Portland observer., January 11, 1995, Image 15

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Volume \ \ \ Number 2
S cia ing the communi!} through cultural di\crsit\
January 11,1995
SEC TIO N
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Martin Luther King Jr.: How Wonderful Yet Is His Spirit
in the city. Immediately following the domonstration, King, backed by 5,000 supporters, marched into the heart of Chicago
and taped a copy of the protesters' demands to the front door of City Hall.
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P rof . M ckinlev B i
rt
visitors and historians described these soul­
ful people as “ Ethiopians, the most just and
he life and times of this gifted
religious o f all peoples” - and Plato said they
and articulate human who
were the “ inventors o f letters and mathemat­
gave shape and force to the
ics”.
aspirations and dreams of a multitude Quite early in his famous speech Rev.
represent an epic in the world's
K in g demonstrates that he is quite familiar
tradition of those great leaders who
with these vaunted Greeks and that the found­
have sought freedom and justice for
ing fathers o f this nation borrowed much
their brethren--all too often at the cost
from them (and from Africa: The Pyramid
of their lives. People like the Rev.
and eye o f the African God on the Great
Martin Luther King Jr. would seem to
Seal). In particular, it is in the third paragraph
define the term epic’ rather than the
that K in g strangles the racists on their own
other way around; “extending beyond
utterances; words or truths which were said
the usual or ordinary in size or scope-
then and later to be “ self-evident" in para­
-a legendary or historical hero”.
phrase o f that famed Greek mathematician,
It w ill not come as a surprise that I have
Euclid, who said the very same thing about
chosen the “ I Have A Dream" speech as a
the axioms o f his geometry. The king quote
focal point for evaluating D r K in g 's polem­
follows.
ics and metaphors in favor o f “justice and
“When the architects ofour republic wrote
humanity for all ofG od'schildren". No more
the magnificent words o f the Constitution and
than is should be surprising that this gifted
the Declaration o f Independence, they were
orator descended from an African tradition
signing a promissory note to which every Amer­
that thousands o f years ago gave the world
ican was to fall heir. This note was a promise
it’s first great spiritual insight, “ In the begin­
that all men-yes, black men as well as white
ning was the word" Early on the heritage was
men-would be guaranteed the in-alienable
recorded on stone and papyrus, and the Greek
rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi­
T
ness."
A reading through o f the “dream" po­
lemic puts to the lie any suggestion that Dr.
K in g was not tough enough or belligerent
enough to deal with hard core racists-speak-
ing o f “ love” as he did so frequently and so
eloquently. When you think o f the times and
the social environment during the long bitter
days o f the marches and confrontations you
may begin to grasp the ferocious courage it
took for king and his followers to assault the
barricades with a “nonviolence’ posture.
“Creative suffering" he called it. He exhorted
his followers, “continue to work with the
faith that unearned suffering is redemptive".
How many o f us today have that kind o f
currency with which to buy freedom? Dare
we to dream again?
Too, there are detractors who w ill claim
that Dr. K in g had a fatal flaw in the construct
o f his dream that blacks could achieve free­
dom and prosperity in these United States.
And that they say was a failure to pursue
economic goals as vigorously as c iv il rights,
e g. integration and voting. Nothing could be
further than the truth for it is a given that the
man recognized that urban economics begin
King with his wife, Coretta, and daughter Yolanda on the steps of the Dexter
Avenue Baptist Church, just down the street from the state capitol, in 1956. His
insistance that all church members support civil rights groups, register to vote, and
regard their pastor as Dexter's chief authority and policymaker helped pave the
way for him to become a leading spokesman for Montgomery's black community.
at the grass roots level; The c iv il rights pro­
tester, the marcher, the striker (an their law­
yers) must eat, sleep and have transportation
before they can confront and have an impact.
And for continued support form the
masses and further draw downs on “ Am eri­
ca's great bank o f opportunity". Dr K ing
adequately demonstrated an understanding
that he needed troops' with jo b security-
people who could feed an house their fami­
lies. leaving the mind free to gain even higher
ground. Need we look any further than the
last great struggle haled in Memphis just
before his assassination in A p ril, 1968.
Throwing the weight o f his movement and
electric personality behind the economic
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