lead me on, let me stand
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” Martin Luther King
Mind, spirit, action. Did any 20th century thinker see as clearly as Dr. Martin Luther King how our humanity and future depended so much on all three?
Recently I read an unattributed comment that Dr. King considered music to be the soul of the Civil Rights movement. I’ve no idea if that is an accurate assessment of his opinion on music - it’s hard to imagine anything speaking to the soul more profoundly than his own words. So I’ve put some of both here today: words and music.
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education” -MLK
People Get Ready (Curtis Mayfield, sung by Taylor Hicks)
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” - MLK
Deliver Us (Jason Ricci - written in response to 9/11, but fits here, too, for me)
Jesse Jackson recalls how, on April 4th, 1968, Dr. King asked saxophonist Ben Branch to play his favorite song that night, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.” Branch readily agreed, but King didn’t live to hear it. At his funeral in Atlanta, that song was sung by the great Mahalia Jackson:
categories: music
tags: common ground, Jason Ricci, Mahalia Jackson, MLK, taylor hicks
posted by what at 03:00 am
I wonder after watching the news about people visiting each others churches in Ohio and one woman claiming, “they stay in their community we stay in ours and that’s the way it is”, have things really changed?
I for one will never understand these thought processes to divide by color of skin.
A very nice tribute, what, to a man who put himself “in the right place at the right time.”
I like this MLK quote, which is featured in the movie “Driving Miss Daisy.”
“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
I looked it up on Google to get the wording right – no doubt it is an accurate quote because in the movie Daisy was at a Martin Luther King speech, and they used a recording of the actual speech for realism. While on Google I found this quote I like too – can’t vouch for it’s authenticity, though:
“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.”
Karen, I love those words of Dr. King, too. He had a way of knowing what we need. It’s always amazing to me what a huge capacity we have for stupidity and divisiveness, seeing the problem when it’s other people, but ignoring it in our own dealings. Good time to take stock.
I moved to Shreveport, LA in 1990 and went to work at a university library. My boss was black (I’m white) and we got along well. When we all broke for lunch, I walked into the cafeteria my myself, spotted her sitting with two other black women who worked at the library and asked if I could join them.
The whole room went silent. It was so bizarre. My boss hesitated, but said yes. The attitude at the table went from relaxed and playful to stiff and formal. I had broken some kind of social mores.
Back at work, I noticed blacks and whites chatted, socialized and worked together just fine, but outside of the library, they went their separate ways.
Months later, I invited one of my favorite people from work (who happened to be black) to my baby shower. I was told later by the hostess that I should have “warned” her beforehand. It still gives me a sick feeling when I think about it.
We were transfered soon after and sold our house to a black woman. Well, you can imagine how that went over. I still can’t wrap my head around that kind of mentality. It was eye-opening to see that that kind of racial separation still exists in our country.
Nice post, what. Very thought provoking.
I wanted to post the I Have a Dream speech, because no matter how many times I hear it, I still get chills. It is a symphony of words, a brilliant painting of ideas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEMXaTktUfA&feature=related
I am from a biracial family. My stepfather is black. This is more common in France now, but way back then, we were a bit of an oddity! My mom, a small woman with platinum blond hair, my dad, a tall muscular black man who towered over most French men of the time, my four brothers and sisters, who came in all shades of brown, and me. We cut quite a picture this family of mine, but not everyone was able to appreciate it! I sat at the table of brotherhood, literally, and I think, hell, I KNOW I am a better person for it. Well, except for the fact that I still resent my sister for the fact that she gets a great dark apricot tan after one day in the sun, and all I ever do is burn to a crisp!