February 12, 2025

Wednesday Word . . . Black History Month:  Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr., was the son and grandson of Baptist preachers, and became the pastor of a Baptist church in Montgomery, AL, in 1954.  He became the face of the equality movement following the arrest of Rosa Parks when he led the Montgomery bus boycott.

Like Saint Paul, King faced a variety of obstacles and persecutions:  his home was dynamited, he was stabbed, harassed by death threats, and jailed over 30 times.  And on April 4, 1968, he was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN.

While in jail in Birmingham for participating in a non-violent equality march, he wrote a response to the public concerns of eight white clergymen.  In that letter he made the following statements:

            Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

            Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider.

            You deplore the demonstrations . . . but do not express concern for the conditions that                                    brought the demonstrations into being.

            Privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.

            Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the                                           oppressed.

            We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was “legal.”

            It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.

            Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love?

            Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the

                        cause of justice?

The whole letter can be found here, and I would encourage you to read it in its entirety, as we are facing the same issues of division, hatred, oppression, and injustices today that Martin Luther King, Jr., faced then.

We must answer today the questions he asked of the white pastors of Birmingham in 1963: 

Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love?  Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?

His Feast Day on the Church Calendar is April 4 (alternate day, January 15).

Open our eyes, O Lord, to the injustices committed on our behalf.  Awaken us to the unpleasant truths that a whitewashed history tries to cover up.  Free us from the bonds of prejudice and fear.  Allow us to see the value and contributions of those who are different.  And give us the strength to work for justice, freedom, and peace, while respecting the dignity of every human being.  Amen.