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Page 10 The Maroon Tiger May, 1968 fHartut Kutbrr King ir. 1929 - 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr., is like the great Yggdrasill tree, “whose roots,” a poet said, “are deep in earth but in whose upper branch es the stars of heaven are glowing and astir.” His roots went deeply into the inferno of slavery,this black baby born January 15, 1929, to Alberta Williams King and Martin Luther King, Sr. Now the roots have grown to those upper branches, and he is indeed among the stars of heaven, this beautiful man, husband, father, pastor, leader. He is free and he is home, and the world has come to his home to honor him and, hopefully, to repent the sins against him and all humanity. Martin Luther King came of a deeply re ligious family tradition. His great grandfather was a slave exhorter. His maternal grand father, the Rev. Adam Daniel Williams, was the second pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where for eight years Dr. King and his father were co-pastors. This lineage which permeated his life was an enormous influence on him and what he would ultimately become. His father, born at the turn of the century in Stockbridge, Georgia, came to Atlanta in 1916. In 1925, Martin Luther King, Sr., married Alberta Williams. They were blessed with a daughter and two sons. The youngest son is the Reverend Alfred Daniel Williams King of Louisville, Kentucky, who went to Memphis, Tennessee, one infamous day “to help my brother.” The daughter is Christine King Farris of Atlanta, who went to a home that night to comfort her brother’s wife. The other son was Martin Luther King, Jr. Reared in a home of love, understanding, and compassion, young Martin was to find 501 Auburn Avenue a buffer against the ram pant injustices of the “sick society” for which he would become the physician. A serious student, Martin Luther King was an early admissions student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948. His great “wrestling inside with the pro blem of a vocation” must have been prophetic of the many agonizing hours which would eventually characterize his life. Having felt the stings of “man’s inhumani ty to man,” Martin Luther King believed law would be his sphere for combating injustices. The ministry as he saw it was not socially relevant; however, at Morehouse,in the bril liant Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, he saw the ideal of what he wanted a minister to be. In his junior year, he gave himself to the ministry. At Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, Martin Luther King was further stimulated but still his quest for a method to end social evil continued. Through courses at the University of Pennsylvania, deep, seri ous reading, and provocative lectures, he began to find answers which would crystallize his thinking and give him the philosophy by which he would “redeem the soul of Ameri ca.” Because of the color of his skin,his life was threatened at this institution, but with the aplomb that would be typical of his re sponse to later threats, he disarmed his attacker. He was the first Negro to be elected presi dent of Crozer’s student body, and this began what would become a series of firsts for this son whose roots were in slavery. With a partially satisfied, but still ferment ing mind, he matriculated at Boston Univer sity, at the time the center of personalism,the philosophical posture which he had adopted. Studying under two of the greatest exponents of his philosophy, Martin King was to find this theory an enormously sustaining force in the future. In Boston, he met Coretta Scott, an equal ly concerned and talented New England Con servatory student from the South. On June King Family Portrait These are the poor and needy that Dr. King gave his life for. They are asking if there be any hope left. Some of the 200,000 that followed him in death. (Continued from Page 8) Black Power Symposium Ends With Questions At Wabash Another v/ay to help would be to educate the public as to what the Negro has done in this country towards bettering American life. He sug gested this be done by asking libraries to set out and make available a permanent collection on Afro- American life. Charles Burris, also a student at Morehouse, told the audience that he saw something at Wabash Col lege to take back to the Negro students at More house. He said. he had seen in the Wabash men a hope for tomorrow, for they had shown him that not all whites are racists and bigots. 18, 1953, at her Marion, Alabama, home she became Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. She was later to realize her highest dreams, not in con- certizing, but in singing the songs ot freedom and being her husband’s deciple from “Mont gomery to Montgomery.” This happy marriage brought into life four children; Yolanda Denise, born November 17, 1955; Martin Luther, III, born October 23, 1957; Eexter Scott, born January 30, 1961; and Bernice Albertine, born March 28, 1963. The Ph.D. degree was awarded Martin Luther King in 1955, and again there was a great “wrestling inside.” Sensitive to re turn to the land from whence he had sprung, and preach a “socially relevant and intellectu ally responsible” gospel, he accepted the “call” to Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and began his pastor ate, September 1, 1954. The cradle of the Confederacy was a seeth ing cauldron of racial injustice, and this grandson of a founder of the Atlanta Branch NAACP was asked to assume the presidency of the Montgomery Branch NAACP. Again the wrestle. Finally, he answered negatively, but on December 1, 1955, the refusal of Mrs. Rosa Parks to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus made the young, erudite minister answer affirmatively when asked to chair the newly formed Montgomery Improve ment Association. Mrs. Parks’ arrest for violation of the sys tem of racial segregation set off a new Ameri can Revolution. Daring to do what was right, Ralph and Juanita Abernathy stood up with Martin and Coretta King when there were nothing but “valleys of despair,” and their loyalty has never known the midnight. Now, the myriad religious and philosophi cal forces which had shaped his life would be put to the test and this selfless, compassionate man would “forget himself into immortality.” “Christian love can bring brotherhood on earth. There is an element of God in every man,” said he after his home was bombed in Montgomery. This new attack on America’s social system gave everyday application to the teachings of Jesus, and captured the conscience of the world. On April 4, 1968, an assassin took the earthly life of Martin Ltither King, Jr. Profound, but unpretentious; gentle, but valiant; Baptist, but ecumenical; loving justice, the deep roots of this Great Spirit resolved the agonizing wrestling and gave all mankind new hope for a bright tomorrow. He Had a Dream. “I Tried to Love and Serve Humanity” “If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell him not to talk too long. . . . Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize. That isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards. That’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. I’d like somebody to mention that day, that ‘Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others.’ I’d like for somebody to say that day that ‘Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody.’ I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day, that I did try, in my life, to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. ” — Martin Luther King, Jr. Ebenezer Baptist Church Atlanta, Georgia Sunday, February 4, 1968