Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • Page 12

12 Tuesday, April 1968 Mattoon JOURNAL-GAZETTE Promised Lund9 Tve Seen the to free his children and his white brethren from a permanent death, of the spirit, then nothing could be more redemp tive." And In Memphis the night before his death, King told a rally that while he would like to live establishment he so profoundly disturbed and later even among members, of hi? own race disputed his position and ques-" tioned his tactics of leadership, the civil Tights movement. That leadership came early and quick to Kingv Born In, lanta Jan. 15, 1929, the son and grandson of preachers, King was fresh out of Boston University with a doctor's degree in systematic theology and barely settled in Montgomery In his first pastorate when the boycott against segregated buses began there in December 1955. His prestige and influence By DON OAKLEY Newspaper Enterprise Assn. Because the world is sick at -soul, a man who devoted'his life to the betterment of his people's lot through nonviolent means has died at the hands of violence.

There is a saying that one measurement of a man's greatness is the number of enemies he makes. From the day in 1955 when he jumped into national prominence as the leader of a Negro bus boycott in Montgomery, Martin Luther King Jr. never lacked for enemies both among the white and jail sentences, King attacked improper social conditions everywhere he found them, In the smug cities of the North as well as his native South. Now his enemies have silenced him. In the only way 'they "could; Silenced' the man, that Is, not what he stood fori That It came to this would not have, surprised King.

Years ago, explaining his philosophy of nonviolent resistance to injustice, he wrote: "It may mean going to Jail It may even mean physical death. But if physical death is the price that a man must pay among Negroes spread rapidly from then on. The time was ripe and the need was pressing for such a spokesman and burner-carrier. King did not shirk from the call. "A minister should attempt to Improve social conditions of men at every" point "where they are not proper educational, social and economic," he once said.

"He must not only change a man's soul tiiit a man's environment, too." Through his Southern Christian Leadership Conference, by means of fund-raising drives, speeches, marches and demonstrations, and despite beatings a long life T77nn vm concerned about that. "I just want to do God's will and he Has allowed me to go up the mountain and I've looked over and I've seen the promised land." Perhaps the day will come when the enemies of Martin Luther King attain the wisdom to understand those words. 1 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -I -1 i A high point for the civil rights movenient and for King came in the 1963 March on Washington.

In the presence of President Kennedy and a host of government leaders, be spoke front the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to thousands of white and Negro supporters of racial equality. The milestone marches continued. From Selma to Montgomery in 1965, King, with bis wife, Coretta, was again in the 4 A woman weeps at bier of Dr. King fi I long Live the King Says Rev. Abernathy After Murder "My husband often told the children that if a man had nothing worth dying for, then be was not fit to live.

He said also that it's not how long you live but how well yon live," Mrs. Martin Luther King Jr. said at Ebenerer Baptist Church. i li I iLii iT i 0 vl 1 1 if Norway when he received the Nobel Peace Prize to a pen used to sign the civil rights bill. The turbulent pursuit of a cause was to lead to both jail and honors, from behind bars at St.

Augustine, in 1964 to the ceremony in Vii, if--'! 4- H-4 1 'i-f---v i fill OA. RH.iiM J'A4i'A 4 Widow Leaves Memphis for Home mised land began in Montgomery, in 1955. The young pastor from Atlanta became the vital force in the bus boycott and overnight was a national figure. For the apostle of nonviolence there was always the threat of violence. In New York in 1958 a disturbed Negro woman stabbed King with a letter opener.

His journey to the pro Rev. Abernathy King Aaron' Picked PLlgr 'ZfZ 1 1 tmr Si A Vk. srrH of four in Montgomery that were hit by bombs in 1956. He was pastor of the Negro First Baptist church in Montgomery for 10 years after attending Alabama State College where he taught sociology. He moved to Atlanta in 1961 to become pastor of West Hunter Street Baptist, near the complex of predominantly Negro colleges.

He has a wife and three children. He was born in Rural Linden, Ala. A stolid disciple of nonviolence, Abernathy said after King was slain: "While he lived, he taught us we should not let violence turn us around." plans -toeontinue" King's work, including the poor people's campaign In Washington, D.C., after a period of i a Leadership Conference (SCLS), which he and King founded in 1957. "I never had any desire to lead the movement," Abernathy, 42, said in an interview three years ago. He said King was the symbol and the leader.

"I always wanted to' stand with him and not ahead of him," It was usually up to Abernathy to warm up' an audience for King's oratory. "We needed a philosophy, a philosopher and a theory to un-dergird and sustain the mover ment" Abernathy once said. "We, needed also a practical and down-to-eaijnewage Jmse- uefflO ln eyeJnass both of us spoke. I never sought to duplicate Dr. King." Abernathy's church was one By DON MCKEE ATLANTA, Ga.

(AP) Always in the shadow at the side of his leader now fallen, the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy had to step Friday into the place of the man he presented to countless audiences as "the Moses of the 2pth century." As Moses had an Aaron, so Martin Luther King had a Ralph Abernathy to lean on from the very beginning of his human rights crusade. Abernathy went to jail with King 17 times, the last in Birmingham, last year for an old contempt of court conviction. "We always prayed togeth-' er-4i-- jalff Abernathy-i-ecaiI6av After King's assassination, -Abernathy as vice president at "large assumed the duties of president of the Southern Chris- But the character of the civil rights movement phis, 1968 A King march turned ugly for the first time. Rioting left one dead, right, and scores injured.

One Weeklater violence claimed Martin Luther King Jr. was changing. Riots 'swept America's cities and the rising tide of Negro militancy challenged King's message of nonviolence. Mem.