MLK - 40 Years Later

Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated more than 16 years before I was born, so I have no first-hand, personal knowledge of the man and his work. All I know is what I have learned, and I am no authority on the topic. I'm currently reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, and I coincidentally read the section on the civil rights movements of the 1950s and 60s only yesterday. Of course, I know about the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the march on Washington, and the "I Have A Dream" speech, and his assassination, having learned about these events in school. But there is much about the man, and the movement, that I do not know. Others are more fortunate in this area.

I spoke today to a friend of mine who grew up in Atlanta, about 10 minutes from where MLK lived. She was 11 when King was assassinated on the balcony of a Memphis motel, but she remembers going with her mother to Ebenezer Baptist Church specifically to see him speak prior to his death. Her mother said, "This man is changing the world, and you need to see him."

During the group conversation, the question was posed: if MLK could come back today, what would he think of the current state of society? "We've come a long way; we've got a long way to go -- which is the same for any society."

And I would imagine that the argument can be made that even though he is gone, he is still changing the world.