Page 4...THE PEN...February, 1981
A Salute to Dr. Martm
QUOTES OF REV DR MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR
1. “If you will protest
courageously, any yet with dignity
and Christian love, when the history
books are written in future genera
tions, the historians will pause and
say, ‘There lived a great people--a
black people who injected new
meaning and dignity into the veins
of civilization.’ This is our challenge
and our overwhelming responsibili
ty.”
This was said by Dr. King in 1955
during the Montgomery bus boycott
which lasted for a total of 382 days.
This boycott resulted in, among
other things; courteous treatment of
negroes by white bus drivers; the hir
ing of qualified blacks to drive city
buses; and seating arrangement on
buses on a first-come, first-serve
basis.
2. “I guess it is easy for those who
have never felt the stinging darts of
segregation to say ‘Wait’. But when
you have seen vicious mobs lynch
your mothers and fathers at will and
down your sisters and brothers at
whim; when you have seen hate-
filled policemen curse, kick,
brutalize and even kill your black
brothers and sisters; when you sud
denly find your tongue twisted and
your speech stammermg as you seek
to explain to your six-year old
daughter why she can’t go to the
amusement park that she has just
seen advertised on television and see
tears welling up in her little eyes
when she is told that ‘Funtown’ is
closed to colored children, and see
the depressing clounds of inferiority
begin to form in her little mental
sky, and see her begin to distort her
little personality by unconsciously
developing a bitterness toward white
people; when you are humiliated day
in and day out by nagging signs
reading ‘white’ and ‘colored’; when
your first name becomes ‘boy’
(however old you are) and when
your wife and mother are never
given the respected title ‘Mrs.’; when
you are harried by day and haunted
by night by the fact that you are a
Negro, living constantly at tiptoe
'stance, never quite knowing what to
expect next, and plagued with inner
fears and outer resentments; when
you are forever fighting a
degenerating sense of
‘Nobodyness’--Then you will
understand why we find it so dif-
ficuh to wait.”
When in 1963 Dr. King was jailed
in Birmingham, Alabama, he
responded to the criticism of eight
white Clergymen who had critized
the demonstrations which he had
been leading.
3. “No great victory comes
without suffering.” This state
ment was made by Dr. King in 1964
in Albany, Georgia, where he was
leading demonstratons to
desegregate public facilities.
4. “If every Negro in America
turns to violence. I’ll still stand
against it.”
Dr. King said this in responding to
the cry of “Black Power!” by Civil
Rights veteran Stokely Carmichael
in 1966.
5. “I have a^ dream that one day
this nation will rise up and live out
the true meaning of its creed: ‘We
hold these thruths to be self evident:
That all men are created equal.’
“I have a dream that one day on
the red hills of Georgia the sons of
former slaves and the sons of former
slaveowners will be able to sit down
together at the table of brotherhood.
“I have a dream that one day even
the state of Mississippi, a desert state
sweltering with the heat of injustice
and oppression, will be transformed
into an oasis of freedom and justice.
“When we allow freedom to ring,
we will be’able to speed up that day
when all of God’s children, black
men and white men, Jews and Gen
tiles, Protestants and Catholics will
be able to join hands and sing in the
old Negro spiritual of all: ‘Free at
last. Free at last! Thank God
Almighty, I am free at last.’”
Speech delivered on the march of
Washington on August 28, 1963.
6. “If anyone should be killed, let
it be me.”
Dr. King said this in 1957, while in
Montgomery, Alabama, just after
his house had been bombed.
7. “Yes, if you want to say that I
was a drum major, say that I was a
drum major for righteousness; say
that 1 was a drum major for peace
and a drum major for humanity and
all of the other shallow things of life
will not matter. I won’t have any
money to leave behind. 1 won’t have
the fine and luxurious things of life
to leave behind. I just want to leave
a committed life behind. That’s all I
want to say—If I can help somebody.
If I can cheer somebody with a word
or song. If I can show somebody
he’s travelling wrong, then my living
will not be in vain.”
Final sermon delivered by Dr.
King on February 4, 1968 from the
pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church,
which he co-pastered.
8. “We’ve got some difficult days
ahead. But it really doesn’t matter
with me now. Because I’ve been to
the mountaintop and 1 won’t mind.
Like anybody, 1 would like to live a
long life. Longevity has its place.
■But I’m not concerned about that
now. I just want to do God’s will.
And He’s allowed me to go up to the
mountaintop. And, I’ve looked
over, and I’ve seen the Promised
Land. I may not get there with you.
But I want you to know tonight that
we as a people will get to the Promis
ed Land. So I’m happy tonight. I’m
not worried about anything. I’m not
fearing any man. Mine eyes have
seen the coming of the Lord.”
This was Dr. King’s last speech,
delivered on April 3, 1968, at the
Masonic Temple in Memphis, Tenn.
He was assassinated on April 4,
1968, while standing on the balcony
of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis,
Tenn.