Many years ago, when I was still teaching, I read Taylor Branch's King years trilogy. Beginning with the Pulitzer Prize in History, Parting of the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63, Pillar of Fire, America in the King Years, 1963-65, and At Canaan's Edge, America in the King Years, 1965-68, it was Branch's major commitment to the work of documenting American history.
Last year, I re-read At Canaan's Edge (2006). The ending, already known, nonetheless, requires reflection.
In this last volume, we see King and others strategizing, organizing, protesting, and packing a Memphis church, Mason Temple, on the evening of April 3, 1968. King asked Rev. Ralph Abernathy to speak. "The whole structure rattled from the pounding elements of wind, thunder, and rain." Abernathy, writes Branch, could read a crowd, and these were the sanitation workers who braved the weather to hear King speak. Abernathy called King back at the hotel.
"King came smiling to the microphones about 9:30, just as the storms crested." He started off with "a poetic tour of history," taking the listeners on a "mental flight" through "ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome," before he praised the Memphis sanitation movement. Finally reaching the end of his speech, King talked about wanting to do "God's will." He reached the mountaintop where he had "s-e-e-e-e-e-n" the promised land. "And I may not get there with you but I want you to know, tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land--
We know what happens to King.
It wasn't just the Pulitzer, Branch won several awards for his work; he, however, didn't sacrifice his time to win awards or increase his bank account. There is, however, a commitment to love. Love of humanity. Love of the truth. Love of contributing to the advancement of people struggling for freedom. For the movement King lead, writes Branch, "climbed from the obscurity to command the center stage of American politics in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy declared racial segregation a moral issue 'as old as the Scriptures and" as clear as the American Constitution." There was love, too, the spoke to a very different "climb" as opposed to one that it limited to one's personal advancement.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
Post Article Comment and Rate This Article
