2008 Woodie Awards
After 40 years, King's legacy remains
Kasey Henricks
Issue date: 4/2/08 Section: Perspectives
It was 6:05 p.m. Thurs., April 4, 1968. One shot rang out in Memphis at the Lorraine Motel. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. Rev. Ralph Abernathy, of Birmingham, bent down to cradle King's head as Jesse Jackson and other members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference pointed across the street towards where the shot was fired. Soon after, King was rushed to St. Joseph's hospital where he was pronounced dead.
King has meant many things to many people. However, he is not remembered for his silence. As the reverend once said, "A time comes when silence is betrayal." No one has changed history by remaining silent. King was a man whose words put truth to power. A bullet may have ended King's life, but his dream lives on. Forty years after his death, his legacy remains.
Many conservatives remember the King who marched on Washington, D.C. to deliver his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. King shared: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
And many liberals recall the King who criticized the Vietnam War and declared that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." In a speech entitled "Beyond Vietnam" given at Riverside Church in New York City, King preached: "It should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam."
Others remember the more radical King who argued for policies like reparations and affirmative action. In his work "Why We Can't Wait," King wrote, "Whenever this issue of compensatory or preferential treatment is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality, they agree, but should ask for nothing more. On the surface, this appears reasonable, but it is not realistic. For it is obvious that if a man enters the starting line of a race 300 years after another man, the first would have to perform some incredible feat to catch up."
King has meant many things to many people. However, he is not remembered for his silence. As the reverend once said, "A time comes when silence is betrayal." No one has changed history by remaining silent. King was a man whose words put truth to power. A bullet may have ended King's life, but his dream lives on. Forty years after his death, his legacy remains.
Many conservatives remember the King who marched on Washington, D.C. to deliver his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. King shared: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
And many liberals recall the King who criticized the Vietnam War and declared that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." In a speech entitled "Beyond Vietnam" given at Riverside Church in New York City, King preached: "It should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam."
Others remember the more radical King who argued for policies like reparations and affirmative action. In his work "Why We Can't Wait," King wrote, "Whenever this issue of compensatory or preferential treatment is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality, they agree, but should ask for nothing more. On the surface, this appears reasonable, but it is not realistic. For it is obvious that if a man enters the starting line of a race 300 years after another man, the first would have to perform some incredible feat to catch up."
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