Opinion: MLK Left Legacy of Courage, Challenge

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

Today, as we celebrate the birthday of MLK Jr., is a good time to recall a few of the reasons we so honor and revere the man and his accomplishments. Amazing that the fight to establish his birthday as a national holiday took 32 years.

The following is a very brief history of a man who from the beginning of his ministry was threatened, jailed attacked and under siege by the government for answering the call.

He was a pastor in Alabama, working on his first book, when he received the first of many death threats. It was a defining moment, one which inspired and motivated him to press on in his calls for equality and freedom for all.

After his house was bombed not long afterward, a large group gathered calling for revenge. But King pleaded for non-violent response, something more lasting than an eye for an eye. 

He shared this vision, this non-violent path to achieve his goals, less than a year later when he gathered with other black ministers to share strategies in the fight against discrimination and segregation. He was made chairman of the Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent integration (later to be known as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference), and he and like-minded brethren found strength in organizing. 

In 1958, King delivered his first national address at the Lincoln Memorial "Give Us the Ballot,” demanding equal access at the polls for all Americans. He and other leaders met with President Eisenhower that year to discuss voting rights and other issues. 

But in Sept. 1958, during a book signing of his “Stride Toward Freedom” in New York City, he is stabbed and rushed to a Harlem hospital where a 7-inch letter opener is removed from his chest. The book, which outlined in writing the reasons behind the Montgomery bus boycott for the first time laid out his strategic, non-violent approach to fighting racism and its oppression, gained national attention.

In 1959, King spent a month in India, where he met with prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and many of Grandi's followers, a visit that solidified his belief in the power of non-violent dissent. 

In February of 1960, he moved to Atlanta to become assistant pastor to his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church. Later that year he is arrested during a sit-in demonstration at Rich's department store in Atlanta. On Oct. 19 is sentenced to four months hard labor for violating probation conditions he received earlier that year for driving with an out-of-state drivers license. He is released on $2,000 bond on Oct. 27. 

In May of 1961, he addressing a mass rally at a mob-besieged Montgomery church after the first group of Freedom Riders are assaulted in Alabama. 

In 1962 he is arrested in Albany Georgia at a prayer vigil and jailed for two weeks. In September of that year he is assaulted in Birmingham by a member of the American Nazi Party. 

In April 1963, he writes his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in response to other leaders looking for advice. 

One month later, Birmingham explodes after Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor uses fire hoses, dogs, clubs and cattle prods on men, women and children to disperse 4,000 demonstrators in Downtown Birmingham. The national television coverage so shocked America that many began to question the attack on women and children. It was a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement.

In August the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” attracts more than 200,000 demonstrators to the Lincoln Memorial. It was the setting for the "I Have a  Dream" Speech and King met with President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson afterwards at the White House.

But in October of that year United States Attorney General Robert Kennedy authorizes the FBI to wiretap King's home phone. 

In January of 1964, now-President Johnson meets with King and others to seek support for his war on poverty. In March, King meets with Malcolm X for the first and only time. The two are at strategic odds, but within a couple of years were both moving toward the need for economic freedom for minorities.  

In June 1964 his book "Why We Can't Wait" is published. That same month he is jailed in St. Augustine for demanding service at a whites-only restaurant.  

As King criticizes FBI for failure to protect civil rights workers, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover says King is the most dangerous man in America, calls him "the most notorious liar in the country”and says the SCLC is spearheaded by "Communists and moral degenerates"  

In December of 1964 King receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway and promises every penny of the $54,000 reward will be used for the ongoing civil rights struggle.  

On March 7, 1965,  voting rights marchers are beaten at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma as they attempt to march into Montgomery, Ten days later King and John Lewis lead a march on the same route after a U.S. District judge upholds the right of demonstrator to conduct an orderly march. News coverage and the large crowd that participated makes it one of the most defining moments in his career. 

In August of that year King drew more fire as he denounced the Vietnam War.  

In January 1966 King and his family move to Chicago.  

In 1967 King delivers his speech "Beyond Vietnam" in New York City, demanding the U.S. Take initiatives to end the war. In June his book, ”Where do We Go From Here,” is published.  In December, King announces plans to organize a mass civil disobedience campaign the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C.   

In March 1968, King leads a march of 6,000 protesters in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, which quickly devolves into looting and riots and King leaves the scene. One April 3, King returns to Memphis, determined to lead a peaceful march and delivers “I've Been to the Mountaintop,” his final speech.

The next day, April 4, 1969, King is assassinated while standing on balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He was 39 years old. 

King changed the world and paid the price for it throughout his lifetime. He left much to be done and left us all the challenge to pick up the torch and continue his efforts. 

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” - MLK, Jr.