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I he P ortland O bserver • J anuary 10, 1996
P age C5
ASSASSINATION
"Nonviolence is the answer to the
crucial political and moral questions
of our time the need for man to over­
come oppression and violence with­
out resorting to violence and oppres­
sion.”
During the heroic years of the
civil rights m ovem ent, Ralph
Abernathy had been at King’s side,
just as he was this morning as they
dashed to the Atlanta airport.
Others in the movement snickered
at the way Abernathy fell asleep dur­
ing meetings and elbowed his way
next to King whenever photographers
were around. One associate lamented,
"What a burden Ralph was to Mar­
tin." Yet King trusted Abernathy
absolutely, loved him as a brother,
and, despite considerable opposition,
had designated him as his eventual
successor at the helm of the SCLC.
Abernathy was worried about his
loyal friend. A few months before, he
had returned from a trip to Europe
and had found King dejected and
melancholic. "He was just adifferent
person," Abernathy said.
"He was sad and depressed.”
Worst of all. King seemed obsessed
by the subject of death and persisted
in talking and speculating about his
own end.
April
3rd,
1968
It was before dawn when the Rev­
erend Ralph Abernathy brought his
old Ford to a stop in front of the
modest, pleasant home of Coretta
and Martin Luther King, Jr., in At­
lanta, Georgia. Abernathy half ex­
pected to see King waiting patiently
on the stoop, a black valise at his
side.
But this morning King was run­
ning late. When Coretta answered
the door, her husband was just get­
ting up.
King mumbled an apology for
oversleeping and hurried into the
bathroom to shave. Abernathy, after
declining Coretta’s offer of break­
fast, kept a close watch on the time.
He and King had to catch an early
flight for Memphis, Tennessee.
King was ready in nothing flat. As
always, he wore a somber business
suit, its well-tailored lines flattering
his broad shoulders and subtly con­
cealing his expanding waistline. He
gave Coretta a quick good-bye kiss
and said he would call her from Mem­
phis. Once in the car, he reminded
Abernathy that he wanted to stop by
his office on the way to the airport.
When they reached the office on
Auburn Avenue, King let himself in
with his latchkey and swiftly gath­
ered up some papers he would need
in Memphis. In the early morning
shadows, an outsider might have
taken the place for the of­
fice of a law firm or real
estate business and King
for a young attorney or
salesman. Nothing could
have been further from the
truth.
The office on Auburn
Avenue was home to one of
the most significant orga­
nizations in American his­
tory -the Southern Christian
L eadership
C ouncil
(SCLC)-and Martin Luther
King, Jr„ the man in the
dark suit, white shirt, and
carefully knotted tie, was
its founder and leader. And
he had led a revolution.
The revolution of Mar­
tin Luther King was the
struggle of black Ameri­
cans for equality and civil
rights.
! For a dozen years, this
charismatic Baptist minis­
ter and his legion of follow­
ers had confronted the hu­
miliating system of segre­
gation that had kept black
American second-classciti-
zens.
J In doing this, he and his
ijisciples had faced a rag­
ing storm of white abuse,
fhey had been beaten, ar-
i^sted, jailed, and spat upon,
fhey had had their homes
;Jnd churches burned, their
^milies threatened, their
fiends and allies murdered,
fhey had felt the pain of
Ijolice billy clubs, high-
[Jressurc water hoses, and
parting attack dogs.
J Yet they kept on. They
ijiarched; they staged boy­
cotts and sit-ins; they broke
if njust laws; and, in the end,
tjiey awakened the nation
and
the world to the shame
4
<}f American racial perse­
cution.
; Through it all, no matter
Ijow badly provoked, no
[patter how brutal their foes,
tficy had never turned to
violence, because with ev­
ery ounce of his being Mar­
tin Luther King believed in
nonviolence.
f
• In accepting one of the
World’s highest honors, the
Nobel Peace Prize, he said,
Those close to King knew he had
every reason in the world to be pre­
occupied with death. As the man who
symbolized black America’s deter­
mination for justice and equality, he
magnetically attracted the hatred of
violent racists.
Over the years, he had received
nearly every kind of twisted, anony­
mous threat of death, and once in
New York, a decade before, a de­
ranged woman had stabbed him in
the chest as he autographed books in
a department store.
The latest reminder of the danger
in which King lived took place at the
Atlanta airport on this April morn­
ing. The scheduled time of departure
tor Memphis passed, and their plane
did not budge. King and Abernathy •
shifted impatiently in their seats.
Finally, the pilot’s voice crackled J
over the public address system: “La- J
dies and gentlemen, I want to apolo-
gize for the delay. But today we have ;
on board Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., ,
and we have to be very careful—we •
had the plane guarded all night-and ’
we have been checking people's lug- <
gage. Now that everything's clear, I
we are preparing for takeoff.”
I
▼
Continued to page C6
Original‘W orfs oj A rt
‘Watercolors • 'Pottery • Acrylics
flo ra ls • Tapestries dr Linens
Cards dr ‘P oofs • ‘WonderfulScents • Jlome 'Decor
Imported dr Jiandmade Cjifts
SO'PHiA'S PLACE
521 S ‘W 11th Suite 102
‘Portland, Oregon 97‘2 05
King, flanked by his aides Jesse Jackson (left) and Ralph Abernathy, stands on the balcony of the
Lorraine Motel shortly after arriving in memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968. Later in the day, King gave what
turned out to be his last public address on civil rights.
£
-
K in g Celebration
"K eep L ivin g the Dream"
January 15, 1W6
1 1:30-5:00 pm
Jefferson I ligh School
Perform ing Arts Center
5210 N. Kerby
ADMISSION: $1
donation or 2 cans of
non-perishable food
-4
(503)223-9794
Sun. 12-4 9don-‘7hurs. 11-5:30 f r i. 10-3:30
‘firing In Jh isA d ‘J or 10% Off'Everything In Our Store
Offer ‘Empires U31/96
The City of Portland Bureau of Purchases
salutes Dr. Martin Luther King's Birthday.
A Pro«luction of World Art*
F<»iuifl.it 1«»it, In«
Spon»ored by Portland Association
of Tea (I !«•!<«, Crollili* Foundation,
Oregon Education A s m < iation,
Portland Publn Schools, First
Interstate Bank, I . S West
( <0111111111 ii< ation> and Ecumenical
Ministries o f O re g o n
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w etw iw u v vtuace
Gift finite,*
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O it^ti, $7? I f
(son
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U n O W K AS you
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Freedom has always been an expensive thing.
History is fit testimony to the fact that freedom
is rarely gained without sacri ftce and sel f-denial
ÀiAhA Ih elrliA
-Martin Luther King Jr.
*