Today we celebrate the federal holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr., (MLK). It is significant that this is a named holiday for a particular person. Even our two greatest Presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, both born in February, are not honored in this way. Having this greatest of thanks a nation can give, what is it about Martin Luther King, Jr. that we hope will inspire the citizens of our nation?
We would want to be inspired by his upbringing and his family story. MLK came from an upper-middle-class American family with wonderful parents and a happy childhood. His parents taught him discipline, manners, and faith. They were congenial and loving. They read and studied the Bible together as a family. He was taught to respect himself as well as others.
MLK’s maternal grandfather was born in 1861 to “preaching” slaves Willis and Lucretia Williams but rose to become one of the best-known pastors of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and an effective civil rights activist. A natural preacher even as a child, he was trained by other ministers, got a license to preach, and was called to the small church as pastor. With Jennie Parks, his pious and loving wife, A. D. Williams increased the congregation and the prestige of the church. They had one child, Alberta, the future mother of Martin Luther King, Jr. MLK was especially fond of his grandmother who came to live with them when his grandfather died.
King’s paternal grandparents, Delia and John King, were sharecroppers. They worked very hard for very little. One of their nine children was Martin Luther King (originally Michael) who found his way to Atlanta, courted Alberta for many years, finally married her in 1926, and became pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church when A. D. Williams died in 1931. These grandparents were gone too soon to have a major impact on his life, but MLK’s parents were happily married and his Mother “the best in the world.”
We know, then, something of MLK’s upbringing and something of his larger story. We have his insightful speeches and words as reflective of his commitment to end legal segregation in the South and de facto segregation in the North. Systemic racism in America was legally ended with legislation he pushed for and championed. Militant non-violence was his technique to arouse the conscience of those who would oppress black Americans. It would be “immoral to make violence a method toward integration”, he said, and he opposed it both as ineffective and morally wrong.
We do not yet know the whole story of MLK’s life. He was extensively investigated by the FBI and other agencies of the federal government, but those documents have been sealed from public inspection. Until they are revealed and their authenticity verified, we will not know whether we honor the man as an important symbol of the struggle for racial justice or we honor the man as a literal embodiment of the effort to bring to life Equal Protection of the Law for black Americans.
With his wonderful background of family love, hard work, advanced education, and Christian discipline it is hard to imagine that MLK would disappoint the memory of his grandmother, shame his Mother, disappoint his Father, or in any way dishonor his family legacy. That legacy and his ability to reach the conscience of the nation is why he is honored with a national holiday.
A person the nation can unequivocally admire and emulate is Marian Anderson, the unparalleled American vocal treasure from Philadelphia. Her upbringing and her family story are equally inspiring.
All four of her grandparents were born into slavery. Her father John was accidentally killed at work when she was twelve so her Mother had to manage three children with almost no money. Marian taught herself to play the piano and violin and went as far as she could with her singing until her race prevented her from opportunities she would certainly have today. People of both races and her Church stepped forward to help her and she went on to a career in music unmatched by any in memory. She has received the highest awards of appreciation our nation can give. Her faith sustained her.
Marian Anderson chose another path to awaken white America to the plight of her people and to remind them that the Preamble of our federal Constitution has, as one of its highest goals, to “establish justice.” She inspired by her behavior, not her words, and represented the best of America all over the world as a special representative of the United Nations. Hers is a voice that comes along every few hundred years. One cannot hear it without being touched at the most elemental spiritual and moral level.
What would MLK and Marian Anderson think of some of the justice warriors today and the behavior they deem “rightful”? What would Martin Luther King, Jr., say, and what would Marian Anderson sing?
The story ends tragically for the King family. Not only was MLK assassinated, but his beloved mother, Alberta, was also assassinated a few years later by a young black man who entered her church and shot her as she played the organ. Marian Anderson lived to almost one-hundred, happily married at age forty to an architect, raising horses and growing vegetables on her farm in Danbury, Ct.
We honor one with a national holiday and park in Washington, DC and we honor the other with but a few memories on discs – but these are two to remember forever as influential Americans with lasting lessons for us.
