When growing up in Ocala, Florida, I recall hearing so much about Dr. Martin Luther King, many people idolized him, and a few thought he was nuts, because they just were not wired to believe in the 60s that a Negro man could really make a difference in changing the hearts of a racist America.
I loved sitting around listening to my aunts, grandmother and godmother talk about him and other things. These women had opinions about everything and were quite outspoken about it. My grandmother not as much as her six daughters and her friend, my godmother. Bi' mama as I called her was not worldly like them. She had always been a saved woman and didn't give in to much conversation about worldly things, but she had raised six very vocal, opionionated women and I loved listening to them. They always spoke about Dr. King with such reverence and admiration.
I can clearly remember the spring day he died, I was wearing a burnt orange dress, with a white collar and was coming up to my grandmother's house and they were all crying, I had never seen that group of women cry, make people cry yes, but not cry and I knew something was way wrong...
I was informed that THEY had killed Dr. King, the way THEY had killed President Kennedy. It was pure sadness and mourning on that wraparound porch.
Years later, I remember the absolutely controversy about making his birthday a holiday and all the mean ugly things people said, quite openly. I was now a young mother and was saddened by the hatred. The most prevalant thing was about his personal business and how they tried to take away from the legacy by smearing his character.
But what people failed to realize and still don't get is that me and many others really don't wrap our minds around what people do privately as much as we do to what they are about and what we can learn from their lives and the legacies they leave behind.
What I knew is Dr. King fought for peace, equality and right-ness for all of us and that a lot of things I learned to enjoy and that my children and granddaughter take for granted was instigated and fought for by him and many like him.
I don't iconize any man, but I do have admiration for those who are about fairness, justice and equality and are willing to DIE for what they believe in and for me DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, was such a man and we would all be better served to have more like him, flaws and all.
BE BLESSED~
angelia!
