January 16, 2024

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - On March 31, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached at the National Cathedral on the last Sunday he lived. On that occasion, his sermon was entitled, “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.”

Four days later, on April 4, 1968, a bullet fired by a deranged racist fatally stopped Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

Andrew Young, the former US Ambassador to the UN, said Sunday night that he, Ralph Abernathy, Richard Hatchet, and other King aides tried to stop King from going back to Memphis.

But Young, who spoke at the National Cathedral last Sunday, remembered King saying, “No. I am going to catch the 6 o'clock plane to Memphis.”

Five decades later, the words and ideals of King, known as the “drum major for justice” are still carrying the rhythm for current local and national leaders who, on his birthday holiday, January 15, 2024, were marching, preaching, and praying for a new day to come.

“The battle for the soul of our Nation is perennial — a constant struggle between hope and fear, kindness and cruelty, and justice and injustice,” President Joe Biden said in the proclamation declaring January 15th, a federal holiday which falls on King’s birthday. “On this day, may we recommit to being guided by Dr. King’s light and the charge of Scripture…Let us never grow weary in doing what is right, for if we do not give up, we will reap our harvest in due time.”

In cities and towns across the country, the King federal holiday was celebrated in many ways. In Washington, DC, Martin Luther King III, his wife, and their daughter spoke at a prayer breakfast sponsored by Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network.

“What a wonderful time to be together as it falls on what would have been the 95th birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.,” said MLK III’s wife Andrea Waters King. “We could not have thought to be in any other place than with the people in this room. The people in this room deal every single day with the facts of what is going on in our nation and the fact right now is that we are a little further away from the dream. The fact is that it’s harder to vote than when our daughter was born.”  

King III said, “So comes to mind to me on what dad said. The first thing we must hue out of a mountain of despair is a stone of hope. When you look at a world that is in great turmoil, we are certainly are much aware of the Israeli-Palestinian turmoil beyond unconscionable conflict. We are certainly aware of what is going on in Russia and the Ukraine but rarely talk about what is going on in the African continent where there are huge conflicts in Congo, and Sudan, in fact, there are 30 conflicts now.”

King III continued, “Somehow humankind has to come together. That’s what Dad and Mom would have wanted. I guess this actual day they are looking down and saying what are you all going to do?  Are we going with thermometers or thermostats? A thermometer Dad said is a great device, but it basically records the temperature. But there is another device called a thermostat that regulates the temperature. We have to decide are we are going to record and get along or whether are we going to regulate goodness and Justice and righteousness for humankind.”

King said that the King Center and the NFL would be launching a “Service initiative,” to create a program where young people would be involved in 100 million hours of service by Dad's 100th birthday five years from now.”

Rev. Sharpton, the host, told the crowd, “The Civil Rights movement should be celebrated. It should be continued…Dr King did not say that we would not have battles. What the Supreme Court did with the Voting Rights Act is to go backward,” he said. “Which means that our children are going forward with fewer opportunities than we had.”

Governor Wes Moore joined six other honorees at the breakfast.

Moore said, “In our state, we have made our North Star very clear. We are going to focus on work, wages and wealth for all of our citizens and not just some. We are going to be the first state in this country to end the racial wealth gap.”

Moore continued, “We want it all. We want peanut butter and jelly. We want earth, wind, and fire. We work together, we make sure that we are a society that we leave no one behind…That’s the assignment and I am honored to be able to receive this not an award but a reminder.”

As Moore left the stage, Sharpton said, “Governor Wes Moore. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

Andrew Young, among the last living civil rights leaders who walked with King, told those gathered at the National Cathedral that he later realized that King “knew his days were numbered.”

Young concluded, “The sanitation workers were a perfect example of people working hard…They had no benefits, no retirement, and no insurance of any kind and were virtually enslaved people. He was determined to go back, and I think he knew because of the way he acted the next few days, he knew he was going to his death.”