Members and Guests:
We are here this morning before the national holiday celebrating the life of a great American leader, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. He would have been 84 years old this year. He championed a civil rights movement in the United States and the world, for just over twelve years.
He was assassinated on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39. Most of his accomplishments and quotes can be found in history books and online. In our Capitol Rotunda we have a display commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, produced by the California Legislative Black Caucus. In the movement we say, “bullets can kill the dreamer, but they cannot kill the dream.” Last year, President Obama dedicated the monument to Dr. King on the Capitol Mall in Washington, D.C. This is the only monument on the Capitol Mall erected for an individual other than a president.
2013 marks several milestones in the civil rights movement. On January 1, 1863, 150 years ago, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. A special account of this episode in American History is currently depicted in the movie Lincoln by Steven Spielberg. Unfortunately, no one told the slaves about their freedom until June 19, 1865. This historical event is the reason why we in the African-American community celebrate “Juneteenth.”
On June 12, 1963, 50 years ago in Jackson, Mississippi, civil rights leader, Medgar Evers was assassinated. Last year, I had the honor of being present for the launching of the United States Navy ship named in his memory in San Diego.
On September 15, 1963, also 50 years ago, we still mourn one of the more tragic events of the civil rights movement. On this day Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins, remembered by many simply as “4 Little Girls” made the supreme sacrifice in the name of freedom when their church, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed.
Eugene Patterson, former editor of the Atlanta Constitution won a Pulitzer Prize for his famous column entitled, “A Flower for the Graves” for the “4 Little Girls,” when he said, “A Negro mother wept in the street Sunday morning in front of a Baptist Church in Birmingham,” Patterson began his column. “In her hand she held a shoe, one shoe, from the foot of her dead child. We hold that shoe with her.” Mr. Patterson passed away at the age of 89 on January 12, 2013. May he rest in peace.
2013 also marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington where Dr. King delivered his famous, “I Have A Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. On August 28, 1963, Dr. King proclaimed that the days of legal separation in the United States were numbered. I always want to remind people that the March on Washington was organized by Bayard Rustin, an African-American labor organizer who was also gay.
On April 3, 1968, Dr. King gave his last sermon. Speaking to a group of striking garbage workers in Memphis, Tennessee, he gave what I believe was certainly his most prophetic, if not most important sermon. Not simply because he referenced his own death, but because he drew a parallel to a famous biblical character with whom he would share a similar fate. The title of the sermon was, “I See the Promised Land.” Before I read a portion of that sermon I want to illustrate the parallel.
Reading from the NIV version of the Bible, Deuteronomy 34:1-5.
“Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land – from Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. Then the Lord said to him, ‘This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, I will give it to your descendants. I will let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.’ And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab.”
Dr. King, speaking in a church in Memphis, over two thousand years later:
“We’ve got some difficult days ahead, but it really doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountain top and I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life, longevity has its place, but I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain top. And I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the Promised Land. So I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything – I’m not fearing any man Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
And the next day, he was gone. Thirty-nine years after he was born in Atlanta, Georgia, this 20th Century Moses who led this nation away from Jim Crow segregation departed this Earth. Speaking to his friends, Dr. King said, “At my funeral don’t let them preach too long. Don’t tell them I won a Nobel Prize or any of those things. Sing just one song that sums up what I tried to do.”
If I can help somebody, as I pass along,
If I can cheer somebody with word or song,
If I can show somebody, how they’re travelling wrong,
Then my living shall not be in vain.
If I can do my duty as a good “Senator” ought,
If I can bring back beauty, to a world up wrought,
If I can spread love’s message as the master taught.
Then my living shall not be in vain.
May this be God’s will.