Sixteen Counts of Suffering, One Assassin's Bullet: Tribute to Martin Luther King Jr
Posted: Monday, January 19, 2009
by Mogama
http://www.mogama.info
Hats off to you, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr! Had you been allowed to live, you would have turned 80 years young on January 15, 2009. You have our highest salute for doing more than your share to fight poverty, racism and militarism. We salute you, Sir, specifically for suffering the following 16 instances of persecution, culminating in your brutal death, so that we all can live in a much freer, prouder America:
1. Thursday, January 26, 1956: you were arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, and charged with driving 35 miles per hour (MPH) in a 25 MPH zone. You had suffered your first public shame.
2. Monday, January 30, 1956: someone threw a bomb onto the porch of your Montgomery home, while Mrs. King was at home hosting some guests.
3. Tuesday, February 21, 1956: the authorities indicted you and other civil rights leaders in the Montgomery bus boycott, and charged you with conspiring to "hinder and prevent the operation of business without 'just or legal cause'."
4. Sunday, January 27, 1957: on this day of worship, an evil human being threw a bomb on your front porch. The bomb failed to explode.
5. Wednesday, September 3, 1958: they arrested you and charged you with loitering. They later changed the charge to "failure to obey an officer", only to release you on a $100 bond. The following day, which was Thursday, you pleaded "Not Guilty" to the charge, but the court convicted you of "failure to obey an officer". Though you would have rather gone to jail, Mr. Clyde Sellers, the Montgomery Police Commissioner, paid your fine. All they wanted was to embarrass you with a conviction.
6. Saturday, September 20, 1958: Mrs. Izola Curry stabbed you in the chest, while you were in Harlem, New York, autographing a copy of your book titled, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, which had been published three days earlier by Harper & Row. Mrs. Curry was later "alleged to be mentally deranged".
7. Wednesday, February 17, 1960: The state of Alabama issued you a warrant, charging that you had falsified your state income tax returns for tax years 1956 and 1958. This was another attempt to shame you in the eyes of the American public, but an all-white jury acquitted you of the charges on Saturday, May 28, 1960.
8. Wednesday, October 19, 1960: Police arrested you along with other demonstrators at an Atlanta sit-in, charged you with violating Georgia's trespassing law. You were jailed. From Saturday through Thursday, October 22 - 27, 1960, the authorities dropped the trespassing charges against all demonstrators except you. They kept you in jail for "violating a probated sentence in a traffic case". They transferred you from Dekalb County Jail in Decatur, Georgia, and from there they moved you to the Reidsville State Prison, before you were released on a $2,000 bond. Already, you were drinking from the lake of injustice, the muddy streams which you were fighting to drain and dry up.
9. Saturday, December 16, 1961: in Albany, Georgia, you were arrested at a demonstration. They charged you with "obstructing the sidewalk and parading without a permit".
10. Tuesday, February 27, 1962: a court tried and convicted you for leading the Albany march of December 1961.
11. Friday, July 27, 1962: while at a prayer vigil at the city hall of Albany, Georgia, you were arrested and jailed for "failure to obey a police officer, obstructing the sidewalk and disorderly conduct".
12. March through April 1963: they arrested you during sit-in demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, to protest segregated restaurants. On Tuesday, April 16, 1963, you wrote your now famous "Letter From A Birmingham Jail", your response to the joint statement by eight white ministers who said the battle against racial segregation should be limited to the courts, not taken to the streets. These ministers called your activities "unwise and untimely". How can we forget some of the memorable lines from your passionate letter laden with cries for justice in America? You wrote, "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws". Your letter said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Quoting Thurgood Marshall, you wrote, "justice too long delayed is justice denied".
13. May - June, 1964: They arrested and jailed you when you joined other workers of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in a demonstration to integrate public accommodations in St. Augustine, Florida.
14. February, 1966: in your custom of identifying with the poor and oppressed, you rented an apartment in the black ghetto of Chicago, Illinois. In March, 1966, you took over a slum building in Chicago, and the owner sued you. On Friday, August 5, 1966, you were stoned in Chicago as you led a "march through crowds of angry whites in the Gage Park section of Chicago's southwest side".
15. Monday, October 30, 1967: the Supreme Court upheld contempt-of-court convictions against you and seven other black leaders for leading Birmingham marches 4 years earlier in 1963. They sentenced you and your friends to four days in jail.
16. Thursday, April 4, 1968: while standing in front of your room on the second floor of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, a hate-filled killer shot you in the neck. You later breathed your last at St. Joseph's Hospital. They buried you on Tuesday, April 9, 1968, in Atlanta, Georgia. A day earlier, at a Wednesday service on April 3, 1968, at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee, you had given your final speech, "I've Been to the Mountain Top". By some psychic or divine eavesdropping you must have sensed your approaching death and forecast the tragedy in your own words - another evidence of your credential as prophet to the nations.
On Wednesday, December 8, 1999: in the verdict of the case, Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King, III, Bernice King, Dexter Scott King and Yolanda King Vs. Loyd Jowers and Other Unknown Conspirators , a jury of twelve concluded in a courtroom of Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, "that Loyd Jowers and governmental agencies including the City of Memphis, the State of Tennessee, and the federal government were party to the conspiracy to assassinate" you, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The evil doers conspired and killed you, but your spirit lives on through your writings, through your speeches, through The King Center, through millions of your successors who still champion the causes of racial integration, social justice, economic equality, and international peace. Not only that, but by your sacrifice of service, sweat and blood, America has proudly turned the music page from "We Shall Overcome" to "We Have Overcome". In the racial equality department, that is, with the election of a leader that owes you his fortunes and reminds us of your charisma, eloquence, and style. His name? President Barack Obama. Thus far, Mr. Obama is America's greatest tribute to you, Dr. King.
(Sources = Wikipedia, The King Center, Historical Text Archive, et al)
2. Monday, January 30, 1956: someone threw a bomb onto the porch of your Montgomery home, while Mrs. King was at home hosting some guests.
3. Tuesday, February 21, 1956: the authorities indicted you and other civil rights leaders in the Montgomery bus boycott, and charged you with conspiring to "hinder and prevent the operation of business without 'just or legal cause'."
4. Sunday, January 27, 1957: on this day of worship, an evil human being threw a bomb on your front porch. The bomb failed to explode.
5. Wednesday, September 3, 1958: they arrested you and charged you with loitering. They later changed the charge to "failure to obey an officer", only to release you on a $100 bond. The following day, which was Thursday, you pleaded "Not Guilty" to the charge, but the court convicted you of "failure to obey an officer". Though you would have rather gone to jail, Mr. Clyde Sellers, the Montgomery Police Commissioner, paid your fine. All they wanted was to embarrass you with a conviction.
6. Saturday, September 20, 1958: Mrs. Izola Curry stabbed you in the chest, while you were in Harlem, New York, autographing a copy of your book titled, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, which had been published three days earlier by Harper & Row. Mrs. Curry was later "alleged to be mentally deranged".
7. Wednesday, February 17, 1960: The state of Alabama issued you a warrant, charging that you had falsified your state income tax returns for tax years 1956 and 1958. This was another attempt to shame you in the eyes of the American public, but an all-white jury acquitted you of the charges on Saturday, May 28, 1960.
8. Wednesday, October 19, 1960: Police arrested you along with other demonstrators at an Atlanta sit-in, charged you with violating Georgia's trespassing law. You were jailed. From Saturday through Thursday, October 22 - 27, 1960, the authorities dropped the trespassing charges against all demonstrators except you. They kept you in jail for "violating a probated sentence in a traffic case". They transferred you from Dekalb County Jail in Decatur, Georgia, and from there they moved you to the Reidsville State Prison, before you were released on a $2,000 bond. Already, you were drinking from the lake of injustice, the muddy streams which you were fighting to drain and dry up.
9. Saturday, December 16, 1961: in Albany, Georgia, you were arrested at a demonstration. They charged you with "obstructing the sidewalk and parading without a permit".
10. Tuesday, February 27, 1962: a court tried and convicted you for leading the Albany march of December 1961.
11. Friday, July 27, 1962: while at a prayer vigil at the city hall of Albany, Georgia, you were arrested and jailed for "failure to obey a police officer, obstructing the sidewalk and disorderly conduct".
12. March through April 1963: they arrested you during sit-in demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, to protest segregated restaurants. On Tuesday, April 16, 1963, you wrote your now famous "Letter From A Birmingham Jail", your response to the joint statement by eight white ministers who said the battle against racial segregation should be limited to the courts, not taken to the streets. These ministers called your activities "unwise and untimely". How can we forget some of the memorable lines from your passionate letter laden with cries for justice in America? You wrote, "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws". Your letter said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Quoting Thurgood Marshall, you wrote, "justice too long delayed is justice denied".
13. May - June, 1964: They arrested and jailed you when you joined other workers of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in a demonstration to integrate public accommodations in St. Augustine, Florida.
14. February, 1966: in your custom of identifying with the poor and oppressed, you rented an apartment in the black ghetto of Chicago, Illinois. In March, 1966, you took over a slum building in Chicago, and the owner sued you. On Friday, August 5, 1966, you were stoned in Chicago as you led a "march through crowds of angry whites in the Gage Park section of Chicago's southwest side".
15. Monday, October 30, 1967: the Supreme Court upheld contempt-of-court convictions against you and seven other black leaders for leading Birmingham marches 4 years earlier in 1963. They sentenced you and your friends to four days in jail.
16. Thursday, April 4, 1968: while standing in front of your room on the second floor of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, a hate-filled killer shot you in the neck. You later breathed your last at St. Joseph's Hospital. They buried you on Tuesday, April 9, 1968, in Atlanta, Georgia. A day earlier, at a Wednesday service on April 3, 1968, at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee, you had given your final speech, "I've Been to the Mountain Top". By some psychic or divine eavesdropping you must have sensed your approaching death and forecast the tragedy in your own words - another evidence of your credential as prophet to the nations.
On Wednesday, December 8, 1999: in the verdict of the case, Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King, III, Bernice King, Dexter Scott King and Yolanda King Vs. Loyd Jowers and Other Unknown Conspirators , a jury of twelve concluded in a courtroom of Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, "that Loyd Jowers and governmental agencies including the City of Memphis, the State of Tennessee, and the federal government were party to the conspiracy to assassinate" you, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The evil doers conspired and killed you, but your spirit lives on through your writings, through your speeches, through The King Center, through millions of your successors who still champion the causes of racial integration, social justice, economic equality, and international peace. Not only that, but by your sacrifice of service, sweat and blood, America has proudly turned the music page from "We Shall Overcome" to "We Have Overcome". In the racial equality department, that is, with the election of a leader that owes you his fortunes and reminds us of your charisma, eloquence, and style. His name? President Barack Obama. Thus far, Mr. Obama is America's greatest tribute to you, Dr. King.
(Sources = Wikipedia, The King Center, Historical Text Archive, et al)
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Mogama, this was brilliance. You are a historian and an excellent writer. I admire each. You combined them exceptionally well in this article. Enjoy a lovely weekend!Thanks so much, Avis, for your encouragement. I think this article me longest to write for SearchWarp. I really appreciate your comment. ~mogama~Thanks so much, Avis, for your encouragement. I think this article me longest to write for SearchWarp. I really appreciate your comment. ~mogama~
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