Martin Luther King Jr

I am now writing a weekly email that goes to my daughters in response to a prompt from Kacey.  This is for “Storyworth” and at the end of the year it will be put into a book.  Pretty neat!Top of Form

 

This week the question was:  How did you experience the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.  This is what I wrote:

 

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I  would like to tell you that I was absolutely devastated the day that Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. I would like to write that I had cherished his writings and his speeches and knew him to be the important prophet, preacher and activist of the civil rights movement. But I cannot.

I was definitely aware of the event of his murder. It was April 4, 1968 and I was a freshman at Hanover College. At that time in my life, my focus was on whether or not Henry Martin would ask me out and activities of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority and my classwork. Probably in that order.

When I reflect back on my teens and early twenties, I realize that I was barely aware of the importance of the civil rights movement that was happening at the time. I was not entirely ignorant. In high school I had discovered the writings of James Baldwin and I recognized the reality of racism. We moved in 1966 from the racial diversity of West Chester, Pennsylvania to the all white Birmingham. Michigan. I was - with all the self righteousness of the young - indignant at the exclusivity of this community.

At the same time, I have a distinct memory of the Detroit riots. I was working at the dry cleaners and our presser, an African American woman named Ellie, lived in downtown Detroit. She was unable to get out of the city for a week to come to work. I did not begin to understand the reasons behind the riots - I only knew how it inconvenienced daily life. The protests were a problem to my sense of order.

It has only been through readings, movies, workshops and life experiences in the past fifty years that I have come to grasp the reality of the stain of slavery that has effected our nation since its beginning. Its ramifications are still experienced to this day.

About ten years ago I went to the Quadrennial for women in my denomination that was in Atlanta Georgia. I went on a tour of the church where Martin Luther King preached. (where Rafeal Warnock is now). What is clear to me is that the church and his faith were foundational to his life and his message. He trusted that God was leading him to speak his truth - not only about racism but also about the evils of the war in Vietnam and the poverty in our nation.

When I pastored Karl Road Christian Church I attended and hosted many celebrations of Martin Luther King Jr. At those occasions, people - white and black - would share reminiscences of the day of his death. Some had walked with him protesting or heard him speak. I am always quiet knowing that my journey has been a slow awakening to my own ignorance, unconsciousness and self centeredness that is comfortable with the status quo until someone has the courage to name the evil in our midst.

Even at the cost of losing his life.