Ernest Withers, a photographer during the Civil Rights movement, took this striking picture of Martin Luther King Jr. A crowd presses in on King as he glances to his right, his face framed by the backs of men’s heads. He looks like a man under pressure, deciding what to do next. The art of Ernest Withers impresses me.
King himself puzzles me. Churches revere him as a saint and a latter-day Jesus, but I’ve never figured out how to approach him. I read through his speeches and writings years ago, and his beliefs appeared more Gandhian than Christian. But that does depend on how someone defines Christian. My beliefs resonate more with Martin Luther than Martin Luther King. At the Henry Ford Museum I sat on the very bus that started the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and it didn’t move me – beyond wondering what man would get on a bus and expect a woman to move to accommodate him.
King was courageous, and he lost his life in a cause above self – that deserves respect. Still, I feel an ambivalence about him, and it’s hard to imagine I’m alone in that. When he’s being praised I nod quietly, mindful that he’s someone else’s hero.
Chris,
I find this quite interesting.
First, I am impressed by your candor. Too many times, people mouth what they hear others say even if they don’t mean it.
(Before I say what I’m about to say, please understand I don’t mean to come off as some smug, territorial chest thumper.)
Growing up as I did in the South (deep South), MLK & his life has always been something I’ve always known about. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know who he was. Admittedly, some people I know did not speak of him kindly. But even though he died before I was born, I’ve witnessed the attitudes he was forced to deal with. The circumstances, the status quo, that he was up against. Thus, I think he had to tailor his speech accordingly. Plus, he came from a religious upbringing that placed far more emphasis on the Exodus, and Christ’s message of freedom, than what was being preached everywhere else in the U.S.
As for the bus, again, I guess its an environmental thing. You have to understand the mindset. It wasn’t just a “they’re black, I’m white, so I deserve the best seat.” It wasn’t a black/white issue in the South based on skin color. It was based on the fact that many, many whites at the time (and some even today I’m sad to say) regarded blacks as LESS HUMAN. It wasn’t a matter of culture or heritage. It was a matter of species. I can’t remember who said this, but once you take away the human dignity from your foe, you can treat them as horrible as you like and feel justified doing it.
Of course, I’m no MLK historian. And being white, I’ll probably never be able to fully appreciate what he meant.
Again, I find your honesty wonderful. A touch of humility we all need more of.
Very best.
SRB, thanks for your comment. I read once of a black woman in the 1950s who went to a newspaper editor to complain that when her name appeared in the paper, ‘Mrs’ was not used. Titles like that were reserved for whites only. As a result of her action, the paper changed its policy and used ‘Mr’ or ‘Mrs’ regardless of race. An important step forward.
I agree with your assessment of the dangers of regarding others as ‘less than human.’ That certainly was what King and others were struggling against. As I mentioned in a post last week, we always get in trouble when we try to limit human rights.
Peace to you.
You have raised an interesting question here, with a transparency that invites all of us to think about it – what is the meaning of Martin Luther King Day?
It is true that MLK day is, in a sense, a day that has more meaning for some than others, just as any symbol has more meaning for some than others. In addition, like all symbols its meaning varies among people. I think this is what you have have expressed here.
Still, I do think there is a way to see a universal symbol in MLK day, one in which all of us can find powerful meaning. I think we can see his life and ministry as symbolizing the claim that all of our lives matter to God, and that we ourselves must affirm that they matter, whatever the cost, even if others do not. In that sense it is a symbol that affirms his particular claim and a universal claim of which his particular claim is representative. In that sense it transcends his particular claim and the particular content of his claim.
Thanks, Ken. I agree King is a universal symbol. I wonder, though, if symbols lose some of their currency if they are invoked too often. Perhaps that is part of the issue with me. I’m interested in the lesser know characters in the civil rights drama, Bayard Rustin, for example.
Peace to you today.
That’s pretty gutsy, and extremely honest. I wonder how many of us kind of feel that way, too. MLK was redeemed in my mind, beyond the canonical saint America has bestowed upon him, when I saw him in context of the African-American prophetic tradition.
He was definitely influenced by Ghandi, but also by Niehbur.
I’ve got a rather different take on him, too, at my blog, that talks about his later in life reconversion to the fight against poverty, and how he failed at it. You might enjoy it.