Martin Luther King, Jr.
1929-1968
“Somewhere along the way, we
must learn that there is nothing
greater than to do something
for others.”
--MLK, Jr. “Three Dimensions
of a Complete Life”
“Content of character”
• What do we really know about King’s
character?
• What do we know about his beliefs and
how he practiced them?
• Who is the person, beyond the icon?
• What can we learn by an imaginative
investigation of the last two years of his
life, informed by research?
Early Years
• Born 1-15-1929 into a middle-class Black
Baptist family
• Third generation preacher
• Early education—licensed to preach at
age 18, college graduate at age 19,
seminary graduate at age 22.
• Began ministry in Montgomery, Alabama
Some King dates before 1960
• 1948– King graduates from seminary
• 1950—hears a lecture about Gandhi and buys a
half dozen books about him
• 1954—Brown v. Board of Education
• 1955-6—Montgomery Bus Boycott kicks off the
Civil Rights movement
• 1957—King Founds SCLC; First Federal Civil
Rights legislation since reconstruction.
• 1959—King visits India for a month with his wife
Three Phases of King’s Service
• One: As a Southern Civil Rights Leader
• Equality for African Americans
• Voting rights for African Americans
• Two: Nobel Prize Winner and World Figure
• Speaks out against Vietnam War (1965 on)
• Three: Champion of the Poor (1966-68)
• Moved campaign to Chicago
• Garbage Worker’s Strike in Tennessee (assassination)
Phase One: Activism up until 1964
• Nonviolence—in words and actions—
must be understood not only as a means
of social change, but as a way of being
• AGAPE—love for each person that is a
love for the divine presence and potential
in each one of us—should be our
motivation
• Awareness of the Interrelated nature of
reality should guide our actions.
Phase Two: Nobel Peace Prize
(1964)
Landmarks in U.S. Accomplished
• Civil Rights Act (1964)
• Voting Rights Act (1965)
King saw his next phase of service as
• World leader promoting the ideals of
“The Beloved Community”
• Advocate for Peace and Nonviolence on a Global
Scale
• Protest of Vietnam War
Phase 3: Ending Poverty
• “reforming capitalism to end poverty once
and for all. For King, that goal translated,
specifically, into an Economic Bill of
Rights, the redistribution of wealth and a
guaranteed income for all Americans.” To
“take his country a step closer to the
realization of an old dream: the forging of
a Christian commonwealth…”
– Charles Johnson
Phase One Examples
• Montgomery bus boycott 1955-56
• March on Birmingham 1963
Birmingham, Alabama
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Wealthiest city in Alabama
Vigilantly segregated
40% African American
Only 12% of Registered voters were
African American
• Between 1957 and 1962, 17 churches and
homes of African Americans were bombed
Civil Rights & Responses in
Birmingham
• April 12, 1963 (Good Friday), King & other
ministers, along with the SCLC & other
organizations, led a protest in Birmingham
• King & many others were arrested.
• Coretta called the White House.
• JFK and RFK called Birmingham & sent
FBI
• Harry Bellafonte raised 50 K in bail bonds
TELEGRAM TO PRESIDENT KENNEDY
I AM DEEPLY GRATEFUL TO YOU FOR TAKING TIME
OUT OF YOUR EASTER WEEKEND TO TELEPHONE
MY WIFE CONCERNING THE BIRMINGHAM
SITUATION. YOUR ENCOURAGING WORDS AND
THOUGHTFUL CONCERN GAVE HER RENEWED
STRENGTH TO FACE THE DIFFICULT MOMENTS
THROUGH WHICH WE ARE NOW PASSING SUCH
MORAL SUPPORT GREATLY ENHANCES OUR
HUMBLE EFFORT: TO MAKE THE AMERICAN DREAM A
REALITY.
April 16, 1963
Letter from Birmingham
• King spent 8 days in jail.
• 16 April presented with published letter by
8 white clergymen
• Letter from a Birmingham Jail is his public
response
• Set forth the rationale for his protest
• Clergy as audience allows him to use
religious arguments
There was a time when the church was very
powerful—in the time when the early Christians
rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what
they believed. In those days the church was not
merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and
principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that
transformed the mores of society. . . . But the
judgment of God is upon the church [today] as never
before. If today’s church does not recapture the
sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its
authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be
dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no
meaning for the 20th century.
More Protests in Birmingham
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May 2, 1963
SCLC recruited high school students
King led another protest
Jails were full, so police turned fire hoses
on protesters and released attack dogs
• Police response brought about national
protest
Bull Conner—Police Commissioner
President Kennedy Responds
• June 11, 1963, President Kennedy made a
commitment to Federal Civil Rights
legislation
• 1964—Voting Rights Act signed into law
(by Johnson, after Kennedy’s
assassination)
Nobel Peace Prize--1964
1965
• Began to voice protest against the war in
Vietnam
• Challenged the church to preach and live
out Christ’s message of AGAPE
• Message was met with resistance, both
nationally and within the African American
community
• Black nationalism challenged King’s
commitment to Nonviolence
Phase Three: 1966-68
• King challenges the church and the nation
to live out Christ’s mandate to serve the
poor.
“Had he lived and realized his “Washington
Project” of leading the poor of all races and
ethnic backgrounds to shut down the nation’s
capital, King might have become the most
dangerous man in America.”—Charles Johnson
Summer of 1966
• Martin Luther King, Jr. moved his
campaign north to Chicago
• He moved into a slum in Lawndale
• The purpose was to demonstrate to the
world the kind of derelict conditions that
landlords in Chicago allowed for negro
tenants.
King’s enemies in the North
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Industrialization
Corporations
Government structures and laws
Hidden, institutionalized prejudice
Dreamer: The Novel
• Begins with an image of King, on a
sleepless night in his 3rd floor slum
apartment in Chicago during the summer
of 1966
• Italicized chapters are explorations of the
interior thoughts of King
• Chapters in ordinary font are told in 3rd
person through the mind of Matthew
Bishop, an ordinary volunteer.
Prologue: (King)
“He was a tightrope walker straddling two
worlds. One of matter. One of spirit.
Every social evil he could think of, and
every “ontological fear” arose from that
mysterious dichotomy at the heart of
things: self and other, I and Thou, inner
and outer, perceiver and perceived.”
--p. 18
Chapter One: Matthew and King
• Connect over philosophy, “an old friend”
• Nietzche—Will to power. Superman notion.
One leader will rise up to dominate the masses.
(“What we’re fighting against.”)
• Brightman—”Personalism.” Unity of nature and
spirit in a personal God. (King espoused this
philosophy/theology.)
Matthew Bishop
• Ordinary (not easily recognized)
• A student who cannot afford to stay in
school
• Loyal to memory of his mother, who has
died
• Father deserted the family when he was
an infant
• Looking for a role model
Amy & Mama Pearl
• Amy is an intelligent and poised volunteer
in the movement
• Like Matthew, she had to give up
schooling for economic reasons
• Her mother was killed by her violent and
abusive father
• Mama Pearl, generosity personified, has
raised Amy with the help of her “Husband,”
her disability check.
Matthew and Amy taken the following pledge:
•COMMANDMENTS FOR THE VOLUNTEERS
I HEREBY PLEDGE MYSELF—MY PERSON AND BODY—TO THE
NONVIOLENT MOVEMENT. THEREFORE I WILL KEEP THE
FOLLOWING COMMANDMENTS:
--Meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus.
--Remember always that the nonviolent movement seeks
justice and reconciliation—not victory.
--Walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love.
--Pray daily to be used by God in order that all men might be
free.
--Sacrifice personal wishes in order that all men might be free.
--Observe with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of
courtesy.
--Seek to perform regular service for others and for the world.
--Refrain from the violence of fist, tongue, or heart.
--Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health.
--Follow the directions of the movement and of the captain on
a demonstration.
Chaym Smith
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Fatherless and motherless
Self-taught
Wounded veteran who has lost his faith
Rescuer or murderer of Juanita and her fatherless kids?
Survivor or perpetrator?
Represents chaos
• Raises the question of equality in King’s mind and
challenges his beliefs:
--Are all men(& women) really created equal?
--What are our obligations to our brothers (& sisters)?
Chapter Two: King ponders . . .
• Inequality in his life and Chaym’s
• Inequality in the Bible
• Story of Cain and Abel
• Story of Joseph and his brothers
Chapters 4 & 5 for Monday
• What do you make of the idea of the
“double” so far?
• What do Matthew and Amy learn by
teaching Chaym about King and the
movement?
• What new information do we learn about
Chaym?