January 13, 2010
M artin L uther K ing J r .
Page 33
2 OlO s p e c ia l eai/ion
Community Organizers o f Distinction
Barack Obama campaigns for president o f the United States
Like King,
Obama built a
movement
J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
In 1957 an obscure southern
Baptist minister named Martin
Luther King Jr. invited other
black ministers to Ebenezer Bap­
tist Church in Atlanta, Ga. to
discuss strategy on organizing
for civil rights. He might not
have been aware that he was
gathering kindling for a fire that
would eventually encompass the
entire nation.
Fresh from a successful year­
long effort to integrate buses in
Montgomery, Ala., King hoped
to broaden his efforts to the rest
of the south by reaching out to an
institution that would serve as a
hub for his community organiz­
ing efforts: churches.
The Southern Christian Lead­
ership Conference was estab­
lished in 1957 with the help of
King to “ realize that the treat­
ment of Negroes is a basic spiri­
tual problem,”, and that “far too
many have silently stood by.”
A cco rd in g to the M artin
Luther King Jr. Research and
Education Institute at Stanford
University, the SCLC differed
from other like-minded organi- I
by
zations, like the NAACP and the
Student Non-Violent Coordinat­
ing Committee, in that it served
as an umbrella organization for
black southern churches and
continued
y f on page 43
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Coach Nate M cM illa n
“ Martin Luther King Jr. was all about opportunity and equal rights for all people. We’re starting to see changes
in our country, but there is work to be done as far as communication and people’s voices being heard. That is
what his message was all about, that everyone would have an opportunity to make it in this world.”
- TRAIL BLAZERS COACH NATE McMILLAN
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