2C
MLKA'he Charlotte Post
Thursday, January 16,1997
King drew many social ideas from other cultures
By Claj^me Carson
King
One of the world’s best
known advocates of non
violent social change
strategies, Martin
Luther King Jr., synthe
sized ideas dravm from
jm a n y
Idiffer-
lent cul-
It u r a 1
Itr adi-
Itions.
Born
U ^
h Atlanta
■^0 n
January
15, 1929, King’s roots
were in the African
American Baptist
church. He was the
grandson of the Rev. A
D. WiUiams, pastor of
Ebenezer Baptist church
and a founder of
Atlanta’s NAACP chap
ter, and the son of
Martin Luther King Sr.,
who succeeded WiUiams
as Ebenezer’s pastor and
also became a civil rights
leader. Although, from
an early age. King
resented rehgious emo
tionalism and ques
tioned hteral interpreta
tions of scripture, he nev
ertheless greatly
admired black social
gospel proponents such
as his father who saw
the church as a instru
ment for improving the
hves of African
Americans. Morehouse
College president
Benjamin Mays and
other proponents of
Christian social activism
influenced King’s deci
sion after his junior year
at Morehouse to become
a minister and thereby
serve society. His contin
ued skepticism, howev
er, shaped his subse
quent theological stud
ies at Crozer
Theological Seminary in
Chester, Pa., and at
Boston University,
where he received a doc
torate in systematic the
ology in 1955. Rejecting
offers for academic posi
tions, King decided
while completing his
Ph. D. requirements to
return to the South and
accepted the pastorate
of Dexter Avenue
Baptist Church in
Montgomery, Ala.
On Dec. 5, 1955, five
days after Montgomery
civil rights activist Rosa
Parks refused to obey
the city’s rules mandat
ing segregation on
buses, black residents
laimched a bus boycott
and elected King as
president of the newly-
formed Montgomery
Improvement
Association. As the boy
cott continued during
1956, King gained
national prominence as
a residt of his exception
al oratorical skills and
personal courage. His
house was bombed and
he was convicted along
with other boycott lead
ers on charges of con
spiring to interfere with
the bus company’s oper
ations. Despite these
attempts to suppress
the movement,
Montgomery bus were
desegregated in
December, 1956, after
the United States
Supreme Court
declared Alabama’s seg
regation laws xmconsti-
tutional.
In 1957, seeking to
build upon the success
of the Montgomery boy
cott movement. King
and other southern
black ministers founded
the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference.
As SCLC’s president.
King emphasized the
goal of black voting
rights when he spoke at
the Lincoln Memorial
during the 1957 Prayer
Pilgrimage for Freedom.
During 1958, he pub
lished his first book,
“StrideToward
FreedomrThe
Montgomery Story.” The
following year, he
toured India, increased
his understanding of
Gandhian non-violent
strategies. At the end of
1959, he resigned from
Dexter and returned to
Atlanta where the
SCLC headquarters
was located and where
he also could assist his
father as pastor of
Ebenezer.
Although increasingly
portrayed as the pre
eminent black
spokesperson. King did
not mobilize mass
protest activity during
the first five years after
the Montgomery boycott
ended. While King
moved cautiously,
southern black college
students took the initia-
BROTHERHOOD
"We must all leam to live together as brothers, or we
will perish together as fools".
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 15,1997
We Join The Charlotte Community in commemorating the
life of a great leader.
Sam
Lincoln Mercury,PS.
5201 E. Independence Blvd. • 535-7810
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five, launching a wave
of sit-in protests during
the winter and spring of
1960. King S5mipathized
with the student move
ment and spoke at the
founding meeting of the
Student Nonviolent
Coordinating
Committee (SNCC) in
April 1960, but he soon
became the target of
criticisms from SNCC
activists determined to
assert their indepen
dence. Even King’s deci
sion in October, 1960, to
join a student sit-in in
Atlanta did not allay the
tensions, although pres
idential candidate John
F. Kenned/s sympa
thetic telephone call to
Bang’s wife, Coretta
Scott King, helped
attract crucial black
support for Kennedy’s
successful campaign.
The 1961 “Freedom
Rides,” which sought to
integrate southern
transportation facilities,
demonstrated that nei
ther King nor Kennedy
could control the
expanding protest
movement spearheaded
by students. Conflicts
between King and
younger militants were
also evident when both
SCLC and SNCC assist
ed the Albany (Ga.)
Movement’s campaign
of mass protests during
December of 1961 and
the summer of 1962.
Afi«r achieving few of
his objectives in Albany,
King recognized the
need to organize a suc
cessful protest cam
paign free of conflicts
with SNCC. During the
spring of 1963, he and
his staff guided mass
See KING Page 3C
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very Generation needs the instruction
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REMEMBER & SHARE
his dream with the next generation.
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