Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.

Aww...thanks, Daddy Ra. :smt058

 

Exploring the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/lifestyle/mlk2011/interactive-memorial/

The Martin Luther King Jr. memorial will be dedicated on Aug. 28, the 48th anniversary of the day King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.


The sculpture, called the “Stone of Hope,” gets its name from a line in King’s “I Have a Dream” speech: “With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.” At the entrance to the memorial two stones stand apart, representing the “Mountain of Despair.” A single wedge is pushed out, and from there King’s form emerges.


The sculpture stands on a four-acre plot on the northwest corner of the Tidal Basin, across from the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and next to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial. It creates a visual “line of leadership” from the Lincoln Memorial to the Jefferson Memorial.

 

At Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, a joyous crowd



By Michael E. Ruane and Jeannine Hunter, Published: August 22

Gray-haired Madeline Coleman got up Monday and played her old record of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches for her visiting grandson as he ate breakfast. Then she grabbed a disposable camera and hopped on the Metro for the event on the Mall.

Kwanzaa Nivens had scoped out the parking situation at the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial days in advance and had four options. She went with option No. 2 — the paddle-boat parking lot.


Kenneth Kluttz, wearing his “I Am a Man” shirt, got there first, purely by accident. He thought the site opened at 7 a.m. and was off by four hours.

They were among the hundreds of people — of many races and ethnicities, young and old, locals and tourists — who streamed through the King memorial Monday as it opened on a breezy summer morning.

They were part of a happy crowd that came with cameras, sun hats, children and strollers and thronged the memorial’s majestic statue of King to photograph and be photographed with the 30-foot granite likeness.

Strangers spoke with strangers and swapped cameras. The landscaped, four-acre site on the northwest shore of the Tidal Basin took on the atmosphere of a block party.

But there were also tears, as some people were overcome by the sight of King’s thoughtful-looking face, which is intricately carved out of a pale, 46-ton block of stone. The statue depicts King standing with his arms folded, holding a scroll and looking across the basin.

“It was important for me to be here for this opening .?.?. to actually see the memorial for myself and to say thank you,” said a tearful Nivens, 36, of Fort Washington, an Internal Revenue Service budget analyst, as she gazed at the sculpture.

One of King’s sayings on the memorial’s inscription wall is, “You can’t fight evil with evil; you have to fight it with love,” she said. “And you can’t fight darkness with darkness; you have to fight it with light, and that’s what he did, and now look.”

“It’s awesome,” she said.

The day began with a press tour of the $120 million memorial and remarks from some of its creators.

Henry Gilford, 66, is president of Gilford Corp. of Washington, one of four firms that helped build the memorial. He said he was one of the 10 children of a sharecropper who raised corn, cotton and peanuts on a farm in Ozark, Ala.

“To be now here on the Mall, to be a part of this, words can’t describe it,” he said. He said his career is a result of King’s work.

“I own a firm here in the Washington, D.C., area,” he said. “There’s no question in my mind [without] some of the things he did in the ’60s, there’s no way I could have .?.?. started a firm and grown it to the size I have.”

“I’m just giving you one example,” he said. “And that is myself, standing right in front of you.”

Monday’s opening began a week of celebrations and commemorations leading up to the dedication of the memorial Sunday.

Tens of thousands are expected to be on hand as President Obama unveils the “cloaked” memorial at 11 a.m. The dedication is taking place on the 48th anniversary of the day King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech during the 1963 March on Washington.
This week, the site will be open to the public from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday and from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. It will be closed Friday and Saturday in preparation for the dedication.

Officials have said as many as 250,000 people might attend the unveiling and the week’s events.


Some are coming as part of church groups. Some are coming with the intent to renew King’s call to social justice. Many say they simply want to be part of history.

Khalilah Veneable Collins of Louisville was planning to visit with her two children and mother. Collins and her mother are members of the Montford Point Marine Association, which was created to promote the legacy of the first African American Marines.

“As a child, I fell in love with Dr. King and what he stood for and what he did for this country,” Collins said. “I try to pattern myself, to some degree, after him. His writing, his speeches and his legacy have a serious influence on the way in which I do my work.”

Sean Hunter of Charlotte, a pharmaceutical representative, described his planned visit to the memorial as a pilgrimage. He was going to travel to the District with his wife and three children.

“The significance of having this monument is huge. To recognize the struggle of what he went through says a lot,” he said. “It says that America is finally recognizing him amongst other leaders.”

But many present Monday did not have far to go.

Coleman, 68, a retired Labor Department analyst who attended the 1963 march, lives in Tenleytown.

She said that as her 16-year-old grandson, Anthony, ate breakfast Monday, she played him parts of King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, delivered the night before his assassination in Memphis in 1968.

“It was pretty interesting just to watch him,” she said as she waited in line for the memorial to open.

She said she grew up in Pittsburgh during the 1950s and ’60s, when there was name-calling. One local restaurant would not serve blacks, “even in Pittsburgh.”

Now, “when you really think about the fact that your grandchildren are doing well and have friends of all races and can go everywhere they want to go,” she said, “it doesn’t get any better than that.”

Staff writer Patricia Sullivan contributed to this report.

 

Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

December 10, 1964, Oslo, Norway:

I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when twenty-two million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award in behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice.

I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeing to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation.

I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.

After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time -- the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression.

Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.

If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama, to Oslo bears witness to this truth. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are traveling to find a new sense of dignity.

This same road has opened for all Americans a new ear of progress and hope. It has led to a new Civil Rights bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened into a superhighway of justice as Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems.

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him.

I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsom in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.

I believe that even amid today's motor bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men.

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.

"And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid."

I still believe that we shall overcome.

This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.

Today I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication to humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my heart I am aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally.

Every time I take a flight I am always mindful of the man people who make a successful journey possible -- the known pilots and the unknown ground crew.

So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honor, once again, Chief (Albert) Luthuli of South Africa, whose struggles with and for his people, are still met with the most brutal expression of man's inhumanity to man.

You honor the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth.

Most of these people will never make the headlines and their names will not appear in Who's Who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we live -- men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization -- because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness' sake.

I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners -- all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty -- and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.

 

A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations

A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations
Address at Freedom Rally
Mr. Chairman [W. E. W. Brown], distinguished platform associates, citizens of this great city, ladies and gentlemen, I need not pause to say how delighted I am to be here this evening and to be a part of this very rich fellowship. I want to express my appreciation to you for your kindness and loyalty. And I am indeed honored to share the platform with so many distinguished clergymen and civic leaders, some of whom I knew before coming here and others that I had not met before. But we all have a deep unity, a spiritual unity. I think of some of our very good friends like Dr. [John E.] Nance, Dr. Brown, Dr. Huntley, who lived in Montgomery at one time and pastored one of our very fine churches there. Certainly we will remain indebted to him for his leadership and for his scholarship. His most provocative and inspiring book that has influenced minds in this nation and over the world, As I Saw It. I look back and see my former schoolmate from Morehouse college, Earl Nance. And so that I am not at all a stranger around here in St. Louis. And all of the other persons, I want to thank you for your personal courtesies and all the things that you have done to make our struggle in Montgomery less difficult. Certainly I owe a deep debt of gratitude to brother [Lafayette] Thompson, whom I met some months ago. Then later in Hot Springs, Arkansas, just about two or three months ago, we had the privilege of having dinner together and talking over some very vital matters. And I am indebted to him for contacts made and for making so many vital things possible. Then I am indebted to Dr. Nance for this very gracious introduction.
It's good to be in St. Louis, for I'm happy to see the progress that has been made and that is being made in the area of human relations. In a quiet and dignified manner, integration has moved on amazingly well and this city is to be commended. Certainly the deeper cities in the Deep South have a great deal to learn from a city like St. Louis. It proves that integration can be brought into being without a lot of trouble, that it can be done smoothly and peacefully. This city is to be commended for that.
I bring you greetings from Montgomery, Alabama, a city that has been known over the years as the Cradle of the Confederacy. But I bring you special greetings from the fifty-thousand Negroes of that city who came to see a little more than a year ago that it is ultimately more honorable to walk in dignity than ride in humiliation. [applause] I bring you greetings from fifty-thousand people who decided one day to substitute tired feet for tired souls and walk the streets of Montgomery until the sagging walls of segregation were finally crushed by the battering rams of surging justice. [applause] I bring you greetings from a humble people who heard the words of Jesus and decided to follow him, even if it meant going to Calvary. A people who decided that love is a basic principle of the universe. [applause; word inaudible]
But I didn't come here this evening to talk only about Montgomery. I want to try to grapple with a question that continually comes to me. And it is a question on the lips of men and women all over this nation. People all over are wondering about the question of progress in race relations. And they are asking, "Are we really making any progress?" I want to try to answer that question. And if I would use a subject for what I plan to say this evening, I would use a rather lengthy subject: AA Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations.
There are three basic attitudes that one can take toward the question of progress in the area of race relations. And the first attitude that can be taken is that of extreme optimism. Now the extreme optimist would argue that we have come a long, long way in the area of race relations. He would point proudly to the marvelous strides that have been made in the area of civil rights over the last few decades. From this he would conclude that the problem is just about solved, and that we can sit comfortably by the wayside and wait on the coming of the inevitable.
The second attitude that one can take toward the question of progress in the area of race relations is that of extreme pessimism. The extreme pessimist would argue that we have made only minor strides in the area of race relations. He would argue that the rhythmic beat of the deep rumblings of discontent that we hear from the Southland today is indicative of the fact that we have created more problems than we have solved. He would say that we are retrogressing instead of progressing. He might even turn to the realms of an orthodox theology and argue that hovering over every man is the tragic taint of original sin and that at bottom human nature can not be changed. He might even turn to the realms of modern psychology and seek to show the determinative effects of habit structures and the inflexibility of certain attitudes that once become molded in one's being. (Yes) From all of this he would conclude that there can be no progress in the area of race relations. (Alright, Alright)
Now you will notice that the extreme optimist and the extreme pessimist have at least one thing in common: they both agree that we must sit down and do nothing in the area of race relations. (Yes) The extreme optimist says do nothing because integration is inevitable. The extreme pessimist says do nothing because integration is impossible. But there is a third position that is another attitude that can be taken, and it is what I would like to call the realistic position. The realist in the area of race relations seeks to reconcile the truths of two opposites while avoiding the extremes of both. (Yeah) So the realist would agree with the optimist that we have come a long, long way. But, he would go on to balance that by agreeing with the pessimist that we have a long, long way to go. (Amen) [applause] And it is this basic theme that I would like to set forth this evening. We have come a long, long way (Yes) but we have a long, long way to go. (Amen) [applause]
Now let us notice first that we've come a long, long way. You will remember that it is was in the year of 1619 that the Negro slaves first landed on the shores of this nation. They were brought here from the shores of Africa. Unlike the Pilgrim fathers who landed at Plymouth a year later, they were brought here against their wills. Throughout slavery the Negro was treated in a very inhuman fashion. He was a thing to be used, not a person to be respected. (Yeah, That's Right) He was merely, [applause] he was merely a depersonalized cog in a vast plantation machine. (Yeah) The famous Dred Scott decision of 1857 well illustrates the status of the Negro during slavery. For it was in this decision that the Supreme Court of the nation said, in substance, that the Negro is not a citizen of this nation. He is merely property subject to the dictates of his owner. Living under these conditions many Negroes lost faith in themselves. Many came to feel that perhaps they were less than human. So long as the Negro accepted this place assigned to him, so long as the Negro patiently accepted injustice and exploitation, a sort of racial peace was maintained.
But it was an uneasy peace. (Yeah) It was a negative peace in which the Negro was forced patiently to accept injustice and exploitation. For you see, true peace is not merely the absence of some negative force, but it is a presence of some positive force. (Amen) I think that is what Jesus meant when one day his disciples stood before him with their glittering eyes, wanting to hear something good, and Jesus looked at them and said, in no uncertain terms, "Brethren, I come not to bring peace, but a sword." He didn't mean, "I come to bring a physical sword. He didn't mean, "I come not to bring positive peace." What Jesus is saying, "I come not to bring this old negative peace which makes for deadening passivity and stagnant complacently. And whenever I come a conflict is precipitated between the old and the new. (Yes) Whenever I come, (Yes) there is a lashing out between justice and injustice. (Yes) Whenever I come, (Yes) there is a division between the forces of light and the forces of darkness." (Yes) Peace is not merely the absence of tension, but it is the presence of justice. (Yes) [applause] And the peace which existed at that time was a negative, obnoxious peace devoid of any positive meaning.
But then something happened to the Negro. Moving on up in the nineteen-hundreds it became necessary for him to travel more. Circumstances made it necessary. His rural, plantation background gradually gave way to urban, industrial life. And his cultural life was gradually rising...
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A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations cont.

...through the steady decline of crippling illiteracy, (Yes, sir) and even the economic life of the Negro was gradually rising. And all of these forces conjoined (Yes, sir) to cause the Negro to take a new look at himself. Negro masses all over began to reevaluate themselves. The Negro came to feel that he was somebody. (Yes, sir) His religion revealed to him, [applause] he had read his Bible enough, his religion revealed to him that God loves all of his children (Amen) and that all men are made in his image. And somehow the Negro came to see that every man from a bass black to a treble white he is significant on God's keyboard. [applause] And so he could now cry out in his own soul with the eloquent poet:
Fleecy locks and black complexion
cannot forfeit nature's claims
Skin may differ, but affection
Dwells in black and white the same. (Yes, sir)
Were I so tall as to reach the pole
Or to grasp the ocean at a span,
I must be measured by my soul
The mind is the standard of the man. [applause]
(Go ahead)
And with this new sense of dignity and this new self respect, a brand new Negro emerged and the tension which we witness in the Southland today can be explained in part by the revolutionary change in the Negro's evaluation of his nature and destiny and his determination to struggle, suffer, sacrifice, and even die if necessary until the walls of segregation crumble. [applause]
You see, all I'm trying to say to you is that we've come a long, long way since 1619. (Yes) But not only has the Negro come a long, long way in reevaluating his own intrinsic worth, but he's come a long, long way in achieving civil rights. We must admit that. Fifty years ago or twenty-five years ago, a year hardly passed that numerous Negroes were not brutally lynched by some vicious mob. But now the day of lynching has just about passed. We've come a long, long way. Twenty-five or fifty years ago, most of the Southern states had the poll tax, which was designed to keep the Negro from becoming a registered voter. And now the poll tax has been eliminated in all but five states. We've come a long, long way. (Amen) We have even come a long, long way in achieving the ballotCit's far from what it ought to be and particularly in the Deep South. We've come a long, long way there. As late as 1948, there were just seven-hundred and fifty thousand Negro registered voters in the South, and by 1952 that number had leaped to one million three-hundred thousand. We've come a long, long way. [applause] Not only that, we've come a long, long way in economic growth. The Negro wage earner today makes four times more than the Negro wage earner in 1940. Whether you know it or not the national income of the Negro is now more than fifteen billion dollars a year. That's more than all of the exports of the United States and more than the national income of Canada. We've come a long, long way. [applause]
Not only that, in our generation we have been able to see the walls of segregation gradually crumble. For awhile it looked like we would never get away from it. You will remember back in 1896, the Supreme Court of this nation established the doctrine of "separate but equal" as the law of the land. And as a result of this doctrine we were thrown and left in the Egypt of segregation. At every moment there was always some pharaoh with a hardened heart who, amid the cry of every Moses, would not allow us to get out of Egypt. There was always a Red Sea before us with it's glaring dimensions. (Yes) Then one day through the providence of God and the decision of the Supreme Court, May 17, 1954, the Red Sea opened. (Yes) Supreme Court said the old Plessy doctrine must go. (Yes) [recording interrupted] To segregate an individual on the basis of his race is to deny that individual of equal protection of the law. (Yes) And so in our generation, if I may speak figuratively, we have been able to see old man segregation on his death bed. And I'm sure, [applause] and I'm sure that most of us would be very happy to see the old brother pass on because he's been a disturbing factor to the whole community. [applause]
And so we've come a long, long way since 1896. And my friends I've been talking now for about fifteen or twenty minutes and I wish I could stop here. It would be beautiful to stop here. But I=ve tried to tell you about how far we've come, and it would be fine if every speaker in America could stop right there. (Yeah, That=s right) But if we stopped here we would be the victims of a dangerous optimism. (Yeah) [applause] If we stopped here we would be the victims of an illusion wrapped in superficiality. (Yeah) If we stopped here we would be the victims of an optimism which makes for deadening complacency and stagnant passivity. In order to tell the truth we must move on. [applause] See, not only have we come long, long way, but truth impels us to admit that we have a long, long way to go. (Yes)
It=s quite true that lynchings have about ceased in the South, but other things are happening that are quite tragic. Many states have risen up in open defiance, and the legislative halls of the Deep South ring loud with such words as "interposition" and "nullification." Ku Klux Klan is marching again. And a modern version of the Ku Klux Klan has arisen in the form of so-called "respectable" White Citizens Councils. (Yes) Not only that, the voice of a little boy fourteen years old is crying out from the waters of Mississippi. (Yes) Men and women are being shot because they merely have a desire to stand up and vote as first class citizens. The homes of ministers and civic leaders are being bombed. More tragic than all of that, the house of God is being bombed. (Yes) We got a long, long way to go, (Yes) a long, long way. (Yes)
Oh, I like to think about the fact that we've come a long, long way in economic development, but we have a long, long way to go. The poverty of the Negro is still appalling, (Yeah) in spite of all of our growth. We must face the fact that forty-three percent of the Negro families of America still make less than two thousand dollars a year. Compare that with the fact that just seventeen percent of the white families make less than two thousand dollars a year. Twenty-one percent of the Negro families still make less than a thousand dollars a year. Compare that with the fact that just seven percent of the white families make less than a thousand dollars a year. Eighty-eight percent of the Negro families of America make less than five thousand dollars a year. Compare that with the fact that sixty percent of the white families make less than five thousand dollars a year. To put it another way, just twelve percent of the Negro families of America make five thousand dollars or more a year, while forty percent of the white families of America make five thousand dollars or more a year. We've come a long, long way, but we have a long, long way to go in economic equality. [applause]
Then my friends, we must face the fact that segregation is still a reality in America. We still confront it in the South in it's glaring and conspicuous forms. We still confront it in the North, in the border states in it's hidden and subtle forms. (Yeah, Amen) Now it's true as I just said, speaking figuratively, that old man segregation is on his deathbed. But history has proven that social systems have a great last-minute breathing power and the guardians of the status quo are always on hand with their oxygen tents to keep the old order alive. [applause] So my friends, segregation is still a fact. But we know this evening as we assemble here that if democracy is to live segregation must die. [applause] Segregation is a tragic cancer which must be removed before our democratic health can be realized. Segregation is something of a, a tragic sore that debilitates the white as well as the Negro community. Segregation is nothing but slavery covered up with certain niceties of complexity. [applause] The underlying philosophy of segregation is diametrically opposed to the underlying philosophy of democracy and Christianity, and all the dialectics of the logicians can not make them lie down together. Segregation is utterly un-Christian. So we have, [applause] and so we have the Christian and moral responsibility to work courageously until segregation and discrimination have been removed from every aspect and every area of our nation's life.
Yes, we must continue to gain the ballot. One of the great needs of the hour is for the Negro to gain political power through the ballot. And I have come to see in the last few months that one of the most decisive steps that [recording interrupted] that short walk to the voting booth. My friends, those of you here in St. Louis and those who live in states that are moving on in integration and...
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A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations cont.

...states in the North that have already moved on have the moral responsibility to use the ballot and use it well because you don't have the problems gaining the ballot that we have in Alabama. You have no excuse. And it is your challenge to go down and get it in your hand and use it wisely. This is one of the great things that you can do for power. [applause] People in the North ask me from time to time, AWhat can we do to help in the South? And I allow a lot of things, but I always come back to this saying, "Get the ballot and through gaining the ballot you gain political power." And you can call the politicians and tell them that certain things will have to be done because you helped put them in office. (Yeah) This is an important thing. [applause]
I would like to say to you my friends, in this period we must continue to go down in our pockets and give big money for the cause of freedom. (Yeah) We have a long, long way to go and we are going to have to spend some money to get there. (That's right) Integration is not some lavish dish that the white man will pass out on a silver platter while the Negro merely furnishes their appetite. [laughter] If we are going to get it, we are going to have to work for it, and we are going to have to give our money for it. [applause] It seems to be the strategy in the Deep South now, on the part of the White Citizens Councils and other reactionary organizations, to stall this thing as long as possible. They know as well as we know that segregation is on its deathbed, but they have decided that they are going to delay it as long as possible by keeping the Negro bogged down in court cases and litigation. And in order to destroy this stalling process, we are going to have to give big money for the cause of freedom. [applause]
And I admonish you to continue to support the NAACP. For no matter if they do outlaw it in Alabama, in Texas, and Louisiana, the fact still remains that this organization has done more to achieve the civil rights of Negroes over any other organization that I can point to. [applause] We can not afford to desert the NAACP at this hour. (Amen) Let us give. Let us not waste our money on frivolities. This is time now to give big money for the cause of freedom. And we can't say that we don't have it any longer. We have it for so many other things that we want. (Yes, sir) We have the biggest cars that have ever been let loose into history. [applause] I am always appalled when I see how much whiskey and beer Negroes are drinking. [applause] And I think it would be an indictment on the integrity and practical wisdom of the Negro if historians look back and have to record that at the height of the twentieth century the Negro spent more on frivolities than he did on the eternal values of freedom and the cause of justice. (Yeah) [applause]
My friends, we've got to continue to persuade the federal government to use all of its powers to enforce the law of the land. [recording interrupted] And while I am on this point, I would like to say to you that on the seventeenth of May, just a few weeks from now, we are calling upon every freedom-loving Negro, from all over the nation, who can get off of work that day to come to Washington. We are having a Pilgrimage of Prayer for Freedom to Washington. We are not going there to make any threats. We are not going there to say what you have to do. We are simply going there to thank God for what has already been done, and to ask him for his guidance through the other period of transition, and to appeal to the conscience of the nation to do something about the violence in the South and to carry through the civil rights bill that is now being argued in Congress. We are asking every minister of this nation to be there. Every congregation should send it's pastor to Washington on the seventeenth of May. We have the backing of the most powerful organizations in the nation. [applause] We met in Washington just last week. The most powerful Negro leaders of this nation assembled there and all endorse this plan with hearty enthusiasm. Bishop Greene, and Bishop Walls of the AME Zion church, Bishop Greene of the AME church, Bishop Spottswood of the AME Zion church, Bishop D. Ward Nichols of the AME church, Dr. Jackson and Dr. Jernagin of the National Baptist Convention, Dr. Borders, and ministers from all over the South, Mr. Roy Wilkins, Mr. A. Philip Randolph, A. Clayton Powell, Charlie Diggs. All of the leading citizens and fighters for civil rights assembled there and endorsed this plan with hearty enthusiasm, and we intend to assemble there in Washington, [applause] on the seventeenth of May and we want to see you there. This is the time that we must register our protest in a humble, Christian, nonviolent spirit and say to the nation, say to the officials in Washington, ACome over and help us. (Yes) This is a time that we need you. And we need you to take a stand and to enforce the laws of the land. We've got to get it over to the nation. (Yes, sir) And there is a bit of urgency about this thing.
I'm aware of the fact that there are some people telling us to slow up. They are saying all over. There are some writing letters from the South to the North saying, ASlow up, you are going too fast. Well, I've never quite understood that. They talk about gradualism and I always felt that at least gradualism meant starting and moving, and how in the world can you slow up when you haven't even started? (Laughter) [applause] The gradualism that we hear so much talk about in the South now is an escape, is an excuse rather for Ado-nothingism and escapism which ends up in Astand-stillism. [recording interrupted]
We are not fighting for ourselves alone but we are fighting for this nation. (Amen) Go back and tell those people who are telling us to slow up that there are approximately two billion four hundred million people in this world. Go back and tell them that two-thirds of these people are colored. (Yes, sir) Go back and tell them that one billion six hundred million of the people of the world are colored. (Yes) Most of them live on two continents. Six hundred million in China. Four hundred million in India and Pakistan. A hundred million in Indonesia. Two hundred million in Africa. Eighty-six million in Japan. These people for years have lived under the bondage of colonialism and imperialism. (Yes, sir) One day they got tired. One day these people got tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression. (Yes) One day they got tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life's July, left standing in the piercing chill of an alpine November. So as a result of their tiredness they decided to rise up and protest against colonialism and imperialism. As a result of their rising up, more than one billion three hundred million of the colored peoples of the world have broken aloose from colonialism and imperialism. (Yes, sir) They have broken aloose from the Egypt of colonialism. [applause] They have broken aloose from the Egypt of colonialism, and now they are moving through the wilderness of adjustment toward the Promised Land of cultural integration. And as they look back you know what they are saying? ARacism and colonialism must go in this world. (Yes) They assembled in Bandung some months ago and that was the word that echoed from Bandung: "Racism and colonialism must go." [applause]
Just two weeks ago, in Africa and Europe, I talked with some of the major leaders of Asia and Africa. And this was the one point they stressed over and over again. Prime Minister Nkrumah and his finance minister N. K. Gbedema said to me, "Our sympathies are with the free world." There is something about America that we like but we are making it clear in the U.N. and in the other diplomatic circles around the world that beautiful words and extensive handouts can not be substitutes for the basic simple responsibility of giving freedom and justice to our colored brothers all over the United States. [applause] That is what they are saying around the world. And I say to you my friends, because of our love for America we can not slow up. (Yes)
Oh, the hour is getting late. (Yes) The clock of destiny is ticking out. (Go ahead) We've got to say this to the nation that we are not fighting for ourselves alone, we are fighting for this nation. (Yes) For if America doesn't wake up, she will one day arise and discover that the uncommitted peoples of the world will have given their allegiance to a false communistic ideology. I just wish this evening that somebody would take a fast plane over to Washington, (Go ahead) and just plead with Senator Eastland and his colleagues, (Alright) and say to him that the civil rights issue is not some ephemeral, evanescent domestic issue that can be kicked around by reactionary and hypocritical politicians. (Yes) But it is an eternal moral issue which may well determine the destiny of our nation in it's ideological struggle with communism. (Oh, yeah) [applause] The destiny of our nation is involved. We can't afford to slow up. (Yes, sir) The motor is now cranked up. We are moving up the highway of freedom toward the city of equality and we can't afford to slow up because our nation has a date with destiny. We've got to keep moving. We've got to keep moving. [applause]
I'm about through now, but that is a warning signal, a signal that must forever stand before us. (Yes) I've tried to say that we've come a long, long way and we have a long, long way to go. I've...
continued in next post...

 

A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations cont.

...tried to suggest some of the things that we must do in order to go the additional miles ahead. My friends, I can not leave you without saying that as we move on let us be sure that our methods are thoroughly moral and Christian. (Yes) [applause] This is one of the basic things confronting our nation. No matter what we suffer. I know it's really hard when we think of the tragic midnight of injustice and oppression that we've had to live under so many years, but let us not become bitter. Let us never indulge in hate campaigns, for we can't solve the problem like that. (No) Somebody must have sense in this world. (Amen) And to hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of hate in the universe. (Amen) We must not use violence. Maybe sometimes we will have to be the victims of violence but never let us be the perpetrators of violence (Amen). For if we succumb to the temptation of using violence in our struggle, unborn generations would be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness (Yes) and our chief legacy to the future would be an endless rain of meaningless chaos. We must not use violence. Oh, sometimes as we struggle it will be necessary to boycott. But let us remember as we boycott that a boycott is never an end. A boycott is merely means to awaken within the oppressor the sense of shame and to let him know that we don't like how we are being treated; but the end my friends is reconciliation, the end is redemption. (Yeah) And our aim must never be to defeat the white man or to humiliate him. Our aim must be to win his friendship and his understanding. [applause]
Oh, no matter how much we are mistreated there is still a voice crying through the vistas of time saying, "Love your enemy." (Yeah) "Bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you. [applause] And then, and only then, can you matriculate into the university of eternal life. (Yes) We must get a hold of this simple principle of love and let it be our guiding principle throughout our struggle.
This means that through this period we will need leaders on every hand and at every scene who will stress this. This is a time for sound and sane leadership. (Yes, sir) This is no period for rabble-rousers, whether the rabble-rouser be white or Negro. (That's right) We are grappling and dealing with the most complex, one of the most weighty and complex social issues of the centuries. (Go ahead, Go ahead, sir) This problem is deeply rooted in the emotions, deeply rooted in the customs and traditions of the South. And we can't solve the problem with misguided emotionalism. (No) This is a period for sane, sound, rational leadership. (Yes) We must be calm and yet positive at the same time. We must avoid the extremes of hard-headedness and uncle-Tomism. (Yes) Oh, this is a period for leaders. Leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with humanity. (Yes, sir) Leaders not in love with money, but in love with justice. (Yes) Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause. (Yes) Oh,
God give us leaders. (Yes)
A time like this demands great leaders. (Yes, sir)
Leaders whom the lust of office cannot kill;
Leaders whom the spoils of life cannot buy; (Yes)
Leaders who possess opinions and will; (Yes)
Leaders who will not lie;
Leaders who can stand before a demagogue and damn his
treacherous flatteries without winking. (Yes)
Tall leaders, (Yes) sun-crowned, who live above the fog
in public duty and in private thinking.
And this is the need my friends of the hour. This is the need all over the nation. In every community there is a dire need for leaders (Yes) who will lead the people, who stand today amid the wilderness toward the promise land of freedom and justice. God grant that ministers, and lay leaders, and civic leaders, and businessmen, and professional people all over the nation will rise up and use the talent and the finances that God has given them, and lead the people on toward the Promised Land of freedom with rational, calm, nonviolent means. This is the great challenge of the hour. (Yes)
And if we will do this my friends we will be able to speed up the coming of this new order, (Yes) which is destined to come. (Yes) This new world in which men will be able to live together as brothers. (Yes) This new world in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of all human personality. This new world in which men will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. (Yes) Yes, this new world in which men will no longer take necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes. (Yes, sir) This new world in which men will learn the old principle of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. They will hear once more the voice of Jesus crying out through the generations saying, "Love everybody." (Yes) This is that world. (Yes) Then right here in America we will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, (Amen)
Sweet land of liberty, (Amen)
Of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the Pilgrims pride,
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring.
As I heard a powerful orator say not long ago that must become literally true. (Yes) Freedom must ring from every mountain side. Let us go out this evening with that determination. Yes, let it ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. (Yes) Let it ring from the prodigious hill tops of New Hampshire. Let it ring from the mighty Alleghanies of Pennsylvania. Let it ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that. From every mountain side let freedom ring. (Yes) Yes, let us go out and be determined that freedom will ring from every mole hill in Mississippi. (Yes) Let it ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. (Yes) Let it ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. (Yes) Let it ring from every mountain and hill of Alabama. (Yes) From every mountain side (Yes) let freedom ring. (Yes) And when that happens we will be able to go out and sing a new song (Yeah, Yes): "Free at last, free at last, great God almighty I'm free at last." [applause]

 

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You're welcome, Jordan. Me too.

 

I'm sure they'd have sense enough to reschedule if need be. Think positive, Mikey. After all, this is a positive thread.

 

They'll figure it out...just keep those thoughts positive.

 

MIA Mass Meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church

MIA Mass Meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church:

December 5, 1955. Montgomery, Ala.

My friends, we are certainly very happy to see each of you out this evening. We are here this evening for serious business. [Audience:] (Yes) We are here in a general sense because first and foremost we are American citizens, (That’s right) and we are determined to apply our citizenship to the fullness of its meaning. (Yeah. That’s right) We are here also because of our love for democracy, (Yes) and because of our deep-seated belief that democracy transformed from thin paper to thick action (Yes) is the greatest form of government on earth. (That’s right)

But we are here in a specific sense because of the bus situation in Montgomery. (Yes) We are here because we are determined to get the situation corrected. This situation is not at all new. The problem has existed over endless years. (That’s right) For many years now, Negroes in Montgomery and so many other areas have been inflicted with the paralysis of crippling fears (Yes) on buses in our community. (That’s right) On so many occasions, Negroes have been intimidated and humiliated and oppressed because of the sheer fact that they were Negroes. (That’s right) I don't have time this evening to go into the history of these numerous cases. Many of them now are lost in the thick fog of obliion, (Yes) but at least one stands before us now with glaring dimensions. (All right)

Just the other day, just last Thursday to be exact, one of the finest citizens in Montgomery (Amen)—not one of the finest Negro citizens, (That’s right) but one of the finest citizens in Montgomery—was taken from a bus (Yes) and carried to jail and arrested (Yes) because she refused to get up to give her seat to a white person. (Well. That’s right) Now the press would have us believe that she refused to leave a reserved section for Negroes, (Yes) but I want you to know this evening that there is no reserved section. (All right) The law has never been clarified at that point. (Hell no) Now I think I speak with legal authority—not that I have any legal authority, but I think I speak with legal authority behind me (All right)—that the law, the ordinance, the city ordinance has never been totally clarified. (That’s right)

Mrs. Rosa Parks is a fine person. (Well. Well said) And since it had to happen I’m happy that it happened to a person like Mrs. Parks, (Yes) for nobody can doubt the boundless outreach of her integrity. (Sure enough) Nobody can doubt the height of her character. (Yes) Nobody can doubt the depth of her Christian commitment and devotion to the teachings of Jesus. (All right) And I’m happy, since it had to happen, it happened to a person that nobody can call a disturbing factor in the community. (All right) Mrs. Parks is a fine Christian person, unassuming, and yet there is integrity and character there. And just because she refused to get up, she was arrested.

You know, my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression. [Sustained applause] There comes a time, my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation, where they’d experienced the bleakness of nagging despair. (Keep talking) There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November. [Applause] There comes a time. [Applause continues] (Yes, sir. Speak)

And we are here, we are here this evening because we are tired now. (Yes) [Applause] And I want to say that we are not here advocating violence. (No) We have never done that. (Repeat that. Repeat that) [Applause] I want it to be known throughout Montgomery and throughout this nation (Well) that we are Christian people. (Yes) [Applause] We believe in the Christian religion. (Yes) We believe in the teachings of Jesus. (Well) The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest. (Yes) [Applause] That’s all.

And certainly, certainly, this is the glory of America, with all of its faults. (Yeah) This is the glory of our democracy. If we were incarcerated behind the iron curtains of a Communistic nation, we couldn’t do this. (Well. All right) If we were dropped in the dungeon of a totalitarian regime, we couldn’t do this. (All right) But the great glory of American democracy is the right to protest for right. (That’s right) [Applause]

My friends, don’t let anybody make us feel that we are to be compared in our actions with the Ku Klux Klan or with the White Citizens Council. [Applause] There will be no crosses burned at any bus stops in Montgomery. (Well. That’s right) There will be no white persons pulled out of their homes and taken out on some distant road and lynched for not cooperating. [Applause] There will be nobody among us who will stand up and defy the Constitution of this nation. [Applause] We only assemble here because of our desire to see right exist. [Applause]

My friends, I want it to be known that we’re going to work with grim and bold determination to gain justice on the buses in this city. [Applause] And we are not wrong; we are not wrong in what we are doing. (Well) If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. (Yes, sir) [Applause] If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. (Yes) [Applause] If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. (That's right) [Applause] If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer that never came down to Earth. (Yes) [Applause] If we are wrong, justice is a lie, (Yes) love has no meaning. [Applause] And we are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water, (Yes) and righteousness like a mighty stream. [Applause]

I want to say that in all of our actions, we must stick together. (That’s right) [Applause] Unity is the great need of the hour, (Well. That’s right) and if we are united we can get many of the things that we not only desire but which we justly deserve. (Yeah) And don’t let anybody frighten you. (Yeah) We are not afraid of what we are doing, (Oh no) because we are doing it within the law. (All right) And there is never a time in our American democracy that we must ever think we are wrong when we protest. (All right) We reserve that right. When labor all over this nation came to see that it would be trampled over by capitalistic powers, it was nothing wrong with labor getting together and organizing and protesting for its rights. (That's right) We, the disinherited of this land, we who have been oppressed so long, are tired of going through the long night of captivity. And now we are reaching out for the daybreak of freedom and justice and equality. [Applause]

May I say to you, my friends, as I come to a close, and just giving some idea of why we are assembled here, that we must keep—and I want to stress this, in all of our doings, in all of our deliberations here this evening and all of the week and while—whatever we do, we must keep God in the forefront. (Well. All right) Let us be Christian in all of our actions. (All right) But I want to tell you this evening that it is not enough for us to talk about love. Love is one of the pivotal points of the Christian faith, but there is another side called justice. And justice is really love in calculation. (All right) Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love. (Well)

The Almighty God himself is not the God just standing out saying through Hosea, "I love you, Israel." He’s also the God that stands up before the nations and says: "Be still and know that I'm God, (Yeah) that if you don’t obey me I will break the backbone of your power (Yeah) and slap you out of the orbits of your international and national relationships." (That’s right) Standing beside love is always justice, (Yeah) and we are only using the tools of justice. Not only are we using the tools of persuasion, but we’ve come to see that we’ve got to use the tools of coercion. Not only is this thing a process of education, but it is also a process of legislation. (Yeah) [Applause]

And as we stand and sit here this evening and as we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead, let us go out with a grim and bold determination that we are going to stick together. (Yeah) [Applause] We are going to work together. (Yeah) [Applause] Right here in Montgomery, when the history books are written in the future, (Yes) somebody will have to say, "There lived a race of people (Well), a black people, (Yes, sir) ‘fleecy locks and black complexion,’ (Yes) but a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights. [Applause] And thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and of civilization." And we’re going to do that. God grant that we will do it before it is too late. (Oh yeah) As we proceed with our program, let us think of these things. (Yes) [Applause]

 

Eulogy for the Martyred Children

Eulogy for the Martyred Children
September 18, 1963. Birmingham, Ala.

This afternoon we gather in the quiet of this sanctuary to pay our last tribute of respect to these beautiful children of God. They entered the stage of history just a few years ago, and in the brief years that they were privileged to act on this mortal stage, they played their parts exceedingly well. Now the curtain falls; they move through the exit; the drama of their earthly life comes to a close. They are now committed back to that eternity from which they came.

These children—unoffending, innocent, and beautiful—were the victims of one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity. Yet they died nobly. They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity.

And so this afternoon in a real sense they have something to say to each of us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. They have something to say to every politician [Audience:] (Yeah) who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. They have something to say to a federal government that has compromised with the undemocratic practices of southern Dixiecrats (Yeah) and the blatant hypocrisy of right-wing northern Republicans. (Speak) They have something to say to every Negro (Yeah) who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice. They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. (Mmm) They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream.

And so my friends, they did not die in vain. (Yeah) God still has a way of wringing good out of evil. (Oh yes) And history has proven over and over again that unmerited suffering is redemptive. The innocent blood of these little girls may well serve as a redemptive force (Yeah) that will bring new light to this dark city. (Yeah. Mmm) The holy Scripture says, "A little child shall lead them." (Well) The death of these little children may lead our whole Southland (Well) from the low road of man's inhumanity to man to the high road of peace and brotherhood. (Yeah) These tragic deaths may lead our nation to substitute an aristocracy of character for an aristocracy of color. The spilled blood of these innocent girls may cause the whole citizenry of Birmingham (Yeah) to transform the negative extremes of a dark past into the positive extremes of a bright future. (Mmm) Indeed, this tragic event may cause the white South to come to terms with its conscience. (Yeah)

And so I stand here to say this afternoon to all assembled here that in spite of the darkness of this hour, (Well) we must not despair. (Well) We must not become bitter, (Yeah. That’s right) nor must we harbor the desire to retaliate with violence. (Mmm) No, we must not lose faith in our white brothers. (Yeah) Somehow we must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and the worth of all human personality.

May I now say a word to you, the members of the bereaved families? It is almost impossible to say anything that can console you at this difficult hour and remove the deep clouds of disappointment which are floating in your mental skies. But I hope you can find a little consolation from the universality of this experience. Death comes to every individual. There is an amazing democracy about death. It is not aristocracy for some of the people, but a democracy for all of the people. Kings die and beggars die; rich men and poor men die; old people die and young people die. Death comes to the innocent and it comes to the guilty. Death is the irreducible common denominator of all men.

I hope you can find some consolation from Christianity's affirmation that death is not the end. Death is not a period that ends the great sentence of life, but a comma that punctuates it to more lofty significance. Death is not a blind alley that leads the human race into a state of nothingness, but an open door which leads man into life eternal. Let this daring faith, this great invincible surmise, be your sustaining power during these trying days.

Now I say to you in conclusion, life is hard, at times as hard as crucible steel. (Mmm) It has its bleak and difficult moments. Like the ever-flowing waters of the river, life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. (Yeah) Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons, life has the soothing warmth of its summers and the piercing chill of its winters. (Yeah) But if one will hold on, he will discover that God walks with him, (Yeah. Well) and that God is able (Yeah) to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace. (Mmm)

And so today, you do not walk alone. You gave to this world wonderful children. (Mmm) They didn’t live long lives, but they lived meaningful lives. (Well) Their lives were distressingly small in quantity, but glowingly large in quality. (Yeah) And no greater tribute can be paid to you as parents, and no greater epitaph can come to them as children, than where they died and what they were doing when they died. (Yeah) They did not die in the dives and dens of Birmingham, (Well) nor did they die discussing and listening to filthy jokes. (Yeah) They died between the sacred walls of the church of God (Yeah) and they were discussing the eternal meaning (Yes) of love. This stands out as a beautiful, beautiful thing for all generations. (Yes) Shakespeare had Horatio to say some beautiful words as he stood over the dead body of Hamlet. And today, as I stand over the remains of these beautiful, darling girls, I paraphrase the words of Shakespeare (Well): Good night, sweet princesses. (Mmm) Good night, those who symbolize a new day. (Yeah) And may the flight of angels (That’s right) take thee to thy eternal rest. God bless you

 

The Purpose of Education

The Purpose of Education

by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
Morehouse College Student Paper, The Maroon Tiger, in 1947

As I engage in the so-called "bull sessions" around and about the school, I too often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education. Most of the "brethren" think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. Still others think that education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an end.
It seems to me that education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture. Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the ligitimate goals of his life.

Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one's self is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda. At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.

The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.

The late Eugene Talmadge, in my opinion, possessed one of the better minds of Georgia, or even America. Moreover, he wore the Phi Beta Kappa key. By all measuring rods, Mr. Talmadge could think critically and intensively; yet he contends that I am an inferior being. Are those the types of men we call educated?

We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living.

If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, "brethren!" Be careful, teachers!