Of the recent stories I have had to read for American Lit class, I think that Letter From a Birmingham Jail really spoke to me the most. Martin Luther King Jr. was such an intelligent man. In this letter that he wrote, although the piece was long, he made all of his points clear, and showcased his knowledge with his comparisons of justice and injustice. Reading through this, I couldn't help but wonder how a racist caucasian interpreted it, because that is who it was really meant for. There were literally no holes in the whole piece where I could see someone criticize colored people. If anything, I would probably put my prejudices aside and seriously consider what this man was saying and the logic behind it which seems so ridiculous today. But back then some people were so ignorant and unwilling to even think about these things, and I think to some degree most people realized how stupid segregation was, but felt bound to stick with their original opinions on it being necessary.
I found one point in particular very interesting: Martin Luther King Jr.'s expectation that when he had his peaceful marches in the south that fellow white Christians from local churches would march with him and support his cause. I don't know if King sincerely believed that would ever happen. Sure, there were definitely some white people who came and joined in the marches, but why would he expect that? I'm not trying to say he was wrong for thinking that a white man would try to help the colored people, I'm just saying that he was well aware of the prejudices people had, especially in the south. I don't believe that King really saw what they shared, their religion, as something that would bring them together. Rather I think he believed religion was something that should bring them together. Same God, same morals. I completely understand that. I believe King said this to try and enforce his main point of everyone being equal and to try and end segregation.
(CBS) CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports on the influence a Connecticut town had on a young Martin Luther King Jr.
ReplyDeleteWhen you think of Martin Luther King Jr.'s formative years, you think may think of Atlanta, where he grew up and attended Morehouse College. You may think of Montgomery, Ala., where he got his first pastor job and led the bus boycott. But who would ever think of Simsbury, Conn.?
"It seemed like it wasn't possible that he would come to, of all places, this town," said Richard Curtiss.
Curtiss is a history teacher at Simsbury High School. Last summer he worked with a group of students who took it upon themselves to investigate this mystery.
The legend was that young Martin Luther King Jr. spent several months working in the tobacco fields. He would have been part of a group of Morehouse students who used to spend their summers in this Connecticut valley to earn money for school.
That part was common knowledge. But King?
"There is proof that he was here," said John Conard-Malley.
"I think it's one of the most amazing pieces of our town's history," Nicole Beyer added.
Conard-Malley and Beyer led the research project, which included going through books and old articles, and gathering oral history from people like 105-year-old Bernice Martin who says King went to her church in Simsbury.
"He had a good voice," Martin said. "He sang in the choir."
They put their findings in a video. It tells the story of King's two summers in Simsbury - at the age of 15 and again at 18 - when he lived here in the dorms provided by the tobacco company.
But this is much more than just a "Washington slept here" kind of story. In a video the kids present a compelling case that these dorms not only housed him but may have also shaped him.
Conard-Malley said King was "elected the religious leader of the Morehouse students."
That leadership role had a profound effect. On his seminary application, King said that's when he decided he wanted to be a minister. But what seems to have affected him even more was Simsbury itself.
In letters written home King said, "Negros and whites go to the same church." About restaurants he wrote, "I never thought that a person of my race could eat anywhere." Most telling, he wrote about going home, "It was a bitter feeling going back to segregation. It was hard to understand why I could ride wherever I pleased on the train from New York to Washington and then had to change to a Jim Crow car at the nation's capital."
"When he came to the north I think he finally realized that hey, there is a place where, you know, they could sit anywhere they wanted in church," Beyer said.
"This is the way it's supposed to be," Conrad-Malley added.
King had a vision for what American could be. Although in the end he spoke of seeing it from a mountaintop, we now know his first glimpse was actually from a valley.
Yeah I agree that was an interesting part, and that gave me hope in thinking people ARE actually good at heart. Most of us don't really intend it but we choose to commit our actions because of the influence or peer pressure. Who knows some of the white people in such a brutal town actually wanted to rebel?
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