Reflect Your Own Personal StyleWhatever your inspiration, the experienced design professionals in aWood-Mode showroom can help you create the exact look you’vealways wanted for your home.

©2008 Wood-Mode, Inc.

Southampton by Wood-Mode.

For your nearest Wood-Mode dealer, call

Wall & Walsh, Inc.8320 West Chester Pike • Upper Darby, PA 19082 • 610-789-8530

For your home. For your life.For our environment.

Wall & Walsh QX:Layout 1 3/3/08 11:10 AM Page 1

at thePHILADELPHIA THEATRE COMPANY

REMEMBERING DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. CARRIE CHAPTER PTC DRAMATURG

A few months ago in Washington D.C., the Interior Department announced the removal of the inscription on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, which was unveiled in 2011. Its erasure marked the end of an ongoing controversy. The inscription, “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness,” was grossly paraphrased in a condescending tone according to Dr. King’s friends like poet Maya Angelou, who recalled King’s actual quotation from a 1968 sermon as “Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.”

This misstep serves as only a recent example how Martin Luther King, Jr. is remembered, or rather, misremembered, for his service to our country and to our national identity. With time the man and the myth have merged, creating a divine leader indistinguishable from his mortal trials. After thirty arrests and over twelve years of selfless activism, how do you best honor the complex memory of one man?“I would even go by the way that the man for whom I’m named had his habitat, and I would watch Martin Luther as he tacks his ninety-five theses on the door at the church of Wittenberg. But I wouldn’t stop there.” - MLK, Jr.

BOYHOOD & SCHOOLINGThe second child born to Pastor Michael King and his wife, Alberta, Dr. King came into the world on January 15, 1929 as Michael King, Jr. Following a trip to the World Baptist Alliance in Berlin, though, Pastor King, Sr. changed his name and the name of his son to Martin Luther King, in honor of the German Protestant reformer, Martin Luther. Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA stood as the trunk to the King family tree: In addition to being his grandfather and his father’s church, his parents were married there, and Dr. King

The Man and The Myth

The Man and The Myth

himself would go on to preach there as well. Community engagement and church doctrine ran in the King family bloodline. Both his father and grandfather were key organizers in the NAACP Atlanta branch as well as being model leaders of the African American social gospel tradition. Growing up, though, Dr. King struggled with some tenets of the Baptist Church, and through his interest in public welfare and politics, imagined a career in law or medicine. In his schooling, he was picked out as a prodigy, accelerating past the second half of high school, and graduating from Morehouse College when he was 19 years old. By this point he found a mentor in Dr. Benjamin Mays, and pursued a life in the ministry at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, PA until 1951. He would later cite both his mother and father along with Dr. Mays as his earliest influences. “Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty and say, “If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the twentieth century, I will be happy.” - MLK, Jr.

HUSBAND & FATHERWhile at Boston University studying for his doctoral degree, Dr. King met Coretta Scott, a Music major. After about a year of dating, they married at Coretta’s family home in Marion, AL in 1953. In addition to being a loyal wife and mother to four children, Scott King traveled with her husband and participated in several campaigns, marches, and lectures throughout the time of the Civil Rights Movement. All of the King children were born and raised in a context inseparable from their father’s reform efforts. Their eldest, Yolanda, was born in November 1955, not long before the start of the Montgomery

Bus Boycott. She was also in the house with Coretta when the King family home was bombed in January 1956. Her father would feature his daughter’s sadness/confusion at racial discrimination in his letter from Birmingham jail. His first son, Martin Luther King, III, became so influenced by his father’s ideas he became the president of Dr. King’s own Southern Christian Leadership Conference from 1997 to 2003, emphasizing gun buy-back programs. Dexter Scott King, their third child, accompanied his father on speaking tours at an early age, and later stated in 1997 that after meeting with James Earl Ray in prison, he did not believe Ray murdered his father. The youngest child, Bernice, followed in her father’s footsteps by entering the ministry at age seventeen. She is said to be the most like Dr. King not only in her pursuits, but in her overall bearing and mannerisms.

A MAN OF GOD BECOMES A LEADER OF MENIt was at Crozer Seminary, while listening to a sermon on Gandhi’s teachings at the Fellowship House of Philadelphia, that Dr. King was first inspired by the philosophy of nonviolent resistance. King would later travel to India in 1959 with Coretta, which proved to be a transcendent experience for his ministry. However, even with the influence of Gandhi, Dr. King never strived to become a political pioneer or leader. His roles as a pastor, teacher, and father remained the crucial parts of his life plan. His rise as an activist began locally, when African American leaders selected Dr. King to represent the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a grueling but effective campaign that would last for 385 days.After the success of the boycott, Dr. King established the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, which would rally support from black

churches in the South to organize local protest and reform campaigns in an effort to change segregation laws, fight discrimination, and promote equality. In its rejection of rampant injustice, the SCLC proclaimed the “Negro problem” was not only a social problem, but also a “spiritual” one. With the cooperation of other advocacy groups, one of Dr. King’s first crusades was a call for fairness in voter registration, which spawned multiple demonstrations from 1957 through the early 1960s. By 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom would find a principal speaker in Dr. King, who roused the over 200,000 – strong crowd with his famous (yet somewhat improvisational) “I Have a Dream” speech. Both of those efforts influenced President Johnson in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1964, he would be the youngest man to ever receive Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 35.However, with every march, every sit-in, every speech, Dr. King encountered constant threats. Aside from the numerous death threats, the bombing of his home, and physically assaulted, Dr. King almost died when a mentally ill woman stabbed him at a 1958 book signing. The wound was positioned so closely to his aorta that if, as Dr. King recounted in 1968, he even sneezed, it would have ended his life. He grew increasingly aware of what he symbolized to those who feared any change to American society. Portentously, following the March on Washington, he remarked to his SCLC colleagues how any mistake he would make – no matter how small – would be a big mistake, because he belonged to history now.

“For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.” - MLK, Jr. THE LAST YEARS: POVERTY AND VIETNAM By 1966, Dr. King’s focus expanded - or according to some critics, shifted - to economic inequality and anti-Vietnam protests. In 1967, he announced at a SCLC staff retreat his wish to implement the Poor People’s Campaign, which would put racial inequality into a larger social context by addressing the problem from an economic plane. In his mind, it would create an even greater impact than the 1963 march. Another mission, Operation Breadbasket, an idea inspired by a program from Philadelphian Leon Sullivan, worked as a companion project to the Poor People’s Campaign, in which King and Rev. Jesse Jackson would look at business discrimination in impoverished neighborhoods. Though King had advocated peace and nonviolence when asked about Vietnam before in 1965, he vehemently denounced the war in a speech made in 1967 at Riverside Church, strengthening his anti-war stance – much to the chagrin of his former supporter, President Johnson. With regard to African American rights, the SCLC and Dr. King wanted to broaden their agenda beyond the South, to reach communities in Chicago and Los Angeles. The Chicago Freedom Movement, which was set into motion by 1966, failed to capture the same thrall and cooperation seen in the South. Many in the city’s neighborhoods had become disenchanted with King’s nonviolent resistance as a means of change, opting instead for the militant draw of men like Stokely Carmichael and the Black Power Movement.

THE MISSION IN MEMPHISIn 1968, Dr. King interrupted his plans for the Poor People’s Campaign to answer a call for help in Memphis, TN. In February of that year, two sanitation workers were crushed to death by a garbage truck. The city government’s neglect of the accident highlighted a larger, intrinsic problem in the treatment of African American workers. The men of the Memphis Department of Public Works went on strike, seeking recognition of their union, in addition to improvements in safety regulations and fair wages. The strike, a nonviolent demonstration, was met with police brutality and retaliation. Dr. King and the SCLC saw the injustice as a perfect illustration of what they would attempt to face nationally in the Poor People’s Campaign. Dr. King spoke to an indoor rally of 25,000 people on behalf of the striking workers in March, to encourage a halting of all sanitation work to be followed by a protest he himself would lead. He left the next day, vowing to return, but snowy weather forced him to reschedule his next Memphis visit. When Dr. King arrived to lead the march, the result was mass chaos, as the planned demonstration turned violent and prompted intervention by the National Guard. Once he went home to Atlanta, King condemned the violent outbreak, but decided to return to Memphis to complete the mission. The workers had carried on another march with signage that read, “I Am a Man.” On April 3rd, though he was battling a fever and sore throat, Dr. King braved the crowd of sanitation workers and gave his “I’ve Seen the Promised Land” speech, which rang out as his final testimony.“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life–longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will.” - MLK, Jr.

THE ASSASSINATION On the evening of April 4th, Dr. King stood on the balcony of the black-owned Lorraine Motel with Ralph Abernathy and other SCLC colleagues, awaiting a car that would take them to dinner at Rev. Billy Kyles’s house. While in mid-conversation, Dr. King was fatally shot by an assassin’s rifle positioned at the nearby South Main Street roominghouse. The investigation led the FBI to a 40-year-old escaped convict named James Earl Ray, who confessed and was sentenced to 99 years in jail. Robert Kennedy, an ardent King supporter, heard the news while on the campaign trail for the presidency, and announced it to the predominantly African American rally who responded with cries of horror. He would be assassinated two months later. As the nation learned of King’s death, riots and fires broke out in over 100 cities across the United States, causing more than 40 deaths and widespread property damage. Meanwhile, the King family carried out funeral services the next day in Atlanta at Ebenezer Baptist Church; King’s own mentor, Dr. Benjamin Mays, eulogized the fallen leader in front of throngs of political and civil rights figures. His coffin, beset by 100,000 mourners, was pulled through the Atlanta streets, before moving to another ceremony held at Morehouse College. He now rests next to Ebenezer Church, in a tomb located at the King Center.Soon after his confession, though, James Earl Ray recanted, which led to conspiracy theories surrounding King’s death. One insists Ray had co-conspirators, and another proposes a FBI vendetta to eliminate Dr. King. J. Edgar Hoover infamously despised King and his politics, accusing him of Communist sympathies and wire-tapping him after

the March on Washington. Even though the assassination case was re-opened, there was no evidence found of any other criminal involvement. In 1998, James Earl Ray died in prison.Determined to complete her late husband’s work, Coretta Scott King led a silent march of 42,000 people in Memphis just four days after the assassination, pushing union reform for the sanitation workers. On April 16, a deal was made. Ralph Abernathy succeeded King as the SCLC president, but the movement never fully regained its strength in the years to follow.

A LEGACY IS BORNStill, those left behind worked to honor and keep Dr. King’s memory alive in the minds of the American people. In 1979, Coretta Scott King advocated the passing of a bill to make King’s birthday a national holiday, a campaign which was met with much resistance from the House because they felt it would be too expensive. President Ronald Reagan finally signed the legislation in 1983, and it was first officially celebrated in 1986. Yet, not all fifty states observed the holiday. Surprisingly, it took 17 years until every state celebrated Dr. King’s birthday, a day also honored in Toronto, Canada, and Hiroshima, Japan.Dr. King’s birthday marks just one annual reminder. His name also graces nearly 700 streets, and countless public institutions, buildings, and schools. His widow established The Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., now called the King Center, in 1968 in Atlanta next to Ebenezer Baptist Church. In addition to being King’s burial site, its programming focuses on community service using the ideology of nonviolence. In 1985, the King Papers Project created an accessible archive of King’s writings, histories, and other

teaching materials. The Lorraine Motel is now the National Civil Rights Museum, and the National Parks Service created the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Committee, the organization responsible for his somewhat maligned “Drum Major” Memorial in D.C. Hauntingly, Dr. King delivered his “Drum Major Instinct” sermon on February 4, 1968 – exactly two months before his death. In the speech, King referenced how he would like to remembered at his funeral. He wished to be a man who ‘‘tried to give his life serving others,” without lingering on what he achieved. But, in a country that loves its heroes for their stories, History has defined him principally in terms of his iconic landmark events. In a way, King is the closest America has come to a canonization of a public figure. His sacrifices as a leader, devoting his life to total service and shifting the winds of change, merits a position of martyrdom. But, we often overlook the mortal load he bore as a man doing his best: having the heart of a 60-year-old when he died at the age of 39, encountering blackmail for extramarital affairs, struggling against the disgruntled FBI, being booed by a African American crowd towards the end of his campaign in the North and missing the formative years of his children. Still, our forgetfulness serves a purpose. The way in which we recall his life keep his dreams alive for each new generation. His legacy remains incomplete, but the road to the Promised Land is well trod by those who continue to believe. Information courtesy of the King Papers Project and the Associated Press. Quotations excerpted from King’s “I’ve Seen the Promised Land” speech on April 3, 1968.

Photo: Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. [Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Mathew Ahmann, Executive Director of the National Catholic Conference for Interrracial Justice, in a crowd. August 28, 1963.