Lucas Adcock
Staff Writer
As we look at our world today, it’s important to think back to how much of our society was set in place by the work of a singular man. The famous civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was unafraid of criticism, unafraid of cynical backlash, and unafraid of being told that his beliefs were radical. But to this civil rights leader, his views were radical. They were meant to be. Change without radical action was never possible in the realm of civil rights until someone stepped forward to take charge on the subject, and that’s just what King did.
As Martin Luther King Day approaches, it’s important to understand the relevant history of this prominent figure that we all learned about in school, beginning with the fact that King’s name was not always “Martin Luther King Jr.” but rather, “Michael King Jr.” As a child, he was comfortable with his name. When he was only five years of age, his father, King Sr., decided to change both his and his son’s name to reflect Protestant Reformation Leader Martin Luther, following a 1934 Baptist Church Alliance meeting in Berlin.
This meeting sparked a strong sense of purpose in King Sr., enticing him to return to the United States with a new perspective on racial inequality that heavily stemmed from oppression and discrimination as marked by the rise of Nazi Germany. King Sr.’s perspective on inequality then directly stemmed from the teachings of the Baptist Church Alliance as it was stated: “This Congress deplores and condemns as a violation of the law of God the Heavenly Father, all racial animosity, and every form of oppression or unfair discrimination toward the Jews, toward coloured people, or toward subject races in any part of the world.”
Later, as a 15-year-old at Booker T. Washington High School, Martin Luther King Jr.’s intelligence placed him amongst the ranks of those able to skip a grade – or two. As a high schooler, King skipped both the 9th and 12th grades due to his academic success. He enrolled in his father’s Alma Mater, Morehouse College, in 1944. At a mere 19 years of age, King had earned his BA in sociology, later studying theology at Crozer Theological Seminary where he was later ordained to the Baptist Ministry.
As a young man, however, King could not accept his new name. But following in his father’s footsteps, and after decades of preaching and successful leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, King felt as though he had come to earn it.
Before his famous “I have a dream” speech which took place at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, King visited our very own Charleston, West Virginia. There, in 1960, he delivered a sermon and message at the First Baptist Church. A small announcement appeared in the local paper, the Charleston Gazette, inviting all members of the public to come and hear him speak.
The Gazette, noting that King would see the same race issues in Charleston as he did in the south, noted that there were also “men of good will” and that King would see the evidence of their work. The Gazette also went on to state that “perhaps this city [Charleston] can bolster the spirit of this courageous man and prove to him that this fight hasn’t been entirely in vain.”
Don Marsh, the reporter for The Gazette, had the honor of interviewing King at his hotel in Charleston the evening before his address.
“Ultimately, we seek integration, which is true inter-group, inter-personal living where you sit on the bus, you sit together not because the law says it but because it is natural, it is what is right,” King told Marsh.
These days, it is far too easy to place blame on anyone for anything. And as MLK day approaches, it is important to remember that he urged forgiveness and reconciliation as this great equality shift in the United States occurred.
Now, in retrospect, his death has marked conspiracy theories on whether or not the escaped convict and assassin, James Earl Ray, actually acted alone in the kill- ing. King had just leaned over the balcony at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, speaking to Reverend Jesse Jackson, when Ray shot him in the head with a rifle. King died in the hospital that night.
Whether or not the conspiracies that surround King’s death are real is up for debate. Nevertheless, his preachings, his teachings, his beliefs laid the groundwork for racial equality in our world. From the walls of the MLK memorial, what he stood for is plainly written: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
