By Chad Dion Lassiter, MSW
This month marks 55 years since 39-year-old Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Resort as he labored for justice for putting sanitation employees in Memphis, TN.
This implies a number of generations have solely the reminiscence of King and by no means skilled the flesh and blood civil rights icon grapple with the brutal issues attributable to our nation’s racial and financial injustices.
I delight that now we have not let Martin Luther King’s Jr. life fade into obscurity, however I consider the eulogy made at his funeral might provide inspiration for us to rededicate ourselves to his explanation for nonviolent social justice motion.
Benjamin Mays, the previous president of Morehouse School, gave the eulogy. Mays was the particular person credited with offering the mental basis of the civil rights motion and he used the eulogy to remind us of the which means of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s loss of life. He additionally used it to name us to ethical and moral motion on behalf of the marginalized different – work that was too necessary to be buried together with Dr. King.
Greater than 100,000 mourners got here on April 9, 1968, to say their closing farewells. It was solely 5 days after James Earl Ray, who was nonetheless unknown and at massive, killed King. A homicide that Mays would inform the mourners “The American persons are partly liable for Martin Luther King Jr.’s loss of life. The murderer heard sufficient condemnation of King and of Negroes to really feel that he had public assist. He knew that tens of millions hated King.”
First, Mays took the
alternative of the eulogy to remind us what King stood for.
That violence was ethically and morally incorrect, that solely love, and forgiveness might break the vicious cycle of revenge, and that in due time nonviolence would show efficient within the abolition of injustice in politics, in economics, in schooling, and in race relations.
Then Mays reminded us of what King
went by to reside his beliefs.
“This man was liked by some and hated by others. If any man knew the which means of struggling, King knew. Home bombed; dwelling day-to-day for 13 years beneath fixed threats of loss of life; maliciously accused of being a Communist; falsely accused of being in-sincere and looking for the limelight for his personal glory; stabbed by a member of his personal race; slugged in a resort foyer; jailed 30 occasions; sometimes deeply harm as a result of buddies betrayed him.”
After which Mays gave the decision to motion reminding
us that passivity doesn’t convey imaginative and prescient ahead.
“(MLK) was satisfied additionally that folks couldn’t be moved to abolish voluntarily the inhumanity of man to man by mere persuasion and pleading, however that they could possibly be moved to take action by dramatizing the evil by huge nonviolent resistance.”
Benjamin
Mays, the person Dr. King known as his non secular father, used his eulogy as a
blueprint for the longer term. We should always
too. Every April 9th we must always
reread the eulogy and recommit to motion that serves others.
As Mays mentioned, “Martin Luther King Jr.’s unfinished work on earth should really be our personal.”
Disclaimer: The Nationwide Affiliation of Social Staff invitations members to share their experience and experiences by Member Voices. This weblog was ready by Chad Dion Lassiter in his private capability and doesn’t essentially mirror the view of the Nationwide Affiliation of Social Staff.
About The Writer
Chad Dion Lassiter is a nationally acknowledged skilled in race relations. He has labored on race, peace, and poverty-related points in the USA, Africa, Canada, Haiti, Israel, and Norway, and is regularly featured within the media offering commentary and options to racial points. Lassiter is presently govt director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Fee, the place he has legislatively delegated authority to research filed complaints alleging the prevalence of illegal discrimination within the areas of employment, housing and business property, schooling, and/or concerning public lodging.Edit
