Martin Henry
The news of the passing of Mrs. Coretta Scott King came right after crafting this column memorialising the visit of Dr. King and herself to Jamaica in 1965
WHEN KARL HENDRICKSON addressed the University of the West Indies (UWI) graduating class last November and made reference to Martin Luther King Junior he was standing where King stood exactly 40 years earlier. In 1965, King was graduation speaker. The Radio Education Unit of the University has on reel tape that sonorous baritone voice delivering a sparkling address to the graduates.
The independent nation was then only three years old, energy and optimism were high, and King's address to the graduates of the sole university captured the excitement and challenge of nation building. Those young graduating men and women are now in their sixties.
SPECTACULAR RESULTS
We tend to forget how utterly young King was when he led the American Civil Rights Movement with such wisdom and maturity. King came to leadership at the end of his twenties and was dead at 39. He would have been 77 on January 15.
'65 graduates, now on the edge of retirement, can look back and ask how has the nation-building project to which their guest speaker on the night of their graduation challenged them has turned out. King's own actions at home have generated nothing short of spectacular results for the civil rights of Black Americans and other minorities. I wonder how he would assess how Black Americans have seized the opportunities which the struggle which took his life opened for them. And, for that matter, how he would assess Jamaicans' use of the marvellous freedom and potential for development which he found here.
REWARDING EXPERIENCE
King opened his graduation address intoning: "It is always a rich and rewarding experience to come to this wonderful country and this beautiful island." King remarked that he had never felt more at home anywhere else in the world than he did here and he felt like a human being here. Temporarily away from the struggle and opposition and constant concern for personal safety, King wrote up his book, Strength to Love, a collection of his sermons, here in Jamaica. Strength to Love was my first introduction to King's writings years ago. I now have my third copy as friends have permanently borrowed two earlier and well marked up purchases.
In the chapter/sermon, "Our God is Able", King shares the story of his entry into the leadership of the Civil Rights Movement and its cost to him; "The first 24 years of my life were years packed with fulfilment," he said. "I had no basic problem or burdens. It was not until I became a part of the Montgomery bus protest that I was actually confronted with the trials of life."
King spoke of his fear from threatening telephone calls and letters. After one late night call "It seemed that all of my fears had come down on me at once. I was ready to give up." King struggled to find a way of disengagement without appearing to be a coward. In a state of exhaustion, with his courage almost gone he poured out his heart to God in prayer in his kitchen in the middle of the night.
READY FOR ANYTHING
"At that moment I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never before experienced Him," he vividly recalled. A quiet inner voice gave the assurance "stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth. God will be at your side forever." His fears subsided and King "was ready to face anything."
Norman Manley and King had travelled to Ghana together in 1957 for the Ghanaian Independence celebrations and had exchanged correspondence. On International Human Rights Day, December 10, in 1968 when King was posthumously awarded the Marcus Garvey Peace Prize by the Government of Jamaica, Mr. Manley recalled King's graduation address at the UWI three years before. "I do not know that I ever heard a better address to young people standing on the threshold of life - and I confess I lost my heart to the man," Manley said. The next day King spoke at the National Stadium as the fiery public orator "who could sway crowds".
Martin Henry is a communication specialist.
