Early morning, April four

[KQ]

Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

[grskier]

He'd be 89 if still alive today. NPR has been doing some good stories about Memphis this morning.

[Benny Profane]

A must visit in Memphis is the civil rights museum. They built it using the hotel he was killed in as a facade, of sorts. You can walk right up to the spot where he was shot and look into the two rooms his party was staying in. Place is potent.

[Danno]

He'd be 89 if still alive today.

I occasionally wonder what things would like if he were still alive (or more accurately, had not been assassinated and lived a "normal" life span). would we be much better off than now? Worse (because there was a "martyr" effect)? Would his personal indiscretions have come to light and muted his impact in later life?

[KQ]

I occasionally wonder what things would like if he were still alive (or more accurately, had not been assassinated and lived a "normal" life span). would we be much better off than now? Worse (because there was a "martyr" effect)? Would his personal indiscretions have come to light and muted his impact in later life?

His children gave an interview the other day and said that it was his death that made people truly hear his message. They doubted it would have been as powerful as it was/is had he lived.

[Mazderati]

Local program discussed MLK the peacemaker as kind of a whitewashed history; that MLK was a resistor and disruptor with no shortage of detractors. Pertinent in the context of contemporary movements like Black Lives Matter.

[Mazderati]

[KQ]

A must visit in Memphis is the civil rights museum. They built it using the hotel he was killed in as a facade, of sorts. You can walk right up to the spot where he was shot and look into the two rooms his party was staying in. Place is potent.

The Lorraine Motel and Martin Luther King

[refried]

I remember it well, Our house was looted. Everything gone, pets killed, house destroyed, never went back, nothing to go back to. Spent the night in a motel, Got a bottle of orange juice from the machine by the office.

[fastfred]

sorry to rain on the parade
but his family is nothing but money grubbers, it has little do with his mission but all about suing people who use his image and words without paying a fee

"No Malcolm X in my history text
Why is that?
Cause he tried to educate and liberate all blacks
Why is Martin Luther King in my book each week?
He told blacks, if they get smacked, turn the other cheek
I don't get it, so many questions went through my mind"

funny how the system chooses who we celebrate and who we don't

[iceman]

His family is also convinced that James Earl Ray didn't do it. And considering the times, and the evidence, they may well be right. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.d6c44fd7c08a

The riots were bad in DC. It's only quite recently that the last big scars have been finally erased and I'm sure there's traces here and there yet today. The Post has been doing a lot on it, they had a big special section of 1968 in the Sunday paper a the week before last and came out with this piece on the riots today. It's good:


https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...=.9fc42bf04c4d
pretty good piece^^ worth checking out

[The AD]

Bono made a slight error, of course. King was killed at 6:01 pm, not in the morning.

[KQ]

It's the message. It's all about the message. I do my best to not lose sight of it.

[GiBo]

Bono made a slight error, of course. King was killed at 6:01 pm, not in the morning.

Which is weird, because how hard would it be to write it as "Early evening, April fourth..."

It's the message. It's all about the message. I do my best to not lose sight of it.

Right? I could give a shit about others who rioted, what his kids are monetizing, if he had detractors at the time, if he had personal shortcomings etc...

His message of non-violent protest, love even those who hate you and that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL AND DESERVE EQUAL RIGHTS is what it he was about. He knew damn well he would probably killed for that message. There's not many who have that level commitment to a cause.

[KQ]

Which is weird, because how hard would it be to write it as "Early evening, April fourth..."

Maybe he was confused. Dublin is 6 hours ahead or maybe it's just poetic license.

Right? I could give a shit about others who rioted, what his kids are monetizing, if he had detractors at the time, if he had personal shortcomings etc...

His message of non-violent protest, love even those who hate you and that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL AND DESERVE EQUAL RIGHTS is what it he was about. He knew damn well he would probably killed for that message. There's not many who have that level commitment to a cause.

Martin Luther King Jr. excerpt "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

"I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

[mcski]

Which is weird, because how hard would it be to write it as "Early evening, April fourth..."
.

Messes up the symbolism in the next line? Red sky at night, sailors delight and all.

[iceman]

I remember it well, Our house was looted. Everything gone, pets killed, house destroyed, never went back, nothing to go back to. Spent the night in a motel, Got a bottle of orange juice from the machine by the office.

Where did you guys live?

[SumJongGuy]

I was halfway through this thread and have known all week today was that day.. But just now realized I'm wearing a U2 concert shirt today. Cue twilight zone.. sub conscious choice no doubt..

[refried]

Where did you guys live?

Roosevelt, On Long Island. Home of Sandra Dee, Howard Stern, Dr. Jay, And Flavo Flave, Quite a drop isn't it. When Howard Stern was funny he used to talk about how bad Roosevelt was, He wasn't kidding. They started Block Busting and the town went from a mixed neighborhood to a slum in a few years. When I lived in NY I think I may have driven up Brookside ave once to see our old house, We lived on a corner, It was nothing like I remembered
There was an old biker who lived across the street, he never moved, he had quite a few stories about protecting his home.

We were up in Boston at my Grandparents houses at the time, My Mother just had a baby a couple weeks before and this was maybe their first trip back up there. I remember having to leave without much notice or reason. We drove up to the front of the house (instead of in the driveway), my Father went in and came back out. Being four at the time I don't remember everything or my parents conversation on the way to the motel but we never went back nor do we have anything from that house,

[Benny Profane]

First time I heard that song was when this movie opened. My jaw dropped watching Rosie dance.

[GeezerSteve]

Bono made a slight error, of course. King was killed at 6:01 pm, not in the morning.

It was early morning at Bono's place.

I remember hearing the news. My mama cried.

The Congressional hearings re James Earl Ray were bizarre. Raoul?

[Bunion 2020]

I remember it well, Our house was looted. Everything gone, pets killed, house destroyed, never went back, nothing to go back to. Spent the night in a motel, Got a bottle of orange juice from the machine by the office.

I was about 10 and living in Memphis at the time. Thanks to some level headed Black leaders the city didn't totally erupt.

[old goat]

He was of course unpopular with most whites at the time of his death due to his opposition to the Vietnam War and because, as Vernon Jordan pointed out this evening on the PBS news, whites thought the civil rights movement was won with the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act so why did black people keep wanting more. Many blacks were frustrated with his nonviolence once the initial success of the movement stalled. King's big cause at the end of his life was economic opportunity and he was unsuccessful--the economic gap between black and white is if anything greater today than it was in his time. Would he have been successful had he been given more time? I doubt it. Recent years have seen the rolling back even of the Voting Rights Act, with its gutting by the SCOTUS and new restrictions on voting that primarily affect minorities and the poor in many states. A black (have African half white American) President notwithstanding.

King is remembered as much for his oratory as for anything else, but the pure physical courage of King and all of the civil rights workers and marchers in the South in the 50's and 60's is astounding. I wonder if people who were born after that time realize how dangerous it was to be black in the South then.

[FLS]

I remember watching the tv. Seeing the hoses and dogs turned against people, and asking my mom if this was real.

[KQ]

He was of course unpopular with most whites at the time of his death due to his opposition to the Vietnam War and because, as Vernon Jordan pointed out this evening on the PBS news, whites thought the civil rights movement was won with the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act so why did black people keep wanting more. Many blacks were frustrated with his nonviolence once the initial success of the movement stalled. King's big cause at the end of his life was economic opportunity and he was unsuccessful--the economic gap between black and white is if anything greater today than it was in his time. Would he have been successful had he been given more time? I doubt it. Recent years have seen the rolling back even of the Voting Rights Act, with its gutting by the SCOTUS and new restrictions on voting that primarily affect minorities and the poor in many states. A black (have African half white American) President notwithstanding.

King is remembered as much for his oratory as for anything else, but the pure physical courage of King and all of the civil rights workers and marchers in the South in the 50's and 60's is astounding. I wonder if people who were born after that time realize how dangerous it was to be black in the South then.

It was dangerous to be any color if you supported the civil rights movement: Viola Liuzzo