Is it a divine coincident that our first African American President is being inaugurated the day after we remember the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I grew up in Mississippi in the 1960’s about an hour and a half drive from where Dr. King was killed. I watched my father serve as chairman of the local school board as they school system desegregated. I watched as he stood against his “christian” friends who pulled their children out of the schools and started “christian schools”. So I have long admired Dr. King. I love his leadership, his courage and his ability to inspire people with hope. He was an extraordinary person – not perfect but extraordinary none the less.
I know most people are familiar with his “I have a dream” speech. I have always been intrigued with his last speech. It was given just hours before he was killed. I’ve embedded the last part of the speech today as we honor this remarkable man.
4 comments:
yes that speach has always
been of interest to me because
it seems as though he knew he
was going to die, and I believe
he did know.
Ed Martin, Dr. King...... Similarities? I think so.
@ :33 into the video we see Dr. King entering the spit zone!
I think it is obvious
that He knew he was going
to die.
I can't imagine that he didn't believe he was going to die. 1960's in the south, he's already seen Medgar Evers killed in Mississippi, his house had already been bombed. If you look at the now released FBI files we know that he was receiving threats from all kinds of groups. For what he was doing in that time the pressure had to be immense. On an even more trivial area listen to Hank Aaron talk about the death threats he received as a black man playing baseball in the south when it became clear he was going to break Babe Ruth's home run record. And that was 5 years after Dr. King. If you read the text of speeches he was making leading up to Memphis there is this hint of his own death in most of them.
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