Martin Luther King's introduction to racial injustice was not particularly violent, but it was disturbing. When he was nine, his best friend and playmate was a white boy who lived nearby; the boy's parents eventually refused to let their son continue the friendship. His parents were respected by white and black Atlantans alike. They refused to surrender to segregation, but did not retaliate with hatred. They rose above their oppressors by showing love for all while firmly maintaining their own personal integrity and demonstrating that integrity as an example for their children (Baldwin, 1991, p. 37). Malcolm X had been ready for a brutal and bloody end; he had told his wife, "my death will be the result of a contractual agreement between the government and the Black Muslims," implicating both the FBI and Nation of Islam. On February 21, 1965, as he stood to address a rally at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, he said "Asalamalaikum brothers and sisters." Three assassins rose and fired 16 bullets into him while his wife, Betty Shabazz, and four daughters looked on (Dyson, 1994, p. 141). Cone, J. H. (1991) Martin and Malcolm and America: A Dream or A Nightmare. Orbis Books. Martin Luther King's speeches, sermons, and writings all echoed the language of the Bible, the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence. He was asking for no more than what was guaranteed for all American citizens; his mission was largely to persuade official America to live up to its beliefs as advertised in the nation's central documents and in the countless expressions of belief in fairness, justice, equality, freedom, and Christian love which supposedly make up this nation's culture (Cone, 1991, p. 44). |
