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Volume XXVI, Num ber?
(Elie -JJIartlattfr ©trscrlrer
MARTIN
LUTHER
KING TR.
sp e cia l Jtbitiott
SECTION
In celebration of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.'s 67th birthday, and in
rememberance of his achievements.
i Are Somebody: Words To Live
Martin Luther King Jr. Learns About Discrimination Early In Childhood
Martin Luther King, Jr., was born on Jan
there. I’maman. I’m Reverend King."Indeed
touched the ceiling. The (family quickly took
the great pipe organ.
approach and started assaulting the living-
uary 15,1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, and learned
he was. The Reverend Martin Luther King,
to calling the pudgy, healthy baby “M. L.,”
The King children spent all day Sunday at
room
piano with a hammer, but M.L. and
about racial discrimination at an early age.
Sr., pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, a
and a year and a half later, when a second boy
church, and they were there several after
Christine
convinced him to fry the more
When he was five years old, his most
leader of black Atlanta, demanded and
was born, they nicknamed Allied Daniel
noons during the week as well. By the time
subtle
tactic
of loosening the legs of the piano
frequent playmate was a white boy whose
claimed respect.In his youth, he had been
“A.D.”
M.L. was five, he was performing gospel
stool.
Their
sabotage went like clockwork:
lather owned a neighborhood grocery store.
know as Mike, and he had come up the hard
Daddy constantly prayed, “God grant my
songs at church affairs. Accompanied on the
the
music
teacher
arrived, sat on the stool,
One day, out of the blue, the boy’s parents
way. Born in 1899, he was from an unhappy
children will not have to come up the way I
piano by his mother, he never tired of singing
and crashed to the floor. Had anything, the
told Martin to go away and not play with their
children laughed, ever beem so funny? Not in
son any longer. Bewildered, Martin asked
the least ammused by the prank, their father
why. “Because we are white and you are
gave each of them a thrashing.
colored,” they said.
It was not the first time M.L. had felt the
At home, Martin cried tohis mother, “Why
sting of his father’s switch. At home. Daddy
don t white people like us?” She dropped
meant to be obeyed absolutely. If something
everything and for several hours explained
went wrong, somebody got a whipping. It
the nature of race relations in America, the
was simple, quick, and persuasive, he ex
tragedy of slavery and of segregation. She
plained.
told him to hold his head high and not let what
He was the most peculiar child whenever
whites said and did affect him.
you whipped him,” Daddy said of M L. “He’d
“You must never feel that you are less
stand there, and the tears would run down and
than anybody else,” she said. “You must
he'd never cry. His grandmother couldn't
always feel that you are somebody.”
stand to see it." Grandmother Williams, who
King never really doubted that, but like
lived with the Kings, was closest to M L., and
every southern black, he lived in a segregat
after a spanking, Christine remembered, she
ed, unequal society.
always had for him “a hug, kiss, or kind word
“On the one hand, my mother taught me
to help the hurt go away.”
that I should feel a sense of somebodiness,”
M L. lovingly called her "Mama,” and he
he later explained “On the other hand, I had
could not bear the thought of living without
to go out and face the system, which stared
her.
me in the face every day, saying You are less
One day when he was roughhousing with
than, you are not equal to. ’ So this was a real
A. D., his brother slid down the banister of the
tension within.”
front stairway, missed his mark, and slammed
Throughout the South of King’s youth, the
system of segregation determined the pat
into Mama, knocking her down. When she
terns of life. Blacks attended separate schools
did not get up, M L. was sure he and A.D. had
from whites, were barred from pools and
killed her. Tears pouring from his eyes, he
parks where whites swam and played, from
rushed into a bedroom and threw himself out
cafes and hotels where whites ate and slept.
a window, landing hard on the ground 12 feet
It took a brave person to challenge the
below. When his family hurried to him, shout
system. Yet in small ways blacks did their
ing that Mama was fine, just a little bruised,
best to resist humiliation.
M L. picked himself up and strolled away.
When King was a child, his father took
Not long afterward, on a Sunday, M.L.
him to buy a pair of shoes at a white-owned
sneaked away to watch a parade-something
store in Atlanta. Father and son took seats in
Daddy had strictly forbidden. When the
front, near the window. A clerk approached
youngster returned home, the house was filled
and said, “I'll be happy to wait on you if you'll
with sobbing relatives. His grandmother had
just move to those seats at the rear of the
suffered a heart attack and was dead.
store.”
Shattered, sensing terrible guilt for having
“Nothing wrong with these seats,” the
gone to the parade, he once more ran to a
elder King replied.
second story window and jumped out. Unhurt
“Sorry but you'll have to go back there.”
beyond some bumps and scrapes, M L. did
Martin's father stayed put. “We’ll buy
not walk away this time. He cried and pound
shoes silting here or we won’t buy shoes at
ed the giound, a captive of grief.
all,” he insisted.
M.L.’« leaps from the upstairs windows
row, far right) at the age o f 6, attending a birthday party with fellow first graders in his Atlanta
The clerk shrugged and walked off. In a 1
naturally
concerned his parents. What was he
ral.. lovely relationships were ever present," he later said o f his childhood years.
minute or two, King got up, took Martin by
trying to do, they wondered kill himself? But
the hand, and strode from the store. On the
that seemed unlikely. He never again tried to
family of poor sharecroppers known as Dad
did." His prayers were answered; the family
“I Want to Be More and More Like Jesus."
sidewalk, he looked at his son and in a voice
do himself harm, and in every other way he
dy King.
was well off. “Not really wealthy," his son
At home. M.L. was no saint. Once he
flushed with anger said, “I don’t care how
was a normal, contented youngster.
The name fit. No, only was he the fatherly
Martin would recall, “but Negro wealthy. We
clobbered
his brother, A.D., over the head
long I have to live with this system, I am never
Like most boys, he did ncighborhtxtd jobs
head of a church, but he and Alberta had a
never lived in a rented house and we never
with a telephone, knocking him out, and his
going to accept it. I’ll oppose it till the day I
and
delivered newspapers, once saving up
family of three splendid children: a daughter,
rode too long in a car on which payment was
sister, Christine, could not help but notice
die!"
$
13
of
his own. Although always a little small
Willie Christine, born in 1927, and two sons,
due, and I never had to leave school to work."
how he always seemed to be in the bathroom
Another time young Martin was riding
for
his
age, he enjoyed sports and competed
Martin Luther and Alfred Daniel.Martin
Quite naturally, life revolved around the
when it was his turn to do the dishes.
with his father when a policeman pulled them
fiercely,
especially on the football field,
Luther King, Jr., arrived in the world at noon
Ebenezer church Among M.L.'s earliest
I he three children could put aside their
over for a traffic violation. “Boy, show me
where,
said
a friend, “he ran over anybody
on January 15, 1929, in a bedroom of his
memories were the Sunday mornings when
squabbling, though not always with a happy
your license," the officer drawled.The elder
who
go,
in
his
way."
grandparents' house a, 501 Auburn Avenue.
his father preached emotional, heartfelt ser
result. None of them cared for the piano
King exploded. Pointing at Martin, he shout
Sometimes,
though, he left the playground,
Daddy King was so overjoyed at the birth
mons and his mother, the church’s musical
lessons their molher insisted on, so they
ed, “Do you see this child here? That’s a boy
▼
of his first son that he leaped into the air and
director, played lovely Christian hymns on
conspired against them. A.D. favored a direct
Continued to page C2