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The Maroon tiger.
April 04, 2018
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The Maroon tiger., April 04, 2018, Image 13
Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
About The Maroon tiger. (Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 2018)
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Newspaper Page Text
SPECIAL EDITION
THE MAROON TIGER
KING'S IMPACT ON CURRENT MOREHOUSE STUDENTS
STUDENTS SHOULD EXPLORE KING COLLECTION
BY JE'LON ALEXANDER, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
T he work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is something that all Morehouse College students
should look at when they first get here, because not only they are looking at the work of
one of their own, but they also get a chance to see the evolution of Dr. King.
For example, at the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library Archives Re
search Center, one of his early drafts of “Pilgrimage to Nonviolence” shows King in 1960 re
flecting on his state of mind and consciousness 10 years earlier as a seminary student at Boston
University.
“At this stage of my development I was a thoroughgoing liberal,” Dr. King wrote. “Liber
alism provided me with an intellectual satisfaction that I could never find in fundamentalism.
I became so enamored of the insights of liberalism that I almost fell into the trap of accepting
uncritically everything that came under its name. I was absolutely convinced of the natural
goodness of man and the natural power of human reason.”
This stood out to me because it shows Dr. King at a time when he reflected on what type
of ideologies or philosophical influences would shape his thinking in the future.
Besides that, what caught my eye the most was reading a correspondence from Malcolm
X to Dr. King dated on July 31,1963, which I have never even seen before. Of course, we all
know Dr. King and Malcolm X met only once but there were communications between them,
including providing mutual support.
The letter extended an invitation to Dr. King to speak in Harlem; however, Malcolm X
takes effort to emphasize that there is a racial crisis in America that is destructive and will
soon explode. His eye-opening line that caught my eye was, “A racial explosion is more de
structive than a nuclear explosion” because a racial explosion would have deadly consequences
that affect all society.
This line stood out to me because the threat of a racial explosion is true to this day. Racial
tensions are growing because each year something incendiary happens to minorities, such as
the recent controversial killing of Stephon Clark by police in Sacramento, California.
The Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection is not just your ordinary ar
chival collection. It is a showing of a black leader whose intellect and belief changed over time.
This collection is transformative. I highly encourage all Morehouse students to take the time
to look at his work during the four years they are here. The legacy of our Morehouse brother
will continue to live on and we as Men of Morehouse must continue his unfinished business
that will eventually lead to the promised land.