, we rejoiced. Many malign King’s name today because he was not a perfect man; yet, he never promised us a perfect man, just a more perfect union. The 2008 Election indicates that we are still rising to the realm of that hallowed beloved community, which King described as “The aftermath of nonviolence…when the battle’s over, a new relationship comes into being between the oppressed and the oppressor.” King also said, “The way of acquiescence leads to moral and spiritual suicide. The way of violence leads to bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. But, the way of non-violence leads to redemption and the creation of the beloved community.”

The greatest threats to The Beloved Community are the triple evils of Racism, Poverty and War.  To work against these Triple Evils is to develop a nonviolent frame of mind as described in the "Six Principles of Nonviolence"; and use the Kingian model for social action outlined in the "Six Steps for Nonviolent Social Change."

Six Principles of Non-Violence:

Non-violence is a way of life for courageous people

Non-violence Seeks to win friendship and understanding

Non-violence Seeks to defeat injustice not people

Non-violence Holds that suffering can educate and transform

Non-violence Chooses love instead of hate

Non-violence Believes that the universe is on the side of justice

Six Steps to non-violence:

Gather Information

Educate

Make Personal Commitment

Negotiate

Act! Directly

Reconcile

RECOMMENDED READING

Albert, P.J & Hoffman, R. (ed.) We Shall Overcome: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Black Freedom Struggle. New York: De Capo Press, Inc., 1993.

Ansboro, J. Martin Luther King , Jr.: The Making of a Mind. New York: Orbis, 1982.

Branch, T. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.

Branch, T. Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Burns, S. To The Mountaintop: Martin Luther King’s Sacred Mission to Save America: 1955-1968. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2004.

Carson, C., (ed) The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Warner Books, 1998.

Dyson, M.E. I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Touchstone, 2000.

King, Coretta Scott. My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Puffin Books, 1969 revised 1993.

King, M.L. Jr. Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. New York: Harper & Row, 1958.

King, M. L. Jr. Strength to Love. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1963.

King, M.L, Jr. Why We Can’t Wait. New York: New American Library, 1964.

Ling, P. J. Martin Luther King, Jr. London: Rutledge, 2002.

BILL GRIMMETTE

Bill Grimmetteis a living history interpreter, storyteller, actor, and motivational speaker who has worked in film, television, and stage throughout the United States and abroad. But at heart, Bill is an educator who created the title of “The Learning Dramatist”™ to explain his deep interest in using the arts to facilitate learning. He has appeared as Martin Luther King, Jr., W.E.B. Dubois, Frederick Douglass, and Benjamin Banneker at Chautauquas in Maryland, Colorado, South Carolina, Delaware, North Carolina and in the Northern Mariana Islands (Saipan, Tinian and Rota). Bill has also performed at the Smithsonian Institution, the Kennedy Center, National Public Radio and many theaters, colleges, universities and schools across the nation. Grimmette has B.A. and M.A. degrees in psychology from Marian College in Indianapolis and Catholic University in Washington, DC respectively, and has done post-graduate work in education at George Mason University in Virginia.

As a storyteller, Grimmette relishes the idea of placing his audiences in the time, place and atmosphere of the characters being portrayed. One of his most cherished characterizations is as Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln. This being the bicentennial of Mr. Lincoln’s birth, it is “riveting” as one audience member just wrote, to hear Frederick Douglass talk about the high character of a man who found himself in an

QUOTES BY MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

 “Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution” speech, March 31, 1968    

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man. Strength to Love, 1963    

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. “The Trumpet of Conscience” speech, 1967    

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. (quoting Martin Luther)

I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live. June 23, 1963    

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become areality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word. “Nobel Prize Acceptance” speech, December 10. 1964    

If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos. “Justice Without Violence” speech, April 3, 1957    

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.Wall Street Journal, November 13, 1962    

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness. Strength to Love, 1963    

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think. Strength to Love, 1963    

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Strength to Love, 1963    

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood. Strength to Love, 1963     

The time is always right to do what is right. “Letter From Birmingham Jail”  April 16, 1963    

TIMELINE

January 15, 1929        Michael Luther King Jr., later renamed Martin, born to schoolteacher Alberta King and Baptist minister Michael Luther King. Boyhood in Sweet Auburn district of Atlanta, Georgia.

1948                            King graduates from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., with a B.A.

1951                            Graduates with a B.D. from Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pa.

June 18, 1953              King marries Coretta Scott in Marion, Alabama. They will have four children: Yolanda Denise (b.1955), Martin Luther King III (b.1957), Dexter (b.1961), Bernice Albertine (b.1963).

September 1954          King moves to Montgomery, Alabama, to preach at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

1955                            After coursework at New England colleges, King finishes his Ph.D. in systematic theology.

January 26, 1956        King is arrested for driving 30 mph in a 25 mph zone.

January 30, 1956        King's house bombed.

January 1957              Black ministers form what became known as the Southern hristian Leadership Conference. King is named first president one month later. In this typical year of demonstrations, King traveled 780,000 miles and made 208 speeches.

1958                            King's first book published, Stride Toward Freedom (Harper), his recollections of the Montgomery bus boycott. While King is promoting his book in a Harlem book store, an African American woman stabs him.

1959                            King visits India. He had a lifelong admiration for Mohandas K. Gandhi, and credited Gandhi's passive resistance techniques for his civil-rights successes.

1960                            King leaves for Atlanta to pastor his father's church, Ebenezer Baptist Church.

1962                            King meets with President John F. Kennedy to urge support for civil rights.

1963                            King leads protests in Birmingham for desegregated department store facilities and fair hiring.

April 1963                  Arrested after demonstrating in defiance of a court order, Kingwrites "Letter From Birmingham Jail." This eloquent letter, later widely circulated, became a classic of the civil-rights movement.

August 28, 1963         250,000 civil-rights supporters attended the March on Washington. At the Lincoln Memorial, King delivers the famous "I have a dream" speech.

1964                            King's book Why We Can't Wait published.

1964                            King visits with West Berlin Mayor Willy Brant and Pope Paul VI.

December 10, 1964     King wins Nobel Peace Prize.

January 18, 1965        King successfully registers to vote at the Hotel Albert in Selma, Alabama and is assaulted by James George Robinson of Birmingham.

February 1965            King continues to protest discrimination in voter registration, and is arrested and jailed. Meets with President Lyndon B. Johnson and other American leaders about voting rights for African Americans.

March 16-21, 1965     King and 3,200 people march from Selma to Montgomery

April 4, 1968              King is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

January 20, 1986        The first national celebration of King's birthday as a holiday.

From a Handout:

THE KING’S DREAM: THE BELOVED COMMUNITY

Dr. King elaborated on the after-effects of choosing nonviolence over violence: “The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, so that when the battle’s over, a new relationship comes into being between the oppressed and the oppressor.” “The way of acquiescence leads to moral and spiritual suicide. The way ofviolence leads to bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. But, the way of non-violence leads to redemption and the creation of the beloved community.”

Six Principles of Non-Violence:

Six Steps to non-violence

Triple Evils of Chaos

 The greatest threats to The Beloved Community are the triple evils f Racism, Poverty and War.  To work against these Triple Evils, is to develop a nonviolent frame of mind as described in the "Six Principles of Nonviolence"; and use the Kingian model for social action outlined in the "Six Steps for Nonviolent Social Change."

 The Triple Evils of POVERTY, RACISM and WAR are forms of violence that exist in a vicious cycle. They are interrelated, all-inclusive, and stand as barriers to our living in the Beloved Community. When we work to remedy one evil, we affect all evils. The issues change in accordance with the political and social climate of our nation and world. Some contemporary manifestations are below.