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On MLK Day I always remember our family visit to Montgomery, Alabama, the city many consider to be Ground Zero of the American Civil Rights movement. Montgomery was where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated city bus. And the arrest of Rosa Parks kicked off the year long Montgomery bus boycott. A boycott run by the hastily formed Montgomery Improvement Association, the president of which was the new young pastor of Dexter Avenue Church. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Our fondest memories of the day my family spent in Montgomery were from our visit to the King parsonage, the church-owned home where the King's lived while he was pastor at Dexter Avenue Church.
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On January 30, 1956, at the start of the boycott, King's home was bombed. On the porch you can still see a bit of the crater left from the blast which is also marked by a plaque (pictured here).Our guide through the parsonage was Shirley Cherry, a retired school teacher who was then hosting the parsonage tour for the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Foundation. Although not a participant in the bus boycott (she was living in New England at the time), since running the parsonage Shirley had come to know many of the Montgomery citizens who actively participated in planning and executing the boycott. Mrs. Cherry regaled us with stories and was, all by herself, historian, tour guide, personal testimonial, teacher, evangelist, and interactive museum exhibit.
One of the nice personal touches Shirley added to the tour is allowing a person in the tour the honor of opening up the parsonage to let us all in. She picked me and handed me the key saying, "This is the highest honor I can give. Take this key and open the door using the very lock Dr. King used to open his door when he came home from work at the church."
I took the key and opened the front door of Dr. King's house.
The parsonage has been decorated circa 1955 and a great deal of the furniture was owned by the King's: Couches, dinner table, bed, King's office desk, his bookshelves.
The highlight I want to mention came at the end of the parsonage tour and was in the King's kitchen.
The whirlwind of events surrounding the bus boycott had caught King unawares. When he went to be the pastor at Dexter King was mainly looking for a quiet place to finish his dissertation and perhaps from there move into the life of college professor after a stint in the ministry. King was an intellectual, and he wanted to lead a quiet, academically-oriented life.
But then Rosa Parks happened and King found himself, as the newcomer in Montgomery (all the other pastors had too much water under the bridge with each other), elected President of the Montgomery Improvement Association. By accident, fate, or providence King found himself at the center of the advent of the Civil Rights movement.
But then the death threats started coming. Threats on his life and his family's. Slowly the fear began to overwhelm this academically inclined 26 year old. King hadn't signed up for this.
Plato, Niebuhr, Tillich, yes. Theology, that's what King wanted. Not death threats.
Around midnight on January 27, 1956 the parsonage phone rang. King answered it and heard a low voice say: “Nigger, we’re tired of your mess. And if you aren’t out of this town in three days, we’re going to blow up your house and blow your brains out.”
Shaken, King tried to go to back to sleep. His wife and ten-week-old baby girl, Yolanda, were asleep nearby. But King couldn't rest.
King got up and went to the kitchen where he made himself some coffee. There was something about that voice on the phone that King couldn't shake, a seriousness that he couldn't ignore. This time, King knew that the bomb threat was real.
The bomb would come. Sooner or later, it would come.
King began thinking about the life of his baby girl. The life of his wife. His own life.
As the coffee brewed in the dark kitchen the fears pressed in on King, overwhelming him. He sat down at the kitchen table and prayed:
"Lord, I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I've come to the point where I can't face it alone."And in that moment, sitting at his kitchen table, King had the most profound experience of his religious life. In the middle of that dark kitchen, alone and scared, King heard an "inner voice" speak to him:
"Martin Luther, stand up for truth. Stand up for justice. Stand up for righteousness. God will be at your side forever."And with that assurance, King's fears lifted. His courage returned. And in that moment he firmly committed his life to the path of Civil Rights.
God had called him and he responded.
Three days later King's house was, indeed, bombed. Word about the bombing spread like wildfire that night and many black citizens descended upon the King home armed and ready for battle. But King's calm that night, addressing the angry group gathered on his lawn, prevented a riot from the outraged black community.
The other-worldly calm and courage King exhibited the night of the bombing was the product of his midnight epiphany three evenings earlier, a strength of purpose and resolve he carried all the way to his death twelve years later. It was a courage he described in the final words of his final sermon:
"Like anybody, I 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 mountain. 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 promised land!My family lingered a long time in the kitchen of Dr. King's house. This was holy ground. Mrs. Cherry let us each sit at the coffee table where King's epiphany had occurred, sitting in front of the very coffee cups used by the King family. It was a wonderful moment, sitting there imagining what had occurred in that small, dark kitchen.
And so I'm happy, tonight.
I'm not worried about anything.
I'm not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!"
Beautiful words. The story of King at the dinner table I have heard before, but where did you learn it? Was it in a biography? Could you point me in the right direction or a good place to start in learning more about Dr. King? Thanks
You can find the story in MLK's autobiography--from midnight epiphany to the bombing--on pages 77-80:
http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Martin-Luther-King-Jr/dp/0446676500/
A wonderful post. I appreciate your courage. Because you see, I am well aware of the anger that many in our religious tradition, and also many of other churches, still have for Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement. I am aware of it simply because I grew up knowing them, and I know them now.
The anger is usually camouflaged as "politics". In other words, there is the claim, even the boast, that African Americans and other people of color are truly accepted in Christ. They are called "brother" and "sister" and even physically embraced, making them feel welcome as long as they are "faithful" Christians. While all along the feeling of resentment of how African Americans have progressed lies deep within their thoughts, still holding the belief that the country was stronger and on a higher moral plain when white people held power and control. And the salt in the wound is when white people feel compelled to make critical judgments regarding certain laws that protect rights, or talk of how "good" things use to be in this country, in the presence of African Americans, testing them to see if they are truly "of the faithful".
I spent my days as a child repeating the words of anger and prejudice I heard from relatives and family friends. I have asked God to forgive me, and still do. God forgave me the first time I asked; I keep asking because I never want to forget and become that person again.
Let me add that my favorite MLK biography is this one:
http://www.amazon.com/To-Mountaintop-Mission-America-1955-1968/dp/0060750545/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1390244814&sr=8-2
Thank you!
Thanks for posting on this day this moving account of your visits. May I suggest one more: Visit Selma, Alabama, on the anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" in March. I was there last year, and it was once in a lifetime experience. Vice president Biden, and all the living legends of the movement were there, along with AG Holder and a few of the actual foot-souldiers who marched on Bloody Sunday. For nearly 40 years I described what happened on that Sunday to my students, but there is nothing like actually being there and marching with thousands across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. At the top of the bridge I looked back at a sea of marchers, both black and white, as far as I could see. I'm proud that I can tell my family what I did. The sad part is that I dare not share that experience with the church where I preach. Maybe I should.
Thanks for your openness. I've followed a similar path. This is a sad legacy of this generation of church members. Those of us who share the frustration over our lack of progress as a brotherhood should compose a statement about where we are spiritually on the point of social justice. This spiritual failing threatens our existence more than any other - when the teachings of Jesus are superseded by conservative politics. This would be similar to "A Statement of Attitude" composed by Harding College students in 1957. Somewhere in history such a statement would be viewed favorably by another generation.
I walked the bridge with my family and the ACU students, but walking it with a crowd would really be something.
You know, next year (2015) it'll the 50th year anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Voting Rights March. I bet that will be quite an event. We should all start planning right now to be there!
I loved this post . . . a lot.
As a teenager in the late 1980s I was utterly captivated by King and his legacy. Part of our high school graduation requirement was the completion of a rather long, term paper. My chosen topic was related to the Montgomery bus boycott, its effects, and the momentum it provided to the civil rights movement.
As a sort of wayward, very agnostic, Catholic kid, it was inspiring and enriching to understand the Christian experience as this profoundly radical, and living thing.
I have read Dr. King's Letter From A Birmingham Jail several times. I am always left wondering where was the church during the civil rights movement. Particularly, where was the white church. Sadly, we were mostly absent. My appreciation for Dr. King and other leaders grows each time I read an article like this one, Richard. Thanks for writing it. Well done!
So in 2015 what what do you think of the progress toward Dr. King's dream?