The Cause of Peace and Brotherhood

As I read more and more of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s autobiography, I become more and more amazed. I dog-ear pages where he says something particularly moving or still relevant. I have to be very conservative in this dog-earring of pages, cause if I wasn't, my book would be impossible to back with all it's dog-eared pages making it fatter and fatter at the top.

Anyway, I'm only maybe... 3/5 of the way through the book. It's been slow. Not because it hasn't been good, but I think mostly because I'm... a slow reader. I like things to sink in. I can't skim. If I even start to FEEL like I skimmed, I usually have to go back 2 pages or so to re-read to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Do you guys know how many times MLK had gone to jail? A lot. Like, a lot. At first it was just things to keep him off the streets and off the pulpit--traffic tickets, stuff like that. Then it was for violating injunctions on protests (despite the fact they were peaceful protests). He's spent time in a Montgomery, Albany and Birmingham jail. He also wrote a super long letter to some "don't-rock-the-boat" ministers & rabbis that had criticized him for coming into Birmingham and trying to stir up trouble. He wrote about 16 pages (well in my book) worth as a rebuttal to what those ministers and rabbis had said about him in a paper. All he had were scraps of paper and the margins of the newspaper to write on. He. Is. A. Badass. Is it okay to call an ordained reverend a badass? Whatevs. What's done is done.

Anyway, my inspiration board for today heavily features the Reverend King. The top right photo is probably one of my favorites. MLK just got convicted of "violating the state's anti-boycott law." His wife, the beautiful, faithful, loving, caring, nurturing, steadfast Coretta Scott King is seen giving her hubby a giant smooch after his conviction. He later wrote,

"Ordinarily, a person leaving a courtroom with a conviction behind him would wear a somber face. But I left with a smile. I knew that I was a convicted criminal, but I was proud of my crime. It was the crime of joining my people in a nonviolent protest against injustice. It was the crime of seeking to instill within my people a sense of dignity and self-respect. It was the crime of desiring for my people the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It was above all the crime of seeking to convince my people that noncooperation with evil is just as much a moral duty as is cooperation with good."

See? Badass. In the middle, you see a photo of Rosa Parks. Also, a Grade A Badass. The middle is MLK with a photo of one of his biggest inspirations, India's Mahatma Ghandi. He practiced what he preached--nonviolent civil disobedience. Without Ghandi's trailblazing efforts to overcome his opposition through nonviolence, who knew if the leaders of our civil rights movement would've known to take the same steps?

If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as "rabble-rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies--a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare."

I can quote this man forever, but you see my point. Ever since I started reading this book, I've constantly tried to find arguments and parallels and instances where things Dr. King had said were still relevant today. While almost everything regarding race relations that he says is indeed still relevant today, I found a lot of what he said applicable to the struggle for LGBT (GLBT?) rights. I'll end this blog with one last thing that MLK said that really sparked something in me. I've always been a proponent of gay rights (omg, can we just fricken let them marry already?!) and what MLK said makes me really want to get out there. And... it also makes it disappointed in the church for not spreading the message of love when it comes to homosexuality. Then again, I've read (and seen banners) for a group at the UCC called "PRISM" and they are a group for LGBT (basically all non-heterosexual) Catholics who meet every Monday. I think I'd actually really like to go to meetings, just to learn more. Yes. I'm going to do that. Anyway, here's a few more words from the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

There was a time when the Church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. [...] Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.
Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,
Martin Luther King, Jr.

*All excerpts were taken from The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Edited by Clayborne Carson. If you're interested in this novel, you can purchase it here!