January 13, 2016 The Skanner Page 3
Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
‘If I Had Sneezed’:
5 Surprising
Lines from MLK’s
‘Mountaintop’ Speech
States Plan Renewed Debate on
LGBT Rights, Religious Freedom
By Sheryl Huggins Salomon
Special to the NNPA
from the New Pittsburgh Courier
DAVID A. LIEB
Associated Press
1. Recounted the time a woman stabbed him
during a book tour stop in New York City.
“…while sitting there autographing books, a de-
mented black woman came up. The only question
I heard from her was, ‘Are you Martin Luther
King?’… the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade
was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery… It
came out in the New York Times the next morning,
that if I had sneezed, I would have died.”
2. Cited Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. – and paused to ask
him a question mid-speech.
“We are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your
neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis…Tell
them not to buy—what is the other bread?—Won-
der Bread. And what is the other bread company,
Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart’s bread. As Jesse
Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men
have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redis-
tribute the pain.”
3. Complained about the press.
“You know what happened the other day, and
the press dealt only with the window-breaking. I
read the articles. They very seldom got around to
mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hun-
dred sanitation workers were on strike, and that
Memphis is not being fair to them…They didn’t get
around to that.”
4. Rattled off stats on the size of Black buying pow-
er.
“The Negro collectively is richer than most nations
of the world. We have an annual income of more
than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more
than all of the exports of the United States, and
more than the national budget of Canada. Did you
know that? That’s power right there, if we know
how to pool it.”
5. Stressed the need to support Black-owned busi-
nesses.
“We’ve got to strengthen black institutions. I call
upon you to take your money out of the banks
downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State
Bank—we want a ‘bank-in’ movement in Mem-
phis… We begin the process of building a greater
economic base. And at the same time, we are put-
ting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to fol-
low through here.”
To read “The Mountaintop Speech” in its entire-
ty, visit http://www.afscme.org/union/history/.
mlk/ive-been-to-the-mountaintop-by-dr-martin-
luther-king-jr
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — With
same-sex marriage now legal na-
tionwide, lawmakers in numer-
ous states are preparing for a
new round of battles in 2016 over
whether to grant discrimination
protections to LGBT people or re-
ligious exemptions to nonprofits
and businesses that object to gay
marriage.
The tussle over civil rights and
religious freedoms is one of sev-
eral hot-button issues that could
drive states in opposite policy
directions, as lawmakers seek to
appeal to voters during a year in
which more than 5,800 state legis-
lative seats will be up for election.
Republicans hold majorities in
two-thirds of the states’ legisla-
tive chambers, meaning they get
to set the agenda. Those priorities
could include attempts to exempt
businesses from providing wed-
ding-related services to gay cou-
ples, expand gun rights and fur-
ther restrictions on abortions.
Democrats, meanwhile, will like-
ly be pushing in the opposite di-
rection.
“
AP PHOTO/DOUG MCSCHOOLER, FILE
N
early 48 years after the assassination of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968, we
still recall the fateful words of his last public
speech the day before.
Delivered in Memphis, Tenn. in support of strik-
ing sanitation workers there, his address is pop-
ularly known as “The Mountaintop Speech” for
these famous closing lines: “We’ve got some diffi-
cult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now.
Because I’ve been to the mountaintop….I’ve seen the
promised land. I may not get there with you. But I
want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will
get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight.
I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any
man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of
the Lord.”
They’re unforgettable: the final, soaring, pro-
phetic words of a leader who seemed to know his
hours were numbered. Yet if you listen to the en-
tire speech, what comes through is a call to action
in support of organized labor, buttressed by rhet-
oric that ranges from scripture to statistics to per-
sonal anecdotes to complaints that ring true over
half a century later.
Even the more prosaic elements of his last pub-
lic speech are enlightening. For instance, did you
know that in “The Mountaintop Speech,” Dr. King:
Civil rights tussles could push red, blue states in opposite directions
In this March 28, 2015, file photo, Jackson Blanchard, of Indianapolis, leads the crowd in a
chant during a rally against a new Indiana religious objections law outside the State House
in Indianapolis. An intense debate over gay rights already is shaping up in Indiana, where
a religious-rights law passed last spring thrust the state into the national spotlight over
concerns it could sanction discrimination against gays and lesbians.
“You’ve got the Democratic
states reacting very differently, a
lot of the time, than the Republican
states to these issues,” Pound said.
of the states, according to an analy-
sis by Associated Press statehouse
reporters around the country.
At least 10 states might consider
You’ve got the Democratic states reacting very differently, a lot
of the time, than the Republican states to these issues
“What we’ve got is division,” said
William Pound, executive director
of the National Conference of State
Legislatures.
He predicts there will be a “sig-
nificant number of bills” seeking to
advance either religious rights or
the civil rights of gay, lesbian, bi-
sexual and transgender people.
Those potentially divisive de-
bates will be playing out as leg-
islators also struggle with some
traditionally difficult financial is-
sues, such as budget shortfalls and
calls to boost funding for public
schools and infrastructure. Edu-
cation issues are expected to be at
the forefront in more than a third
new revenue for transportation in
2016, building on a trend in which
at least half the states already have
acted in the past several years.
States that rely heavily on the en-
ergy industry for tax income, such
as Alaska, Oklahoma, West Virgin-
See STATES on page 11