MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Like one of my living heroes, author John Piper, most of my heroes have been dead for more than 200 years. One reason is that the greater distance in time between my heroes and me seems to make admiration easier.
Piper said this could be one reason why some people stumble over Martin Luther King Day. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is too close, and his faults can still be seen at the distance of nearly 42 years.
King knew he was not perfect, especially when he was caught in some of his less than admirable behavior, as Stephen Oates touches on in his book “Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin Luther King Jr.” Yet, for all his flaws King is still one of my heroes of the 20th century.
He was a man committed to live for a great cause, not a great comfort, a cause to see mercy and justice prevail in a prejudiced and pain-filled world. King was a man who dreamed a dream bigger than himself, and his communication of that dream stirred up people to care about racial diversity and harmony. King is one of my heroes because he never ran from pursuing freedom and equality for all people but courageously stood like steel in the face of violent opposition to the point of death.
The third Monday in January is Martin Luther King Day, a day that recognizes King’s birthday in Atlanta, Ga., on Jan. 15, 1929, and celebrates his life and legacy. The existence of Martin Luther King Day is very significant in the United States. Arguably nobody in U.S. history was hated and loved by more people than King. His speeches, marches and countless nonviolent activities designed to overturn the social and legal injustices done to “black” people outraged many “white” people. Yet his heroic stature among people of all color is ever increasing.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of my admiration for King is his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
In Birmingham, Ala., on April 12, 1963, King led a peaceful demonstration against the racial injustices there. Segregation was deeply rooted in such things as bus seating, schools, parks, restrooms and drinking fountains. In response to desegregation efforts, some people bombed and torched black homes and churches, which caused the city to be dubbed “Bombingham.”
One fact that may have prevented people of lesser conviction and character from following their conscience in leading a demonstration was a state court injunction that prohibited King and other civil rights leaders from demonstrating. With a wife and four children in Atlanta, King still decided that perceived public disobedience was justified, so he peacefully demonstrated.
King led 50 other people downtown and up to the police line, coming face-to-face with the head of police. King then knelt down in prayer. He and all the demonstrators were subsequently thrown in jail.
On April 16, King read a letter published in the city paper that was written by eight white Alabama clergymen who criticized King for demonstrating. King responded by writing the “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” which King biographer Stephen Oates described as “the most eloquent and learned expression of the goals and philosophy of the nonviolent movement ever written.”
The clergymen said King needed to be more patient and not demonstrate.
King wrote:
Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness” then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.
To the charge that he was taking “extreme measures,” King responded in the letter like this: Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.
” Was not Amos an extremist for justice: “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream.” Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”
Was not Martin Luther (the German religious reformer) an extremist: “Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.” And John Bunyan: “I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.” And Abraham Lincoln: “This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.” And Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ...” So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists will we be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremist for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary’s hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime -- the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.
If King was an extremist, he was an extremist for love and justice; he was a creative extremist who had a beautiful dream.
On August 28, 1963, 34-year old King stood before the Lincoln Memorial and said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. ... I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
King pursued and articulated that great dream.
Unfortunately, King’s pursuit was cut short by a nightmarish act of hate.
On April 4, 1968, at 6 p.m., 39-year-old King was shot and killed while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., by James Earl Ray, who took aim with a .30 caliber rifle and blew away the right side of King’s face and neck. King died at St. Joseph’s hospital 75 minutes later. The voice of peace and goodwill toward mankind was silenced by the murderous rage of racism.
Those who hated King and his message reportedly cheered when they received the news of King’s death. One FBI agent allegedly said, “They finally got the SOB!” Those who loved King reacted contrary to King’s nonviolent tactics. Riots broke out in 110 cities; tens of thousands of federal troops were sent to U.S. cities to “keep the peace”; 711 fires blazed in Washington D.C. alone.
The existence of Martin Luther King Day testifies to the division in the United States today. This memorial day is more than recognition of King’s birth, life and legacy. It’s also a day that cries for justice. Many things have changed, but King’s dream is not yet realized.
His dream was much bigger than how people of different shades of color behave toward each other. His dream included how people feel and think about each other. Ultimately, his dream encompassed the biblical vision of all God’s children being free to see and savor the glory of the Lord.
That dream and vision will become reality; it’s only a matter of time.
Author's note: The influence of pastor and author John Piper, one of my living heroes, pervades much of this article. I am indebted to him for his teaching in many things, including public justice, equality, and racial harmony.