The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. was a wonderful orator, dreamer and leader. Today many honor MLK and that is good but we need to be reminded that it was not an easy road that he and his followers traveled.
Great individuals like King are human and are not perfect.
I embraced MLK early as a young man and still wish I could have met him.
In 1965 I was at the New York Hilton at a Catholic Conference and found out that King was staying at the hotel. I got his room number from a bellman and traveled up to his floor. There were two large and strong looking black brothers in the hallway outside his room and would not allow me to knock on the door. I should have done a SIT IN right there until King came out to meet me. I loved MLK and he and the Civil Rights movement were a platform for freedom.
On occasion I do my rendition of his wonderful voice and speech pattern.
On his birthday we must make it a day when we do some service work for others. But then some of you already do that every day.
Four days after the death of MLK in 1968 Congressman Conyers introduced the first bill calling for a national holiday. And Conyers and others continued to push for a holiday. In 1983 some 25 years later we again joined a demonstration on his birthday on the east side of the capitol in DC. Conyers and Stevie Wonder who sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY for MLK organized this. It was a cold snowy day but there we were with about 250 others demanding a holiday in his honor. We did not let the snow keep us away.
And to our surprise on November 2nd of that year President Reagan signed the bill creating a national holiday.
On the night of the assassination of MLK while I was in my room weeping over the loss of one of my heroes. I was challenged then by a good radical white brother an active leader in the SDS (Students For A Democratic Society) to join them and the black athletes there at the University of Colorado in a demonstration. And by the next day I was speaking out about race and freedom and have not been able to stop since then.
Working within the Civil Rights and Human Rights movement over more than 50 years I have learned a lot about our many leaders and about myself. Being an organizer and leader of many activities over the years I have been told and finally had to accept some of the errors that I made along the way. But many don’t know of the sacrifices others and I had to make while trying to find freedom for others.
As I remember King I realize that he was not perfect and that he made mistakes in his personal life as well as in his movement life. I do not know of any leader that gets it right or does it all good all of the time. And these leaders like King who were attacked by many with so many threats against them and their families lives takes a toll on them and all those around him or her.
And what makes things more difficult is when a leader takes on issues that others do not understand. MLK took on two important moral issues of his time, which were poverty and the War In Viet Nam. Many supporters, donors and others could not or did not understand why he took these positions. And when MLK was killed he was not at the top of his popularity. It had been a difficult year for King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
King knew that he had to use his voice and life to speak out on these moral issues. And history has proven him right.
I like many others have suffered when we raised important issues when they were not popular, like Immigrant, Gay, Women’s, environmental rights and other such issues. When they are first raised the messengers are attacked and ridiculed.
During all his activism the FBI and its many informants spied MLK along with other activists on. We in the Chicano movement found more than our fair share of FBI and other police entities creating trouble for us. The powerful wanted to damage Kings work and stop him. And when this failed they killed him.
Within our movements then and today we have serious issues that are not accepted or understood by some whose egos that get in the way of progress.
MLK was not perfect and that allows us mere mortals to believe that we can do something great in spite of our occasional failures. And while most of us will not be speaking to tens of thousands or creating major marches and civil actions that get national attention we must understand that we nonetheless can make a difference.
We can be like King and carry on this vision of his I HAVE A DREAM by doing what is right and just in our communities. By raising our voices when needed and supporting those who can do more than what we are able.
Together we can change the world!!
