1, Nobody knows just why, on this particular occaeton, she. t1 i s unquenchab 1 e sp t rl t Ne~ roes wou 1 d hard 1 y have stuck i t out.

Transcription

1 "Martin Luther King, Jr. a sermon de 1 i vered in Duke University Chapel by Dr. Benjamin E, Mays President Emeritus, Morehouse College, Atlanta January 11, One never knows what it is that triggers a response, but I am convinced that it was my contact with Martin Luther King, Jr., in.chapel at Morehouse that brought us close together. There we began a real friendship ~hich was strengthened by vi.sits tn his home and by fairly frequent informal chats on the campus and In my office. Many times, during his four years at Morehouse, he would linger after my Tuesday morning address to discuss some point I had made--usually with approval, but sometimes questioning or disagreeing. I was not aware how deeply he was impressed by what I said and did until he wrote Stride Toward Freedom, In which he Indicated that I had influenced his life to a marked degree. In public addresses, he often referred to me as his "spiritual mentor". Since his death, several persons, especially those seeking data for an article or book, have asked me whether I.knew in what way I wa s influencing Martin's life. The answer is an unqualified "no". There is no way one can know the degr~e of influence one has apon another. It must be said in all candor that I feel that Martin Luther King, Jr. dtd as much for me, if not more,.than I did for him. Perhaps if I had not known Martin through the Morehouse chapel, and if hts father had not been elected to the Board of Trustees of Morehouse College, our friendship would not have reached such meaningful depth. Our friendship continued to grow during his years of study at Crozier Theological Seminary and Boston University, during his pastorate at Montgomery, during the years when he joined his father as co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta, and throughout the civil rights struggles, \. When Martin Luther had almost completed his doctorate at Boston University, I offered him a position on the faculty at Mo~~house. After giving serious consideration to my invitation, he decided that he should accept the pastorate of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. When he returned to Atlanta as co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, I again offered him work as a part-time professor, hoping that someday he would be with us at Moreho~se full time and for many years. So great were the public demands on his time, however, that after one semester he had to give up hfs seminar on nonviolence. Had he accepted my offer to teach at Morehouse, he would no doubt be alive today; but his name would not be among the immortal few who have achieved real greatness.

2 \ ~ '.,. -2- Furthermore, had the city offlclals In Montgomery been enlightened--or even sensible--the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., would have been a different story. Thep~ too. had Mrs. Rosa Parks behaved as she was 11 supposed to,"-:.and as Meg roes genera 11 y had behaved for decades--that is, if she had gotten up and given a white man her seat- there would have been no Montgomery Bus Boycott. Had the city officials met the simple demands of The Mongomery Improvement Association, perhaps the world would have never witnessed Dr. King s capacity fo~ magnificent, selfless leadership in the interest of mankind. The demands of the Montgomery Improvement Association were all reasonable- too reasonabl.e--and all within the segregation pattern. It also seems th9,t,any sane city official would have agreed to permit Negroes to keep.. the.i;r : seats if, when entering from the rear, they filled the bus, in which case whites would have to stand. The reverse would be true if whi 1 te~' : f(lled the bus first. Sensible officials would have been willin.g 'tci hire Negro b,us drivers, certainly tn predominantly Negro ' ar~as, and would have instructed white drivers to be civil in their treatment of black customers. All these demands were denied; hence the year-long ~ntgomery Bus Boycott.,It is highly probably that Martin Luther King, Jr., was the only mc\n who could have led the Montgomery Bus Boycott for an entire year wtthout violence, with the exception of the violence instigated by white people. Without Dr. King's charisma, his brilliant mind, and t1 i s unquenchab 1 e sp t rl t Ne~ roes wou 1 d hard 1 y have stuck i t out. For Dr. King It was the beginn1ng of an Incredible pilgrimage which was to brjng him worlo-wide honor and acclaim--and death. From that mbment of the. 8oy.cott on, until his assassination on April 4, 1968, he moved steadily from height to height, loved by his friends and hated by his enemi ~s. I am sorry he d.i d not come to Morehouse, but no college could have provided such an opportunity for leadership, a leadership so needed by all mankind and one for which he was so eminently qualified.. Of the countless i~cidents I could relate about Martin lut~er King, Jr., I have chosen three because It seems to me that they illustrate so perfectly the quality of the man's soul--his vision, his courage, his magnificent capacity for self-denying love. The first of these concerns Rosa Parks who was arrested December 1, Nobody knows just why, on this particular occaeton, she dldn t choose to obey the bus driver's order to get up so a white man might sit down. Perhaps she was tired after working.all day; perhaps she was. just tired of being pushed around all her life by white folks. At any rat~~ she sat--~nd the Boycott was onl When the Montgomery officials discovered that violence could not stay the protest or stop the Boycott, they resorted to mass arrest, using an old state law against boycotts. Dr. King, who was in Nashville at the time, knew that 1f he returned to Montgomery he would be arrested too. En route to Montgomery, he stopped overnight in Atlanta. His father, frantic for his son's safety, assembled a group of friends to consult with them about the wisdom of Martin Luther, Jr. s immediate return to Montg~mery. It was on February 22, 1956 that we met at the residence of Martin Luther King, Sr., and according to Martin Luther s own book, Stride Toward Freedom, the following persons were present:. i,. ~

3 A.T. Walden, a dist~nguished attorney; C.R. Yates and T.M. Alexander, both prominent business men; C.A. Scott, editor of the Atlanta Daily World; Blshop Sherman L. Green of the A.M.E. Church; Rufus E. Clement,. President of Atlanta University; and Benjamin E. Mays, President of Morehouse College. As I myself remember, Attorney Dan Duke was also present. Reverend King, Sr., stated his reason for calling us together and expressed his conviction that his son should not return to Montgomery right away. In.Stride Toward Freedom, Martin Luther King, Jr. writes that after his father's statement there were murmurs of agreement in the room and I listened as sympathetically and objectively as I could whiie two of the men gave their reasons for concurring. These were my elders, leaders among my people. Their words commanded respect. But soon I could not restrain myself any longer: "I must go back to Montgomery-- my frtends and associates are bet ng arrested. It would be the height of cowardi,c;:e for me to stay away. I would rather be in jail ten years than desert my people now. I have begun the struggle, and I can t turn back. I have reached the point of no return." In the moment of silence that followed, I heard my father break Into tears. I looked at Dr. Mays, one of the great Influences tn my life. Perhaps he heard my unspoken plea. At any rate, he was soon -- defending my position strongly., had to defend Martin Luther's position. Here was a man of deei integrity and firm convictions. How could he have decided otherwise than to return to_ Montgomery? How could he hide while his comrades in nonviolent arms were being carried to jail? That, in essence, was what I said. As for the second event, the officials in Alabama, and particularly in Montgomery, took great delight in harassing Martin Luther King even after the Montgomery Bus Boycott - ~nded. In f957, when Ralph Abernathy was being tried on some trumped-up charge, the Montgomery. courtroom was almost full. When Dr. King wanted to get in, the officers refused him permission, and upon his insistence, he WC\S,. arrested. Twisting his arms, they pushed and kicked him into a cell. Before Mrs. Klng and others could plan a strategy for getting Dr. King out, he was suddenly released. At the trial, he was convicted of lettering, and given the choice: ~e could serve time or pay a fine. Here came the great decision. Convinced that he had been unlawfully arrested and unjustly convicted, and therefore could not tn good conscience pay the fine, Dr. King announced that he would serve his time In jatl. This pronouncement shocked and stunned the court. 1 understand that the judge almost begged Dr. King to pay the fine. Some person--at the time unknown--paid It. Later It was learned that Clyde Sellers, the Chief of Police, had paid it, remarking that It would be cheaper to pay the fine that to have Martin Luther King, Jr., tn jail at the city's expense: Dr. King's decision not to pay went almost unnotice~ at the time~ but to me it was one of the most momentous decisions of his whole civil rights career. It made a tremendo~s impression on me. He would obey an unjust verdict. But by serving time rather than paying a fine for something he should never have been convicted of, he registered

4 -4- for the whole world his protest against injustice. His great decision has motivated and will continue to motivate the actions of others as we pursue this long journey up the precipitous hill toward racial justice~ democracy, and Christian living in this country. A third incident will dramatize Martin Luther King's high regard for the law, even for unjust laws. Those who have condemned him for : admonishing people to break unjust laws have not realized that when he himself violated them he was not being irresponsible. It was his way of seeking to achieve social change without instigating physical violence. If he had violated the law and then cried for amnesty, his action in a sense would have been irresponsible and would have indicated disres~ect for law. But when Martin Luther violated the law he did so consciously and deliberately and was always willing to pay the penalty exacted by law, even though the law was blatantly unjust. He was willing to suffe~ for a righteous cause in the firm belief that ~his kind of suffering was redemptive. I saw him demonstrate this belief on O ctober 21, President Glenn H. Leggett had invited a group of distinguished Americans to Grinnell College to confer honorary degrees. ' Dr. K1ng and I were among t hem -- he to give the convocation address in the morning before the conferririg of degrees in the afternoon, and I t6 ~ntroduce him. His schedule was ' so tight that he had w arned Grinnell that he might not be able to get there, so an official of the College asked me to stand in if he couldn't make. itt~ An emphatlt ''No 11 had to be my answer to this. request -- thi.s :muge crowd had come to hear Dr. King, not me. No substitute would have been adequate. To make his appearance, Dr. King had to come by a private plane provided by a 1 friend. The crowd that had waited patiently for ninety minutes for his arrival gave him a standing ovation when he appeared, and applauded long and loud when he finished s.peaking. This was the speeth Martin Luther King, Jr., made just before he returned to Alabama once more to serve time for contempt of court. He had a heavy cold, and 1. was greatly concerned when he left me in Grinnell to go to Birmingham. He could have ducked ano ther ordeal by staying out of Alabama~ but true to his character he would not run and hide even though he.knew he was being punished unjustly. Only one who has the highest respect for law is willi~g to serve time for violating laws whether just or unjust. This man never cried for mercy; he never asked for amnesty. The G r i nne 1-1 experienc-e was five months and eight days before his assassination. My next public speech about lv1artin Luther was the eulogy I gave at his funeral on Aprrl 9, Martin Luther King, Jr., was a. powerful man and I was, and still am, so inspi.red by his integrity, his courage, and hjs commitment tha t I have never been quite objective about him. I was wholeheartedly in accord with most things he did. Even when I had reservations about a certain course 0f action, f hesitated to criticize him, both because I thought his judgment mi~ht well be better than mine, and because 1 could never doubt the sinterity of his purpose. It angered me to hear him accused of being insincere. or of doing.things for the plaudits. of the crowd. Many, for :example, condemned his stand on the Vietnam,,.

5 -5- War. Even some civil rights leaders and other Negroes in high places were harsh in their criticisms. In conversations, on public platforms, and in my weekly articles in the Pittsburgh Courier, I found myself in the happy position of defending his stand on this and many other issues. Why should Dr. King have confined his work to civil rights and left Vietnam to the government experts and military professionals? I learned long ago that there are no infallible experts on war and that no leader has ever been able to confine his leadership to one area, a point I made in the Pittsburgh Courier on May 20, 1967;. 1 do not agree with the leaders who criticize Dr. King on the ground that he should stick to civil rights and not mix civil rights with foreign policy. If the critics differ with him because of his stand on the Vietnam War, let them say it. No leader leads in one particular area. I think most civi 1 rights leaders speak on other issues as well. I see nothing wrong with a man speaking out on three or four different issues. He may be right in his stand on Vietman and he may be wrong. History will finally record the verdict. It should be noted here that what Dr. King is doing now is consistent with his philosophy of nonviolence. He was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi before he led the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He has consistently expounded on the doctrine of nonviolence. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to him on this philosophy. He has expounded this philosophy on the home front and it is logical that he would expound it on the international front. I think we should at least make their criticisms of Dr. King on the major issue Long before the world paid tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., by awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize, Morehouse College had conferred upon him her highest honor. We wanted to be the first college or university to recognize his leadership in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Boycott had continued all through 1956, and our first commencement after that was in June, In April, I proposed that we honor Dr. King on June fourth by conferring upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. The faculty and board of trustees accepted my recommendation unanimously. It gave me great joy to confer the degree when the day came. The eulogy which I gave at the funeral services for Martin Luther King, Jr., at!v1orehouse College, on Apri 1 9, 1968, was my last tribute to a great and good man.