In memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, I hope people won't mind my sharing the following little story of an incident in my childhood:

I was born in 1950, raised mostly in New York State in a middle class suburb, exclusively white. I didn't personally know any "colored" children.

When I was maybe 8 or 9, my Mother took me for a trip to South Carolina. Although I'd been growing up where blacks and whites were still very much separated by income and educational background, visiting South Carolina was my first exposure to a society where segregation was mandatory by law. I was amazed to see "whites only" water fountains and bathrooms in the parks. Just as amazing was the way the "whites only" facilities were always clean and new, and the "colored" facilities were made from the most shoddy looking pipes and building materials. The difference, even to a child, was really startling.

Thinking back on it now, it would seem there was a definite effort on the part of white leadership to not only segregate whites from blacks, but to humiliate blacks in a public way, even from their early childhood.

I asked my Mother about it of course, and she explained to me how, in the South, everything was separate, including all the businesses and schools. And she told me about "prejudice".

Despite that unhappy childhood awakening, my Mother and I had a wonderful time in South Carolina, until we were ready to go home. We went to the train station, and for some reason, my Mother wasn't able to get the tickets for the sleeper car that we'd been anticipating.

It was getting towards evening time, and I remember my mother and me sitting on our suitcases at the train platform. Then, to my surprise, my mother started crying. I'd never seen her cry before (or since, actually). So, I started crying too.

No one spoke to us or seemed to notice us until a black porter from the train approached us and asked my mother what was the matter. My mother told him of our situation, and to her great astonishment, he offered to give us his berth on the train overnight. My mother very gratefully accepted. I don't recall where the porter ended up sleeping, but it couldn't have been very comfortable, and it must have been between workshifts for him.

Well, needless to say, the trip to South Carolina made a tremendous impression on me, and I've never forgotten it.

So, in honor of Dr. King, and in honor of the higher nature of human beings everywhere, I'd just like to say "Thank you" to Mr. Black Porter, whoever and wherever you are.

Anyone else who has memories - good or bad - having to do with our country's unfortunate racist past and/or our country's struggle for racial equality, please note them here, or start a new thread if you like!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2008 10:25PM by suncloud.

Also, when did you first become aware of racial issues or prejudices? Do you recall the circumstances?

Happy MLK day to you too!

It's always worth listening to his "I have a dream" speech one more time [www.youtube.com]

And to read the famous letter he wrote while imprisoned in a Birmingham jail

My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.

I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here.

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the latter consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation.

.........................

While I don't particularly agree with the religious rhetoric, the main message of non-violence and the memorable and wise line Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. are surely enduring messages that should inspire us all today.

The rest here [www.africa.upenn.edu]

Cheers,
J

Thank you Jose!

What a wonderful letter! I'd never read it before. I went to the link you provided and read the whole thing.

There's some great history there!

I want to post here but have been way too busy. I am bumping it and I will be back. I love that Quote from Dr. King. I have had it on my fridge for about ten years.

hi suncloud

read your story
it was quite beautiful
made me feel still when i read it

jose

just saw martin luther king's " I Have A Dream" a couple of days ago on youtube

i felt silenced
in a deep way

fighting hate with love
fighting deplorable indignities with dignity
these things are DEFINETELY not for wimps

all respect to the peacemakers of the world

Hey suncloud, it is quite a lovely letter indeed. I thought your story was very sad in a way but also very warm. I must say that I have never experienced the situation you described, but can try to imagine how it would feel to be a witness of such a terrible injustice, let alone be on the receiving end. Let us all spread the message of peace and freedom the MLK did throughout his life.

Hey veronique, it still retains the ability to awe doesn't it? I believe he found one of the universal truths when he adopted non-violent civil disobedience as the force to change the world in a good way.

Hey pakd4fun, it's certainly a great quote, couldn't be better said.

Cheers,
J

Sorry I have taken so long to post on this thread. I have been thinking about it and can't seem to get my thoughts together.

I wanted to write something about the Civil Rights Movement because when we moved to rural Louisiana ten years ago it was a shock how blacks were still being treated. I had grown up in Houston and had attended Pasadena schools where the Ku Klux Klan was still big so I thought I was in the heart of it. I had no idea. When we first moved to Louisiana a man came to turn on our gas. He was friendly, chatting about where we were from. Then he said "You'll like it here. The Niggers stay on their side of town." We didn't know what to say. I had never heard talk like that before out in the light of day, in front of God and everybody. People here are openly prejudice. At first i thought I could make a difference but after about three years I felt hopeless. We went to a city council meeting and the black issues were completely disregarded. The police chief said they couldn't catch the drug dealers on the corner near this black families home, across the tracks in the black part of town, because every time the police drive up they run. They said they couldn't put railroad arms up, after an old black man was hit by a train in a place where all the blacks have to cross the tracks to come into town, because they couldn't get funding. After that meeting I was so discouraged. My daughter, who was about five, would hear me talk about the issue and even cry about it sometimes and would ask lots of questions. We studied black history from slavery through the Civil Rights Movement and until today. There is a side to bigotry that we don't think so much about. When I was in Houston and was around black people they were basically like me. Just like all other cultures they had their sayings and foods and such but basically like me. Here black people are different. It is hard for me to understand them when they talk. They don't look at me when I smile at them passing in the store. It is just weird. It isn't right. The Movement needs a boost in my opinion. This is not right. I know a lot has to do with the general ignorance of the people that live here. I guess it will just take time and patience and people to keep pushing to educate them.

When you don't live with it it is hard to realize the enormity of it. I didn't. After Katrina I thought about it a lot, how repression has affected minorities. They aren't flourishing in the south and all of society suffers from it. The solution is in all of us.

Thank you so much for your post Pakd4fun.

What better way to honor the dream of Martin Luther King than to pass it on to your children!