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Murphy Martin Commentary
January 18, 2007
"Free at Last!"
The 1960s in America was
a period seared by disquieting civil rights struggles which scorched
many cities with unrest and contributed to the biggest continuing
story of what would become one of this nation's most trying decades.
As a roving correspondent for ABC-TV at the time I was constantly
confronted by ever-changing developments that were totally new, even
for someone whose roots were in the Deep South.
As I mentioned in my book "Front Row Seat", a number of civil rights
leaders emerged during the early to mid-60s--none more universally
accepted than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- the man who had a
dream, and who dedicated himself to fulfilling that dream. His voice
rose above the cacophony of voices as he called for a "just and
peaceful world" and preached non-violent action against individuals
and institutions who stood in the way of his dream.
Dr. King would have been
78-years old this week had he not been silenced by an assassin,
James Earl Ray, in Memphis on April 4, 1968.
We spent a lot of time
during 1964 and 1965 covering events involving Dr. King. Civil
rights stories that rocked the nation: The Selma-to-Montgomery
march; The integration of public schools in Alabama, Mississippi and
other southern states; the integration of previously all-white
beaches in St. Augustine, Florida; riots in Newark, Harlem and
Birmingham; Dr. King's March on Boston; and the funeral of Malcolm X
in New York City and Dr. King arrests in Selma and Birmingham. It
was during his stay in the Birmingham jail that Dr. King wrote: "The
Negro's great stumbling block is not the White Citizen's Councilor
or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted
to "order" than to justice....who paternalistically believes he can
set the timetable for another man's freedom." In Detroit in June
1963 Dr. King said:" If a man hasn't discovered something he will
die for, he isn't fit to live." And when he accepted his Nobel Peace
Prize in 1964 Dr. King said: "The torturous road which has led from
Montgomery to Oslo is a road over which millions of Negroes are
traveling to find a new sense of dignity. It will, I am convinced,
be widened into a superhighway of justice."
On March 25, 1965 the
Selma-to-Montgomery Civil Rights March was scheduled to reach the
capitol in Montgomery about mid-afternoon. I was scheduled to anchor
"live" coverage of the event on the ABC Television network. The
marchers, some 35,000, had camped out at Jude's Field on the
outskirts of the Alabama capitol city. An evening of rousing
entertainment was provided by some of America's best known
performers including: Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter, Paul
and Mary, Alan King, James Baldwin, Shelley Winters, Nipsey Russell,
Ossie Davis, George Kirby, Billy Eckstine, Mike Nichols and Elaine
May, Pete Seeger, Tony Perkins and Tony Bennett.
The next day as the
estimated 50-thousand marchers approached the Capitol, they found it
surrounded by Alabama State troopers standing about ten-feet apart
surrounding the entire Capitol, Billy-clubs at the ready.
From our vantage point
slightly above stage-level and between the stage and the capitol, we
heard a
number of well-known black-leaders: Andrew Young, Dr. Ralph Bunche,
Dr. A. Phillip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young were among those
that led to the man of the hour! When the crown jewel of the
movement Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began to speak, he slowly and
methodically moved the thousands glued to his every word to a
fevered pitch. You could almost feel the tension building up with
each carefully chosen phrase. The crowd shouted its "Amens" during
the message he preached. I sensed a potential for violence was
there, all that was needed was an invitation. I am convinced to this
day that had Dr. King
been of the H. Rap Brown or Stokely Carmichael vein, when he had
them at a fevered pitch all Dr. King would have had to do would have
been turn toward the capitol and say "take it" and the battle would
have been on.
Instead, just as
intently as he had built up to that crescendo, Dr. King used soft
and deliberate tones to bring the crowd down from its high emotional
state. As the throng hushed and leaned forward to hear every word,
Martin Luther King, Jr. challenged them to reach for new heights,
but reach through non-violent means. He urged them to move forward
using CONstructive and not DEstructive measures. Again Dr. King at
his best
On April 3 1968, Less than 24-hours before Dr. King was gunned down
on the balcony outside his Memphis Motel room, he told striking
sanitation workers in Memphis: "Like anybody I would like to live a
long life. Longevity has its place. But, I am not concerned about
that now. I just want to do God's will."
America lost one of it's great leaders with his death but his legacy
lives on. And as he said in that powerful speech to conclude his
March on Washington: "Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty
we are free at last!"
And Dr. King is probably smiling even more on this birthday. After
40-years Coretta has joined him. They truly are "free at last."
Murphy Martin
Your thoughts and comments forwarded to my website will be
appreciated.
e-mail
murphy@murphymartin.com
Previous commentaries:
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"America at Her
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"Holiday
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"Christmas 2006"
"Is the Fat Lady
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"Voices from
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"Last Minute
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August 18 - "Network News Anchors"
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August 4 - "Trust in the Media"
July 28 - "Television Then and Now"
July 21 - "The Mick"
July 14 - "Forty Years and Counting"
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