January 16, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, is observed in Atlanta like it is not observed anywhere else in America. Atlanta, after all, is the birthplace of the great man who was the leader of the civil rights movement.
As I write this, I have Ebenezer Baptist Church live on our local TV station. The holiday always starts in his church, where he was pastor during those tumultuous years.This year there is a new memorial statue of King in D.C. I would like to see someday.
I have visited the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in downtown Atlanta as well as the church and his boyhood home on Auburn Avenue in downtown Atlanta. The home is watched over faithfully by the national Forest Ranger service.
I didn't have any contact with an African American until I was 16 years old and in Washington. D.C. with the drum corps for the second inauguration of Eisenhower. As I went out the door of one place we were in, a restaurant I think, I met up with a few black folks who were hanging out on the back stairwell. It occurred to me later that they probably were not allowed to use the front steps, but were forced to come into the building by the back door.
I didn't see any fountains or bathrooms labeled "White" or "Colored" while I was there. You had to go further south to see such signs.
I remember that during the height of the civil rights movement that Dr. King was pictured as an agitator on network news shows. J. Edgar Hoover is said to have had a "file" on him. I must admit, that at that time, I didn't understand the enormity of what African Americans had to go through in their daily lives. Had we as white people, had to go through life in that manner, I don't think we would have been as patient as they were until Martin Luther King, Jr. came along. It was not easy for them, and took an enormous amount of bravery, to give up the images of their past like the Klu Klux Klan and the lynchings that went on soon after the Civil War.
Think about it. Could you have lived with the "White Only" signs? Could you live with the realization that you couldn't eat in certain restaurants; stay at certain hotels; even use restrooms in certain areas? I learned that some of our black singers were not allowed to stay at the very hotels and other venues where they performed.
African Americans were not allowed to even dream that they could become doctors, nurses, professors, or other professionals. Their jobs were in the kitchen; as maids; as janitors. That was the best many of them could hope for. If you get the chance to see the movie currently up for many awards, "The Help," please go see it. It is based on the sad true story of how black people were treated in the South.
Ebenezer Baptist Church is still on the T.V. Rabbi Shalom Lewis just spoke briefly after singing a Jewish blessing, cantor style. He quoted from the book of Michah. Jewish people, as I've said before, understand fully the struggle black Americans have endured because they were also discriminated against in the worst way. They will always support the struggles of Black Americans and anyone who seeks the civil rights they deserve.
I hope you will stop today for just a minute to bow your head for the man we honor today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
From Pat Pendelton:
ReplyDeleteSandra, the Martin Luther King column is your best yet. When Violet and I were in Tallahassee in 59-60 it was amazing how the Blacks were treated. We got in trouble for talking with them at her uncle's car dealership and restaurants I worked in. At that time they didn't go into the restaurants I worked at, not allowed to. There was a Black college in town and when I came back in 60, heard of the radio there was rioting there because of segregation. I heard his entire speech this morning on TV; very moving.