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Look at the whole man By
MARY JANE HOLT I was a young teenager who shocked my folks by just hinting that I would like to demonstrate along with the Negroes in Albany Georgia in 1961. My folks gasped when I suggested there was much injustice that needed to be addressed. I never really knew how they felt about that injustice. I do know they were scared of potential violence. I also know they seemed to feel like the coloreds had their place and the whites had theirs. It was a concept that I never quite understood. To this day I cringe at the memory of signs that read "No Coloreds" (allowed), or "Coloreds Go to Back Window," or "Colored Section." I grew up hearing tales of "niggers" who did not know their place. I heard white men speak of how they taught them about that place. I don't think I ever quite understand what that place was. Here I am today, at middle age, and I not only wonder about that place then, but about my own now. I wonder about many things, like the way we latch on to some element of truth and hold it and twist it and make it our own, to be used at our own discretion, in our own way, for our own good. That's how it's always been with Jesus and many religious leaders. More and more that seems to be the way it is with Martin Luther King, Jr. Folks tend to pick out some word, some sentence, some speech, some action on some specific day and define the man or woman by such a limited description. Now, I'm not saying that much-needed change has not occurred on the basis of such words or actions. But I will say that when a man is afforded recognition to the extent that he is given his own national holiday, it's time to look at the whole man, not just one speech or one action. A lot went into the making of the man who would, after his assassination in 1968, become a much-needed symbol of protest in racial struggles that continue today. Just let us not forget a few other details. Born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, he was the eldest son of Martin Luther King Sr., a Baptist minister, and Alberta Williams King. His father was pastor of a large Atlanta church, Ebenezer Baptist, which was founded by MLK Jr.'s maternal grandfather. King Jr. was ordained as a Baptist minister at age 18. King excelled in the public schools he attended, so much so that he entered Morehouse College at age 15, graduating with a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1948. He went on to graduate with honors from Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania in 1951, then to Boston University, where he earned a doctoral degree in systematic theology in 1955. King's public-speaking abilities developed slowly during his college years. He won a second-place prize in a speech contest as an undergraduate at Morehouse. By the end of his third year at Crozer, professors were praising King for his impressive public speeches and discussions. King showed an interest in the influences that related Christian theology to the struggles of oppressed peoples. In college, he studied Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi's teachings on nonviolent protest. Later he went to India to continue these studies. King also read and heard the sermons of white Protestant ministers who preached against American racism. Benjamin E. Mays, former president of Morehouse, was especially important in shaping King's theological development. In 1953, King married Coretta Scott, a music student from Alabama, and they had four children. In 1954, King accepted his first pastorate at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. The church had a well-educated congregation that had recently been led by a minister, Vernon Johns, who had protested against segregation. Then, right there, in Montgomery, on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a leading member of the local branch of the NAACP, was ordered by a bus driver to give up her seat to a white passenger. On her refusal, she was arrested and taken to jail. Local black leaders, especially Edgar D. Nixon, recognized that her arrest may be the event that could prompt effective protests. Nixon suggested that a citywide protest should be led by someone who could unify the community. Nixon saw King's newcomer status and his public-speaking gifts as tremendous assets in the civil rights movement that was about to begin in the heart of Alabama. King was soon chosen as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), the or ganization that directed the bus boycott. And thus began the Civil Rights movement that would thrust Martin Luther King, Jr. into history's limelight forever. Now this small space does not even begin to offer room for any real discussion about the life of this great man. Yet, I mention him today because it is January 20, the day we honor his memory, and because affirmative action is a hot topic right now. When you remember Martin Luther King, Jr., I want you to think about the whole person; the son of a two parent, unbroken home; the well-behaved, well-mannered young boy; the focused student; and the man he would become, whom so many seem to think would be all for affirmative action today, no matter what. Would he? Based strictly on skin color? Not on good grades, drive, determination, character, accomplishments? No doubt, King said and taught much which would lead us to think that he believed in equal treatment for all no matter what, but I ask you to look at the life of the man, short though it was, at the reality of the whole person. Yep, I wonder about a lot of things. NOTE: Some facts mentioned above are quoted from an article written by Anthony J. Badger, and published at America Online.
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