Monday, January 19, 2015

Martin Luther King Day


Today is Martin Luther King day and in honor of the work of Dr. King, I am re-posting a book I reviewed here in 2006.  On my Facebook page, I decided that since everyone else was posting well-known quotes by King, I'd post something less serious and not as well-known.  King and others were in the planning stages of the Birmingham campaign and knew he was going to be arrested.  It was late at night and King, looking at Abernathy, said, "Let me be sure to get arrested with people who don't snore."  Then the two of them went at each other, with Abernathy denying he snored and King saying that his snoring was worse than any torture invented.  (Branch, page 706)

What does Martin Luther King and his movement mean to you?  
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Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988)

This book is an enormous undertaking, for both the author and the reader. The author provides the reader a biography of the Reverend Martin Luther King’s work through 1963, a view into the early years of the Civil Rights movement, as well as showing how the movement was affected by national and international events. This is the first of three massive volumes by Taylor Branch that spans the years of King’s ministry, from his ordination in 1954 to his death in 1968. This volume also provides some detail about King’s family history and his earlier life through graduate school at Boston University. I decided to read this book after hearing Branch speak in Birmingham AL in June. It’s like reading a Russian novel with a multitude of characters and over 900 pages of text. However, it was worth the effort as I got an inside look as to what was going on in the world during the first six years of my life.

Branch does not bestow sainthood nor does he throw stones. The greatness of Martin Luther King comes through as well as his shortcomings. He demonstrates King’s brilliance in the Montgomery Bus Campaign as well as in Birmingham. He also shows the times King struggled: his battles within his denomination, the National Baptist; King’s struggles with the NAACP; as well as his infidelities. The FBI also had mixed review. Agents are credited in standing up to Southern law enforcement officers, insisting that the rights of African Americans be protected. They often warned Civil Rights leaders of threats and dangers they faced. However, once King refused to heed the FBI’s warnings that two of his associates were communists, the agency at Hoover’s insistence, set out to break King. Hoover is shown as inflexible, a man who reprimanded an agent for suggesting that King’s associates are not communists. The Kennedy’s (John and Robert) also have mixed reviews. John Kennedy’s Civil Right’s Speech (and on the night that Medgar Evers would be killed in Mississippi) is brilliant. Kennedy drew upon Biblical themes, labeling Civil Rights struggle a moral issue “as old as the Scriptures.” Yet the Kennedy brothers appear to base most of their decisions based on political reasons and not moral ones. This allows King to sometimes push Kennedy at his weakness, hinting that he has or can get the support of Nelson Rockefeller (a Republican). Although we think today of the Democrat Party being the party of African Americans, this wasn’t necessarily the case in the 50s and early 60s. Many black leaders, especially within the National Baptist Convention leadership, identified themselves as Republicans, with Lincoln’s party.

Another interesting aspect in this book is the role many of the black entertainers played in the movement. King was regularly in contact with Harry Belafonte, but also gains connections to Sammy Davis Jr., Lena Horne, Jackie Robinson, James Baldwin and others. The author also goes to great lengths to put the Civil Rights movement into context based on the Cold War politics. Both Eisenhower and Kennedy found themselves in embarrassing positions as they spoke out for democracy overseas while blacks within the United States were being denied rights.

The book ends in 1963, a watershed year for Civil Rights. King leads the massive and peaceful March on Washington. Medgar Evans and John Kennedy are both assassinated. And before the year is out, King has an hour long chat with the President, Lyndon Johnson, a Southerner, who would see to it that the Voting Rights Acts become law. 

As a white boy from the South, this book was eye opening. I found myself laughing that the same people who today bemoan the lack of prayer in the public sphere were arresting blacks for praying on the courthouse steps. The treatment of peaceful protesters was often horrible. There were obvious constitutional violations such as Wallace and the Alabama legislature raising the minimum bail for minor crimes in Birmingham 10 fold (to $2500) as a way to punish those marching for Civil Rights. I was also pleasantly surprised at behind the scenes connections between King and Billy Graham. Graham’s staff even provided logistical suggestions for King. King’s commitment to non-violence and his dependence upon the methods of Gandhi are evident. Finally, I found myself wondering if the segregationists like Bull O’Conner of Birmingham shouldn’t be partly responsible for the rise in crime among African American youth. They relished throwing those fighting for basic rights into jail, breaking a fear and taboo of jail. The taboo of being in jail has long kept youth from getting into trouble and was something the movement had to overcome to get mass arrest in order to challenge the system. In doing so, jail no longer was an experience to be ashamed off and with Pandora’s Box open, jail was no longer a determent to other criminal behavior. 

I recommend this book if you have a commitment to digging deep into the Civil Rights movement. Branch is a wonderful researcher and his use of FBI tapes and other sources give us a behind the scene look at both what was happening within the Civil Rights movement as well as at the White House. However, there are so many details. For those wanting just an overview of the Civil Right’s movement, this book may be a bit much. As for me, I’m looking forward to digging into the other two books of this trilogy: A Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65 and At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68.

26 comments:

  1. It means the removal of apartheid regimes in South Africa, Rhodesia and Northern Ireland.
    But how exactly to describe Kings roll fully in any of those places in a few words is impossible. If I put it like this.
    We'd eventually get out act in gear but King brought it fifteen years on.

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    1. I think you are right--I'm not sure how many Americans know this but King was an international figure and he also inspired others

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    2. I would suggest that the effects from both JFK and MLK are greater and permanent outside of the USA. The message had the local politics distilled out by distance.

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  2. i will check into this one as well...i would like to see selma...i have read several good reviews on it...the further we get from those events the harder it is for people to understand...i teach in the sticks and had a kid (redneck) ask why we had a day for MLK and not JFK...which became an interesting conversation...

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  3. Excellent review, Sage. I remember King. It must have been 1967 --I rounded up a few friends and we cut high school that day. Drove my Chevy to the levy where Sac. State College was and joined the audience on the practice field. Dr. King addressed us and stayed to talk and shake hands. That's how I remember him, not as a statue or old archival photo, but as a man --a peacemaker whose influence would never end.

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    1. I remember when he was shot--and I think i've blogged about it--but I was in elementary school at the time

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  4. Today is also Janis Joplin's birthday ... just sayin' ... Love, cat.

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    1. "Oh Lord, won't you buy me..." but I haven't ready any Joplin bios

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  5. I live in Nashville, so I know exactly what you mean. In my 20s, I had people in my life (through marriage) who were closed-minded and judgmental about anyone who wasn't like them. They were the type who whispered things. "The (whispered) Mexicans..." That sort of thing. Now that I'm older, I look back on those people and realize in actuality their lives are very sad. They surround themselves with people just like them and judge anyone who isn't. They never leave Nashville... I'd just rather meet a large cross section of people and being closed-minded doesn't let you do that.

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    1. I used to think we Southerners all had such friends, but having lived in other parts of the country, I have found the same there--often even worse racism

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    2. Yeah, I don't think it's a Southern thing. Ignorance is everywhere...luckily it seems to be getting better with each generation!

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  6. I really want to see Selma, as I am hearing great things about it. I need to check out this book as well.

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    1. Maybe I can see Selma soon and write a review of it...

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  7. I'm reading Uncle Tom's Children for this time of year. Doesn't hurt anyone to remember and recall what times were like

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    1. I've not read it--years (decades?) ago I read "Black Boy" by Richard Wright. I hope you review "Uncle Tom's Children"

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  8. Martin Luther King day seems to be a really big thing in Georgia (Atlanta). I saw billboards plastered with Martin Luther King quotes and pictures while I was out and about, yesterday.

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    1. One of these days, when I am in the Atlanta area, I am going to go to church at Ebeneezer Baptist!

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  9. I don't recall ever hearing of this book before- but it does sound insightful. I like that the author presents facts (good and bad) and lets the reader draw conclusions.

    Love the snoring quote.

    Thanks for sharing-
    Jess

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, Jess. I'll check out your blog.

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  10. This book sounds like a great book to read right now, especially with what's been going on.

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  11. I really like your take on the holiday - it's hard to know how to celebrate it without doing the same thing, every year. This is a good one. I'm always looking for good books, and this is one I hadn't heard of - and absolutely appropriate given what's going on around us.

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  12. This looks like an amazing read. When I'm ready for more non-fiction--since I'm in fiction mode--this looks like a great choice. I've read books about other civil rights leaders, but not one on MLK.

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  13. He was an inspiration definitely.

    Greetings from London.

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  14. I had to say that as a small child in MN during the 60s, the Civil Rights Movement was not much more than a Social Studies class to me, and that well into the 70s.

    That said, I found your comments re: the demystification of jail very interesting. I hadn't thought of it in that way before, and I think you may have something there.

    Pearl

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  15. Martin luther king is more real than never and an inspiration!! I was little when he died but I know well how important he was!
    The book sounds amazing!

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