Fifty years ago today,
the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated at the Lorraine
Motel in Memphis. He had gone there to support the strike by black sanitation
workers protesting gross inequities in pay and provisions for safe working
conditions.
The evening before, King
had delivered a speech in which he called (as he always did) for unity,
economic actions, boycotts and nonviolent protests. “The issue is injustice,”
he said. “The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its
dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers.”
It’s actually so painful
to read his words from 50 years ago, and know that they describe the events of
today.
“Somewhere I read of the
freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I
read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of
America is the right to protest for rights. And so just as I said, we aren’t going
to let dogs or water hoses turn us around. We aren’t going to let any
injunction turn us around. We are going on.”
As someone who called
out failures in the system, and urged the country to do better, to be better, King routinely received death
threats, and in fact his flight to Memphis had been delayed due to a bomb
threat. He also dealt with these realities in his speech.
“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 to 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. So I’m 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.’”
A minute after 6pm on
the night of the 4th, a .30-06 round crashed through King’s head,
and he was pronounced dead about an hour later. He was 39 years old.
Robert F. Kennedy, whose
older brother John had also fallen under a sniper’s round not five years
before, was campaigning for the presidency; he was flying to Indianapolis when
he was told about the assassination. He ignored the notes given him by his
speechwriters and spoke from his heart to a largely African-American crowd, who
learned about King’s death from Kennedy. He told the audience that he
understood their loss and their rage, and he urged them to follow King’s
teachings and not turn their pain and fury into violence. In this speech, he
quoted a variant of this passage from the Greek poet-playwright Aeschylus’s Agamemnon:
Zeus, who guided mortals
to be wise,
has established his
fixed law—
wisdom comes through
suffering.
Trouble, with its
memories of pain,
drips in our hearts as
we try to sleep,
so men against their
will
learn to practice
moderation.
Favors come to us from
gods
seated on their solemn
thrones—
such grace is harsh and
violent.
Riots did indeed break
out across the country, but Indianapolis remained calm.
King’s favorite song was
“Precious Lord, Take My Hand”. The legendary Nina Simone sang it at his
funeral, so I’m giving it to you here, on the 50th anniversary of
our great national loss.
Aeschylus and gospel: my
entries for National Poetry Month, Day 4.
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