The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.

F7 | LIFESTYLE by Kelechi Iwumene.
Jan 2, 2016
7 min read

When was the last time you went to the library? For most of us, this question cannot be easily answered. During last year, I discovered that what used to be my local library was undergoing some major renovations. The council decided to fund a building project that would house the new and improved Camberwell Library. After a number of delays, the facility was completed and opened to the public. Located in between Camberwell Green Park and the Magistrates Court, Camberwell Library is away from the hustle of the major traffic junction that connects Vauxhall with Lewisham, and Brixton with London Bridge. I had passed through the area on many occasions as a child who lived five minutes away. So visiting the new facility for the first time brought back many memories.

If there was any incentive to get me back amongst the books of a library it would be the excitement of experiencing a new space where one can study. The first thing I noticed when walking into the new building was the large amount of children that were present with their families. I realised that the council had built a space where a new community of local individuals can thrive. The men and women who worked there all carried an air of pride whilst carrying out their roles and responsibilities. I generally got the impression of elation in the atmosphere; people were happy but they were also deep in study. And I recalled the idea that Dr Myles Monroe pushed; the idea that men should devote themselves to acquiring knowledge; that our homes should be living libraries. Looking through the 27,000 new items of stock added to the shelves, I was spoilt for choice for what to read. I first went to the classic section but ended up in Black Writings. I did not imagine that I would be there for as a long as I was.

Eventually I settled upon reading The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr edited by Clayborne Carson. The blurb reads:

the mild mannered, inquisitive child and student who rebelled against segregation; the dedicated young minister who constantly questioned the depths of his faith and the limits of his wisdom; the loving husband and father who sought to balance his family needs with those of a growing nationwide movement; and the reflective, world famous leader who was fired by a vision of equality for people everywhere.

To express how inspired I have been, reading this book, is an understatement. Martin Luther Jr’s courage stood in the face of violent hatred and incredible political opposition. The amount of times Luther Jr and his fellow supporters were criticised, jailed, and even threatened with death is immense. Imprisonment became standard procedure and a somewhat honour to the many Negros who suffered to fight for racial equality in segregated states.

What also strikes me about Martin Luther Jr’s account was the intensity and consistency of his conviction for social justice. I have to admit that the account is a hefty read even at 366 pages. Why? Because through all the betrayals, disappointments, demonstrations and court hearings Luther Jr preaches the same message of hope for a brighter and fairer future. At some points his narrative got me frustrated; the repetition of the slogan ‘Freedom Now!’ and the recounts of Negroes singing ‘We Shall Overcome!’ became irritating, for it challenged the deep rooted cynicism that I, amongst many, can admit to carrying at some point.

That’s the thing about individuals that inspire you; it is not merely your identification with their human weaknesses and bouts of despair that compels you to act, but it is their ability to rise from their dark moments and challenge you to do the same that changes you. However, I secretly welcomed the philosophical split that occurred in the civil rights movement, in Mississippi 1966. The attack on civil rights campaigner James Meredith during his ‘March Against Fear’ sparked bitterness in the black community about the governments unfaithful approach to the civil rights issue. Instead of shouting the slogan ‘Freedom Now!’ demonstrators were shouting ‘Black Power!’ I confess it felt nice to read about a more violent approach to social reform, especially after reading about the indignities the Negro faced in the southern states. Some of these humiliating atrocities of segregation included forcing Negroes to pay for their bus fare to the driver, ordering them to get off the bus to enter by the back where Jim Crow laws designated them to enter, but closing the doors and driving off without them. I know I would be disappointed to still see this happening even after events like the Montgomery Bus Boycott had forced the abolition of the states segregated bus law. Yet it was Luther Jr’s experience and pure, unquenched passion for social justice that explains the danger of ideas that stem from bitter disappointment:

…revolution born of despair cannot long be sustained by despair. This was the ultimate contradiction of the Black Power movement. It claimed to be the most revolutionary wing of the social revolution taking place in the United States. Yet it rejected the one thing that keeps the fire of revolutions burning: the ever-present flame of hope. When hope dies, a generation degenerates into an undiscriminating catchall for evanescent and futile gestures. (page 329)

I cannot help but compare this observation of disappointment breeding despair breeding bitterness, with the racially driven riots that have taken place in areas like Fergusson, Missouri. I articulated my thoughts in a poem:

Ferguson Missouri.

Who would want to

be a part of those

abusing the abused?

I do; if you can’t beat them

educate yourself enough

so you can join them

then take them down

from the inside out.

Bread Unleavened.

My guy was shot in the

back five times by a

little leaven. Now a little

eleven year old boy

addresses a panel

gathered around what

looks like a large

dining table:

We need more security

and less sanctions

Power is what we’re

fighting for; a

phenomenon that

has no diplomacy

because it originates

from an individual and

not a collective.

2040: I could

feel more secure

with an eleven year old

idealist as president.

Why?

Because I would

take comfort

in manipulating the

impressionable—

if I ever had to.

Weak leaders and

strong followers;

weak followers and

strong leaders.

The ingredients for

systemic violence.

Tear gas lights up

these city streets

with white smoke and

pockets of bright sunlight;

it disperses the

dark crowd:

This is no longer a

peaceful protest!

It takes two to fight.

Amongst the tyrants

arresting tyrants I saw

someone like Oyelowo

in a black suit

with his hands

behind his head.

And yes

it was Oyelowo

in a black suit

with his hands

behind his head

knocked over by a

sister escaping arrest.

Instead of

running to his aid

I turned and ran away;

survival instinct

kicked in; the

mental image of my

children flashed before

my watery eyes

like police sirens. Then

the megaphone cried:

You want to be treated fairer

but you fail to behave better;

you want to protest

but you don’t even vote!

Luther Jr’s criticism of violence as a tool for social reform was an identified problem that did not lack a tangible solution. The introduction of programs like Operation Breadbasket was the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s (SCLC) non-violent direct way of forcing merchants and local businesses to respect the Negro as much as they respected their dollar. I think our generation needs to rediscover and appreciate the power of boycotting when advocating social justice. I reiterate just how much this book makes you think about the culture of inequality socially, politically, economically, intellectually, and not just racially. A few more of the quotes that I loved from this book I will happily share in hope that you, the reader, will be inspired too (and no, I haven’t included his speech from the 1963 March on Washington—even though that speech is a really good one when you read or listen to all of it):

. Genuine peace is not the absence of tension but the presence of justice.

. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

. Like life, racial understanding is not something that we find but something that we create.

. Power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose…power without love is reckless and abusive…love without power is sentimental and anaemic.

. I would rather be a man of conviction than a man of conformity.

. Hate is just as injurious to the hater as it is to the hated…Lover or perish. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

. President Kennedy: Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

. On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ And

Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But Conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’

. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of convenience, but where he stands in moments of challenge, moments of great crisis and controversy.

If you have never found something so dear and so precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live.

. When creative statesmanship wanes, irrational militarism increases.

. When you have mass unemployment in the Negro community, it’s called a social problem; when you have mass unemployment in the white community, its called a depression.

. The American people are infected with racism- that is the peril. Paradoxically, they are also infected with democratic ideals- that is the hope. While doing wrong, they have the potential to do right.

. You will never be what you ought to be until they (who are less fortunate) are what they ought to be.

Freedom is not something that is voluntarily given by the oppressor. It is something that must be demanded by the oppressed.

. I guess one of the great agonies of life is that we are constantly trying to finish that which is unfinishable. We are commanded to do that. Life is a continual story of shattered dreams…The dream may not come today or it may not come tomorrow, but it is well that it is within thine heart. It is well that you are trying.

. Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.

. We either go up together or we go down together. Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.

. Instead of asking: ‘If I stop to help this person in need, what will happen to me?’ We should ask the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this person in need, what will happen to them?’