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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1982)
i W lAHtST mhmmirs l (M l* » M l Our Hero by Harris Levon McRae tory o f the U nited States. In Sep tem ber, 1954, D r. M a rtin L u th er King Jr. and M rs. C o retta Scott King took up residence in M o n t gomery, Alabama, where the young D r. King assumed the pastorate o f the Dexter Avenue Baptist church. About a year later in December o f 1955, a tired Black w om an, Rosa Parks, refused to get out o f her seat when the bus d river asked her to move to the back o f the bus. She was arrested and ja ile d by the police. Montgomery Blacks numbering in the thousands refused to ride on the Jim Crow buses. Under the lead ership o f D r. King, as head o f the Montgomery Improvement Associa tio n , they staged a bus boycott which lasted more than a year, re sulting in victory when the Supreme Court ruled that the kind o f racial discrim in atio n practiced on the buses was illegal. Young D r. M a rtin Luther King Jr. was world famous. “ E veryb o d y’ s searching fo r a hero; people need someone to look up to; I never found anyone to ful fill my needs; a lonely place to be so I learned to depend on m e .” As George Benson sang those lyrics I quietly uttered “ I heard th a t,” to myself. Then I stopped to thin k about the word "hero” and the stuff heroes are made o f, and it is no wonder they are so hard to find. A hero is a man o f distinguished valor and enterprise in danger, a central person in any remarkable ac tion or event taking on tremendous odds. Some folks picture John W ayne w ith blazing six guns winning the girl and riding o ff into the sunset or super cops like " D irty Harry” as hero material. To me the prototype o f heroes is the man who fought for tru th , justice and the American way— D r. M artin Luther King, Jr. The main thing that I adm ired about D r. King is th a t, although For a decade M artin Luther King deeply committed to the struggle o f Jr. was a hero in every sense o f the Black Americans against discrimin word. Among his many accomplish ation and racial prejudice, he had a ments was his designation by Time love and concern fo r all kinds o f magazine as "M a n o f the Year” for people. He drew no distinction be 1963 and being awarded the Nobel tween the Blacks and the whites, the Peace Prize in 1964— the youngest haves and have-nots. person ever to receive the award. At the root o f his civil rights fight I was a twelve-year-old boy stand was a tremendous faith in the basic ing in my mother’ s kitchen when I goodness o f man and the great heard o f Dr. King’s assassination on potential o f American democracy. A p ril 4 th , 1968. I felt an over- He felt that the Black man needed whelming feeling o f great loss. the white man to free him from his The crime dominated the media, fears and that the white man needed specials on T . V . , his speeches on the Black man to free him from his many o f the radio stations, fro n t guilt. Dr. King said, “ A doctrine o f page stories several days in a row in Black supremacy is as evil as a doc the newspapers. Detail after detail. trine o f white supremacy.” He was ambushed— shot with a Another thing that I greatly ad high-powered rifle as he stood on mired about M artin Luther King Jr. the balcony o f the Lorraine Hotel in was the fact that though very elo Memphis, Tennessee. He was in the quent, he never relied solely on midst o f plans for a "P o o r Peoples words. He was a man o f action. He March On Washington.” once said, “ For years now I have So there I was, robbed o f a hero, heard the word ‘w ait.’ It rings in the but by no means could anyone steal ta r o f every Negro with a piercing his memory. I will always remember fa m ilia rity . The ‘ w a it’ has almost his love for all hum anity, and his always meant ‘ never.’ It has been a courageous assaults on racial preju tranquilizing thalidomide, relieving dice. I will always remember his de the em otional stress for the m o term ination to succeed— whatever ment, only to give b irth to an ill- the cost. formed infant o f frustration. The next time you think o f heroes “ We have waited for more than and sunsets remember these words 340 years for our constitutional and o f D r. James Bevel; “ D r. King God-giwn rights.” walked w ith God. H e was tire d . D r. King was thrust into leader God took him, and they walked o ff ship at a crucial moment in the his into the Western sunset.1 Got .water beating costs in half. 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