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By ZACHARY LESTER AFRO Staff Writer
hen Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 at age 35, he was the youngest person to ever be presented the prestigious honor. He was the third Black recipient and the second African-American, following Ralph Bunche, the famed political scientist and diplomat who was honored for his mediation work in Palestine. Besides the personal honor, though, historians said the award gave credence to his approach of meeting violence with peaceful resistance. In a 1964 AFRO article, King called the award “vindication” for his work. King was interviewed in an Atlanta hospital where he had checked in for a physical and rest. “This has given me new courage to carry on and I am convinced that is more than an honor to me personally, but a great tribute to the colored people,” King said. King received the prize in a ceremony at Oslo University in Norway. He was selected “for championing the principle of non-violence in the struggle to achieve racial equality.” King was presented a diploma, a gold medal and a check for $54,600. In his acceptance speech, King called the award “profound recognition that non-violence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time – the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression.” King was a young preacher and father in 1955 when he became the leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The success of the boycott, which ended with city leaders desegregating the city’s public buses after Blacks refused to ride them for a year, solidified for King that peaceful protest was the most effective way to forge change. As the Civil Rights Movement progressed, violence against Blacks became bloody and frequent in the South. Blacks who attempted to register to vote – and those who attempted to help them – were beaten, jailed, threatened with violence and sometimes killed. Marchers participating in peaceful protests against segregation, unequal education and discrimination in jobs watched as police officers used attack dogs and hoses against them. As some Blacks questioned the sense of allowing racists to constantly victimize them for standing up for right, King urged them to continue to be peaceful. Even in bloody 1963, when racists committed 10 murders and at least 35 bombings, King urged Blacks and their supporters to remain committed to non-violence.
The year’s atrocities included the fatal ambush attack on NAACP Mississippi field secretary Medgar Evers in the driveway of his Jackson home in June, and the savage bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in September, where four little girls were killed. As the violence escalated, King stayed the course. His “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” drew hundreds of thousands in August 1963 who were motivated by his dream of freedom. His appearances at churches were filled to capacity. His message was always the same – fight hate with love, violence with peace. By the time he was assassinated in 1968, King’s place in history was solidified as the American who had fought hardest against oppression using no weapons. Though he was proud of the achievement of winning the Nobel Peace Prize, King told the AFRO that it signaled that there was more work to be done. “The prize makes me want to do a better job,” King said. “It leaves me with a great sense of humility. It arouses in me the feeling that in spite of this type of tribute, there is much more to be done.”
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Coretta Scott King:
The woman behind MLK
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r e K r aP e s i n n a r o ya M s the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King stood beside her husband throughout his leadership of the Civil Rights Movement. Yet when she married Dr. King in 1953, neither of them knew that he would one day change the world. “My husband was a man who hoped to be a Baptist preacher to a large, Southern, urban congregation,” Mrs. King once said. “By the time he died in 1968, he had led millions of people into shattering forever the Southern system of segregation of the races.” Coretta Scott was born in 1927 in Marion, Ala. She attended Lincoln High school, graduating at the top of her class in 1945. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and education from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She earned a second degree in voice and violin from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. While attending school in Boston she met her future husband. After marrying, they moved to Montgomery, Ala., where Dr. King became pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Mrs. King took on the responsibilities of being a pastor’s wife. She and King had four children: Yolanda (who died in 2007), Martin Luther III, Dexter and Bernice. Working with her husband, Mrs. King participated in many of the Civil Rights Movement’s boycotts and protests, speaking before church, college, civil, fraternal and peace groups. She organized a series of freedom concerts as a fundraiser for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Following Dr. King’s assassination in 1968, Mrs. King continued her work in civil rights, and established the Martin Luther King,
Jr. Center for Nonviolent Change in Atlanta. As the founding president, chair and CEO, she led the organization in providing local, national and international programs that taught thousands of people her late husband’s philosophies and methods. Mrs. King later led the educational and lobbying campaign to establish Dr. King’s birthday as a national holiday, which became a reality in 1983. She received honorary doctorates from more than 60 colleges and universities, authored a nationally syndicated newspaper column and three books, and helped establish such organizations as the Black Leadership Forum and the National Black Coalition for Voter Participation. Mrs. King died on Jan. 30, 2006 at the age of 78. Sources: Defender files, the King Center, Encyclopedia Britannica, biography.com
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Calendar of
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Friday, Jan. 17
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The MLK Grande Parade sponsors a step show competition at 7 p.m. at the University of Houston Recreation and Wellness Center, 4500 University Blvd. Contact: mlkgrandeparade.org or 713-953-1633.
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Saturday, Jan. 18
The Black Heritage Society Children’s March begins at 10 a.m. at Minute Maid Park. Contact: blackheritagesociety.org or 713 2361700. The MLK Grande Parade Youth Parade begins at noon at San Jacinto and Elgin. Checkin time is 10 a.m. A Battle of the Bands competition is 4 p.m. at Butler Stadium, 13755 S. Main. Check-in time is 2 p.m. Contact: mlkgrandeparade.org or 713-953-1633.
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Sunday, Jan. 19
The Black Heritage Society Feed the Hungry food drive is 11 a.m. at St. John’s United Methodist Church Cathedral Hall, 2019 Crawford. The BHS Memorial Project VIP Reception is at 4 p.m. at CWA Hall, 1730 Jefferson. Contact: blackheritagesociety.org or 713 236-1700. The MLK Grande Parade Community Festival is at 1 p.m. at Humble Civic Center, 8233 Will Clayton Pkwy. Contact: mlkgrandeparade.org or 713-953-1633.
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The North Houston Frontiers Club Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast is 8:15 a.m. at the Hilton Americas-Houston Downtown. Keynote speaker will be Willie Iles, director of government and community relations with the Boy Scouts of America. Contact: nhfrontiers.com or 713.331.0440. The Black Heritage Society Original MLK Parade is 10 a.m. at Minute Maid Park. The BHS Community Festival is 11 a.m. at Discovery Green. The BHS MLK Statue Unveiling Preview is 2 p.m. at Discovery Green. Contact: blackheritagesociety.org or 713 236-1700. The MLK Grande Parade begins at 10 a.m. at San Jacinto and Elgin. Check-in time is 8 a.m. Contact: mlkgrandeparade.org or 713-9531633. Houston AmeriCorps Alums and the Houston Department of Health and Human Services sponsor a clean-up project to help create safer routes to school for students at Sterling High School and Thomas Middle School. It starts at 11 a.m. Volunteers should arrive at Sterling, 11625 Martindale, by 10:30 a.m. to receive safety vests, supplies and instructions. Contact: 832-393-4999. The Children’s Museum of Houston, 1500 Binz, commemorates the King Holiday with a variety of events beginning at 10 a.m. Activities include a speech recital, a noon peace Houston area offor over years rally, a rendition the “I Have 80 a Dream” speech and a performance by the Young Harmonies of Houston Choir. Admission is $5 per person and free for museum members and children under 1. Contact: cmhouston.org or (713) 522-1138.
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Dr. King supported President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society but later opposed the Vietnam War.
War & peace
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ccording to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Dr. King considered “militarism” to be one of the triple evils, along with racism and poverty. King discussed war in his book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” He said, “A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world and say of war, ‘This way of settling differences is not just.’ “This way of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.” In the late ‘60s, King voiced his opposition to the Vietnam War. According to history.com, King had been a supporter of President Lyndon B. Johnson and his Great Society, but he became increasingly concerned about U.S. involvement in Vietnam. As King’s concerns became more public, his relationship with the Johnson administration deteriorated.
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Philosophy goes beyond ‘I Have a Dream’ r e K r aP e s i n n a r o ya M
By MARILYN MARSHALL Defender
In April 1967, King delivered a speech titled “Beyond Vietnam” at Riverside Church in New York City. He proposed that the U.S. stop the bombing of North and South Vietnam, declare a unilateral truce in the hope that it would lead to peace talks, and set a date for withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. “We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation,” King said during his speech. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. “If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.” King believed the war diverted attention and money from domestic programs designed to aid poor Blacks, while devastating the Black community in other ways. “We were taking the Black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in Southwest Georgia and East Harlem,’” he said.
As the nation celebrates what would have been the 85th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., there will be a lot of focus on his “I Have a Dream Speech” and his desire for all of God’s children to be “free at last.” Though King dreamed of a nation where his children would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin, his beliefs go much deeper. Dr. King delivered countless sermons and speeches with such titles as “Eulogy for the Martyred Children” and “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.” He wrote five books, and addressed topics ranging from the Catholic church to the Ku Klux Klan to the Nation of Islam. Here are Dr. King’s thoughts on three areas: war and peace, socioeconomics and the church.
The church
D Dr. King considered a career in medicine or law before accepting his calling to become a minister.
r. King was the son and grandson of Baptist preachers, yet when he entered Morehouse College in 1944, he did not plan to become a minister. He majored in sociology and had an interest in law and medicine. Morehouse President Dr. Benjamin E. Mays influenced King’s spiritual development, and encouraged him to view Christianity as a force for progressive social change. King was ordained his final year at Morehouse and named assistant pastor of his father’s church. King went on to graduate from Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, Penn., and later enrolled in Boston University as a philosophy student. After graduation, he received offers of employment from two Northern churches and two Southern churches. He leaned toward Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala.
In 1954, King preached a trial sermon at Dexter. His sermon was titled “The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life,” and focused on the love of God, self and neighbors. After accepting the call to pastor at Dexter, King became president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, and led his congregation and the community during the Montgomery bus boycott. In his book “What Manner of Man,” Lerone Bennett Jr., notes that the Montgomery association held large mass meetings which rotated from church to church, and included “hand-clapping, shouting, and testifying.” Bennett said King tended to look down on the “emotionalism” of the Negro church, but that changed with the mass meetings. “Now [King] began to see that the Negro religious tradition contained enormous reservoirs of psychic and
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r King. Jr. Holiday Edition
Dr. King
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ocial strength which had never been adequately tapped,” ennett said. King, however, had problems with the white church. his “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” King said he ought the Montgomery bus boycott would be supported y white ministers, priests and rabbis. Instead, he said, “some have been outright oppoents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and isrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have een more cautious than courageous…” King was disappointed by the white church. “I do not say this as one of those negative critics who an always find something wrong with the church,” he id. “I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves e church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been ustained by its spiritual blessings and who remain true it and long as the cord of life shall lengthen.”
he Houston area for over 80 years
Dr. King marched in support of sanitation workers in Memphis, the site of his assassination.
Socioeconomics
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fter the signing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, Dr. King shifted his focus toward economic justice. In January 1966, King moved into a Chicago tenement to attract attention to living conditions of the poor. Six months later, he initiated a campaign to end discrimination in Chicago housing, employment and schools. The following year, King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference announced a Poor People’s Campaign focusing on jobs and freedom for those living in poverty. The campaign included an economic bill of rights, calling on the federal government to assist with an antipoverty package that included housing and a guaranteed annual income for all Americans. Less than a month before his death, King delivered a speech titled “The Other America” in Grosse Pointe, Mich., in which he addressed economic injustice. He said in one America, “millions of people have the milk of prosperity and the honey of equality flowing before them…In this America children grow up in the sunlight of opportunity. But there is another America,” he said. “This other America has a daily ugliness about it that transforms the buoyancy of hope into the fatigue of despair.”
King discussed unemployment and underemployment in the Black community. “The problem of unemployment is not the only problem,” King said. “There is a problem of underemployment, and there are thousands and thousands, I would say millions of people in the Negro community who are poverty-stricken – not because they are not working, but because they receive wages so low that they cannot begin to function in the main stream of the economic life of our nation.” Dr. King’s concern for striking sanitation workers took him to Memphis in 1968. Frustrated by neglect and abuse by the Memphis Department of Public Works, 1300 Black men from the department had gone on strike. In his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech delivered the night before his death, King said, “The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers.” King promoted a march for equality during the speech. “Now we’re going to march again, and we’ve got to march again,” he said, “in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be, and force everybody to see that there are 1300 of God’s children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out.”
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Following in
King’s footsteps
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By TIFFANY L. WILLIAMS Defender
r e K r a PLuther esinna ro ya M Dr. Martin King Jr. was a man who not only served, led, and fought for his own community, but who also worked to attain equality, justice, and peace among all people. Today, a new generation of leaders is emerging and while they believe that aspects of King’s dream have been realized, there is still work to be done. The Defender sat down with a few of today’s young leaders to find out why they’ve committed themselves to carrying the torch that King and countless others lit all those years ago.
Samson Babalola Thirty-year-old development manager Samson Babalola believes leadership isn’t easy, but is necessary for achieving success. “Being a leader is not convenient, serving is not convenient,” he said. “It’s a lifestyle. There are only a select few who can really do it.” Babalola said Dr. King was the prime example of a leader because he understood the challenges ahead and decided to face them anyway. “Dr. King was willing to lead knowing about opposition, knowing the risks involved,” he said. “He was willing to die for what he believed in. That kind of mindset is rare.” Babalola is serving his second term as president of the Houston Area Urban League Young Professionals (HAULYP), a service organization that helps communities of color
through economic, political and educational awareness. He said his decision to lead wasn’t a choice; rather, it was a desire to serve his community and challenge himself personally. “If you have time to give back – whether you’re in the financial position or have the time – the best way to give back is through service. “I’ve always been inspired by Gandhi and Mandela and King – all of them were willing to sacrifice for a greater cause,” he said. “I don’t believe my efforts match the magnitude of those individuals, but I know that I’m participating in the long-term progression of our community.” Babalola also volunteers for the African American Leadership Council for the Houston Symphony and works for the Galveston Housing Authority.
Tiffany Thomas Community developer leadership,” she said. Thomas, who volunTiffany Thomas believes fulfilling King’s legacy means teers with several communot seeing the fruit of your nity organizations, serves work now but taking neceson the Board of Trustees sary steps so generations can for Alief Independent benefit from your harvest School District, making later. her one of the youngest “A lot of times as a school board members in leader you’re just sowing the the Houston area. seed and you don’t see how When asked why all the dots connect,” she said. she decided to commit her “Everything King fought life to service at such a for – equality, justice, access, About Tiffany young age, she said, “We have one life and I want anti-poverty – he didn’t see Age: 32 to make it everything I’m come to fruition. He had no Hometown: Houston idea [about] the election of a supposed to make it. Education: Sam Black president or Black con“Leaving your mark Houston State doesn’t mean you’ll be gresswomen, but these things University, bachelor’s in on TV or the cover of happened because he made public relations; Prairie a magazine – maybe it the decision to lead.” View A&M University, means having lunch with a Her own decisions master’s in community kindergartner every Friday to lead and serve weren’t development or coaching or mentorinitially apparent, but 32-yearold Thomas said gradually, ing. No matter what we she began to realize the power of organizing. choose, at the end our lives we can say, ‘I “I was always concerned with getting used up every gift. Everything that God the work done and it always evolved into called me to do, I did.’ ” Continued on Page 7B
About Samson Age: 30 Hometown: Houston Education: Prairie View A&M University, bachelor’s in construction science; master’s in community development.
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Important events in the
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ert Kennedy. 1962 – Arrested and jailed in Albany, Ga. 1929 – Born on Jan. 15 to Rev. Mar1963 – Arrested and tin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams jailed in Birmingham, Ala., King in Atlanta. where he wrote “Letter from 1944 – Graduated from Booker T. Birmingham Jail.” Delivered Washington High School. Began his his “I Have a Dream” speech studies at Morehouse College at age 15. at the March on Washington. 1948 – Ordained as a Baptist minis1964 – Named “Man of ter at age 19. Graduated from Morehouse the Year” by Time Magazine. and entered Crozer Theological Seminary Awarded the Nobel Peace in Upland, Penn. Prize. 1951 – Entered Boston University for 1965 – Arrested in Selma, Dr. King was joined by Rev. Jesse Jackson graduate studies. at his last speech in 1968. Ala., during a voting rights demonstra1953 – Married Coretta Scott. tion. 1954 – Became pastor of Dexter AvGandhi’s philosophy of 1966 – Moved to a Chicago slum to enue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. nonviolence. Resigned call attention to poverty. Joined a March 1955 – Received Doctorate of Philosophy from Dexter. Moved to Against Fear through the South. in systematic theology from Boston University. Atlanta to devote more 1967 – Announced a Poor People’s Elected president of the Montgomery Improvetime to the SCLC. Campaign focusing on jobs and freedom. ment Association. Became official spokesman 1960 – Became 1968 – Supported sanitation workfor the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted co-pastor at his father’s ers on strike in Memphis. Delivered his 381 days. church, Ebenezer Bap“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. 1957 – Elected president of the Southern Dr. King and Malcolm X met once in tist, in Atlanta. Arrested Washington, D.C., in 1964. Assassinated on April 4 while standing on Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). during an Atlanta lunch the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Mem1958 – Published his first book, “Stride counter sit-in. Released after intervention by phis. James Earl Ray was sentenced to 99 years Toward Freedom.” presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and Rob- in prison for his murder. 1959 – Visited India to study Mohandas Defender News Services
Footsteps...Continued from page 6B
David Castillo fruits of equality we must continue to a volunteer with the Houston Astros UrKing’s dream for equality among help others realize their own capabiliall mankind has been realized in certain ban Youth Academy, the Houston Food areas, but 23-year-old Texas Southern ties. Bank and St. Luke Missionary Baptist University student David Castillo be“Success is a ladder,” he said. Church, among others. lieves we must build upon that equality “When one has reached the final steps, “I want to be a model to my genso it manifests into something greater. it’s the next leader’s turn to carry on the eration, and an inspiration,” he said. “Dr. King fought for religious “No matter what we may expeprinciples, racial equality, sociorience or go through…I want economic equality, gender equalmy generation to know that our to see a photo gallery featuring more of Houston’s young, up-and-coming leaders. ity, you name it,” Castillo said. experiences make us not “He fought for justice and break us.” peace – two issues that we are Castillo has some advice still trying to alleviate in today’s world. torch and climb with fire and desire.” for other aspiring young leaders. Such issues as the Trayvon Martin case Although he’s experienced obstacles “Understand that leadership takes are prime examples. This world isn’t and hardships, Castillo said he’s still time and isn’t developed in a day. And about one race being more powerful committed to making a difference in his always act successful even if you’re not than the other; it’s about peace and community. succeeding because failure is a part of equality among all mankind.” He is president of the TSU Sport success. It’s not how you start, it’s how Castillo also said in order to use the Studies Leadership Association, and is you finish.”
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