DUKES
FANS:
It is January and once again we will observe Martin Luther King Day. It is
called a “Day Of Service” rather than a holiday because we do things in the
real world that show that we honor not just the memory of the man but the
meaning of the man’s life as well. We have playground and neighborhood
cleanups, raise money for good causes, feed homeless people, attend religious
services or conferences on social justice, have petition signing days, voting
registration days, and more. And we have, of course, countless
recitations of the “I Have A Dream Speech in school assemblies, prayer
services, on the news and everywhere. I have heard that speech for 56 years,
and it is always thrilling and moving; I weep a little every time I hear it.
But I do wish we would teach more and recognize more than that about King and
about the Civil Rights Movement. That we more publicly acknowledged that
long before that moment in Washington, there was a young, unsure of himself
Martin Luther King in Montgomery, AL, several important mentors who helped and
encouraged him, and the willing actions of hundreds of ordinary people
consistently doing things in the face of violence and personal sacrifice that
led up to that stirring Washington speech and made it possible. To that end I
plan to re-watch the film, Selma, in a few days. It is, to me, a
very important film, not only about King but also about how movements grow and
come to matter.
One of the
reasons I love this film is because it showed both King and the movement more
fully than either are regularly shown in our classrooms and in the media. In Selma,
King is shown more as a real person, with foibles, fears, occasional confusion,
and at times, bad actions and decisions. He wasn’t a perfect icon; he was a
man, a human. And he did many “human” things, The film also showed the ways
some people disagreed with and challenged him, and how there were times when
his strategies did not work. Most importantly, the film showed the people
who were the infrastructure of the movement. The people whose faith and actions
allowed him to accomplish so many of the things he did. He was a great man,
yes, but he BECAME a great man. And it took the faith, actions, courage of
others to make that growth possible. It was not him just by himself.
Take the 1955
Montgomery Bus Boycott. People know Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of
the bus and was arrested on Thursday, December 1, 1955. But most people do not
know that she had worked with the NAACP for years, was not the first black woman
arrested for sitting in the front of a bus, and that she set out to get
arrested. Most people also do not know that it was labor leader E.D. Nixon who
tricked King into hosting the first boycott planning meeting because King was
new in town and the white powers of Montgomery did not know him and had no
plans on how to deal with him. And the very first boycott meeting happened not
because of King, but because of Jo Ann Robinson, a long-time member of the
Montgomery Women’s Council who had been advocating for years to change the
Montgomery bus system. She and her family hand mimeographed-not XEROXED or
photo copied-hand mimeographed some 52,000 fliers Thursday night
after Ms. Park’s arrest that were placed in churches, given to high school
students, and placed in barber shops and other places on Friday, December 2,
calling people to that first meeting on that same Friday evening. That
initiated a one-day boycott of the bus system on Monday, December 5, and it was
that walkout that led to the full- blown year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott that
we think of today. Those established black political leaders tricked, guided,
and put Martin in a position of leadership in Montgomery that led both to the
March to Selma and the March on Washington for Jobs and Justice that featured
the “I Have A Dream” Speech. They helped make that moment and so many
others possible.
Selma also
focused on some of these other Civil Rights figures, who though
little-remembered today, were vital to the movement and to King’s rise as a
leader. Rev Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, and John Lewis were all shown in
ways that made clear their importance in what came to be known as, “The
Movement.” They helped, advised, and sometimes criticized King as he was
moving into his leadership position. Yes, the Reverend Dr. King was a
phenomenal and charismatic speaker, had wonderful ideas, and said many wise and
inspiring things. But without the help, advice and actions of so many others in
the early days of the boycott, he would never have emerged as a leader.
The film also
makes it abundantly clear that without the hundreds of maids, cooks, shoeshine
boys, chauffeurs, mechanics, students, teachers, volunteers and others who
marched in the streets for years and were willing to be beaten and arrested,
the Civil Rights Movement and King’s emergence as a force for change would not
have been possible. It was this collection of “ordinary people” that sustained
the boycotts and demonstrations and helped bring forth change. Without them
nothing would have changed. They were the bricks and mortar-the infrastructure-
that held the movement together.
We are not all
great thinkers, orators, or planners. Most of us are “ordinary.” But being
“ordinary” doesn’t mean we have to be regulated to the sidelines. We all can be
part of the change we want to see in the world. We can all be, in some small,
consistent way a part of making change happen. We can be part of the
infrastructure. That is what has made changes happen in the world in the past,
and it will continue to do so in the future. That is one of the very important
legacies of Dr. King’s story and of the lives of the people shown and portrayed
in Selma. All of us have roles to play if we are willing. Each of
us, even in small seemingly inconsequential ways, can make a difference. Selma
shows that. And knowing and believing that gives me hope, even in these
troubled times.
(Here are links to
biography pages of some important people connected with Reverend King and/or
mentioned in Selma
Here
is a link to the Philadelphia area’s MLK Day of Service activities:
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