Tag Archives: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Let Freedom Ring: Dr. Alveda King Remembers Her Uncle Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (REPOST)

 

(Editor’s Note: I originally wrote this post back in August, but I thought I would repost today on Dr. King’s birthday and on the eve of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday…Enjoy!)

Hello World,

As if you did not know, today marks the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. King’s delivery of his magnificent “I Have a Dream” speech in our nation’s capital. Today is also the day that the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial, which is located on the national Mall, was to be officially dedicated in front of thousands of people. However, due to the emergence of Hurricane Irene, the official dedication has been postponed to September or October, according to various new reports.

However, I still want to honor Dr. King and his dream today as well as highlight the accomplishment of having his monument on the National Mall, the first time an African-American has been honored in such a way on the National Mall!

Dr. Alveda King, center, next to her cousin Bernice King and other members of the King family.

I was able to interview Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. King and daughter of his King’s younger brother Rev. A.D. King, about her uncle, his dream and other issues…

On the dedication of the memorial:

I think it’s wonderful to remember my uncle. With me being a preacher, I’ll be giving honor to God for blessing us with the gift that He gave to us through my uncle Martin Luther King Jr.

Her favorite memory of her uncle:

My favorite memory of my Uncle Martin were the times that our families were together. My father Rev. A.D. King is his brother. He and Dr. King live together in the kingdom of God now. They are in heaven together. But our families during their lifetimes were together very often – Christmas, Thanksgiving, summer, swimming, just fun. I remember we were at our Uncle Martin’s home one year. Daddy was playing the violin. And Uncle Martin was talking and laughing. We called him Uncle M.L. actually because my Dad was A.D. Alfred Daniel Williams King and Martin is Martin Luther King Jr. So they were laughing, and I was a young teenager, and I walked through, and I remember my uncle laughed and said, “A.D., you gonna have to watch it because the boys are going to be after her. She is gonna be a very pretty lady.” It affirmed me and made me so happy.

Reflection on Dr. King’s death:

I was about 18. I got married the next year. My uncle was killed in ‘68. I was born in ‘51. So I was either 17 or 18 I guess. And the next year I got married. My daddy walked me down the aisle, and a week later, he was killed as well in our swimming pool.

On the realization of Dr. King’s dream:

I believe that the world will remember and should remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I think the most important thing for everyone to remember is that he loved God and he loved his family. And he was very much loved by us. I think I noticed in “USA TODAY,” there’s an article and it says with M.L.K. memorial opening, the dream has come true. Dr. King’s dream was really that we would all have the love of God in our hearts toward each other. The main part about his dream was advancing the kingdom of God and the love of God. And I do see that increasing in the world, and I think that’s true.

And I ask people as the dream is realized, has the “check for insufficient funds,” have those funds been made good? We are still struggling with the economy and many social issues, but I believe as we learn to love each other as brothers and not perish as fools, as my uncle said, we all have to learn to live together as brothers and sisters, I might add, or perish as fools. So as we move closer to that agape love, that God of kind of love, I believe that we will all overcome.

On the redemptive power of Jesus Christ, particularly for young people:

I like to remind people that David in the Bible pleased God in all things except the matter of Uriah the Hittite, and we know that he committed adultery and killed Bathsheba’s husband. Paul used to kill Christians. Mary Magdalene was the woman caught in the act. But the redemptive power of Christ. I want young people especially to realize this, when you stumble, get up. And then as you mature in Christ, you don’t stumble as much. None of us are perfect, but God is perfect. The blood of Jesus, the perfecting blood of Jesus His son can help us, can cleanse us, and then the power of the Holy Spirit.

So these are things that my uncle understood, my father Rev. A.D. King understood, my grandfather Daddy King. I’m understanding it more and more every day as I continue to mature so these are principles that young people and mature people can embrace.

 And like I say, if you make a mistake just get up and keep going. If you can remember the days that when you were learning to ride a bicycle, when you fell off, you didn’t quit riding your bike. You got back on. When you were on the skating rink, if you fell over, you got up and kept skating. If you were at the bowling alley, if the ball went in the gutter, the next time you took it and you made a spare and found your strike. So these are the ways that we advance in life in Christ. And I do want to encourage all young people to live accordingly.

Dr. Alveda King is a civil rights and pro-life activist and founder of King for America Inc. which endeavors to “to assist people in enriching their lives spiritually, personally, mentally and economically.”

Dr. King also made an official statement regarding the dedication of Dr. King memorial…

 

Thank you God for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr….and Thank you God!

Any thoughts?

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Not Every Black Person Believes in God…

Hello World,

It’s funny (funny peculiar, not funny haha) that Christ often gets lost in the hustle and bustle of preparing for Christmas, but it’s true…And it’s also true that black people are known in this country for having an unshakeable belief in God that brought us through slavery and other historical hardships and continues to sustain us today…But more and more black people are admitting that they frankly do not believe in Jesus Christ or God, which is especially poignant at this time of the year…

Tommie Shelby

Tommie Shelby, professor of African and African-American studies and of philosophy at Harvard University, recently shared why he is a black atheist on theroot.com in his essay “I Didn’t Lose Faith. I Just Don’t Have It.”

Below are a few excerpts from his essay…

And so one day, after much study, I joined a church and was baptized. Soon I was earnestly sharing the gospel with family and friends. I lived at home during the summer after my freshman year, and my mother and I studied together. As a result, her faith was renewed. Indeed, she held tightly to her faith until the day she died.

I can’t say the same for myself. By the time I graduated, I no longer believed in God. I didn’t get to this place easily. It was a painful and trying process that involved hours of study, reflection, self-examination, fasting and prayer.

*************************************************************************************

I worried that my belief in God was ultimately rooted in things like fear of death, desire for community or longing for the loving father figure I didn’t have. Was my attraction to Christian doctrines driven by the fact that I was a lonely, alienated, scared kid looking for something firm to hold on to? After all, faith made me feel powerful and protected.

*************************************************************************************

I’m an intellectual, by natural disposition and vocation. I have chosen to live a life of the mind in a community of scholars where my nonbelief is unremarkable. My path is not for everyone. And I don’t expect most black folk to leave the Lord. What I would like to see, though, is greater respect for and understanding toward the nonbelievers among us. If my mother could muster it, surely we all can.

Another black atheist, Jamila Bey,  shares how she celebrates the Christmas holidays without Christ in her essay “Heathen Holidays: An Atheist Celebrates”also on the root.com.

Jamila Bey

So what do I think of the views of the Shelby and Bey as an unabashed believer in Jesus Christ? Well, first of all,  I very much value the freedoms on which this country was based – one of which is the freedom of religion….We are free to believe in whatever God we choose to believe in, and we are also free to choose to not believe in any God at all…So I say – have at it Shelby and Bey…

But I will also say this…the freedoms (religious and otherwise) that Shelby and Bey enjoy today in this country are the result of courageous black Christians down through the years that sacrified – many with their lives – so that we can be as free as we want to be today…it is a real luxury for Shelby and Bey to say they don’t believe in Jesus Christ in today’s times…

Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Fannie Lou Hamer, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are just few black people whose lives and Christian faith enabled us to enjoy the freedoms we so cavalierly enjoy today…I’m not sure that Shelby and Bey would be of the same opinion years ago…not hatin’ just sayin’…

What say you?

Any thoughts?

 

 

 

Posted on

Let Freedom Ring: Dr. Alveda King Remembers Her Uncle Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Hello World,

As if you did not know, today marks the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. King’s delivery of his magnificent “I Have a Dream” speech in our nation’s capital. Today is also the day that the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial, which is located on the national Mall, was to be officially dedicated in front of thousands of people. However, due to the emergence of Hurricane Irene, the official dedication has been postponed to September or October, according to various new reports.

However, I still want to honor Dr. King and his dream today as well as highlight the accomplishment of having his monument on the National Mall, the first time an African-American has been honored in such a way on the National Mall!

Dr. Alveda King, center, next to her cousin Bernice King and other members of the King family

I was able to interview Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. King and daughter of his King’s younger brother Rev. A.D. King, about her uncle, his dream and other issues…

On the dedication of the memorial:

I think it’s wonderful to remember my uncle. With me being a preacher, I’ll be giving honor to God for blessing us with the gift that He gave to us through my uncle Martin Luther King Jr.

Her favorite memory of her uncle:

My favorite memory of my Uncle Martin were the times that our families were together. My father Rev. A.D. King is his brother. He and Dr. King live together in the kingdom of God now. They are in heaven together. But our families during their lifetimes were together very often – Christmas, Thanksgiving, summer, swimming, just fun. I remember we were at our Uncle Martin’s home one year. Daddy was playing the violin. And Uncle Martin was talking and laughing. We called him Uncle M.L. actually because my Dad was A.D. Alfred Daniel Williams King and Martin is Martin Luther King Jr. So they were laughing, and I was a young teenager, and I walked through, and I remember my uncle laughed and said, “A.D., you gonna have to watch it because the boys are going to be after her. She is gonna be a very pretty lady.” It affirmed me and made me so happy.

Reflection on Dr. King’s death:

I was about 18. I got married the next year. My uncle was killed in ‘68. I was born in ‘51. So I was either 17 or 18 I guess. And the next year I got married. My daddy walked me down the aisle, and a week later, he was killed as well in our swimming pool.

On the realization of Dr. King’s dream:

I believe that the world will remember and should remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I think the most important thing for everyone to remember is that he loved God and he loved his family. And he was very much loved by us. I think I noticed in “USA TODAY,” there’s an article and it says with M.L.K. memorial opening, the dream has come true. Dr. King’s dream was really that we would all have the love of God in our hearts toward each other. The main part about his dream was advancing the kingdom of God and the love of God. And I do see that increasing in the world, and I think that’s true.

And I ask people as the dream is realized, has the “check for insufficient funds,” have those funds been made good? We are still struggling with the economy and many social issues, but I believe as we learn to love each other as brothers and not perish as fools, as my uncle said, we all have to learn to live together as brothers and sisters, I might add, or perish as fools. So as we move closer to that agape love, that God of kind of love, I believe that we will all overcome.

On the redemptive power of Jesus Christ, particularly for young people:

I like to remind people that David in the Bible pleased God in all things except the matter of Uriah the Hittite, and we know that he committed adultery and killed Bathsheba’s husband. Paul used to kill Christians. Mary Magdalene was the woman caught in the act. But the redemptive power of Christ. I want young people especially to realize this, when you stumble, get up. And then as you mature in Christ, you don’t stumble as much. None of us are perfect, but God is perfect. The blood of Jesus, the perfecting blood of Jesus His son can help us, can cleanse us, and then the power of the Holy Spirit.

So these are things that my uncle understood, my father Rev. A.D. King understood, my grandfather Daddy King. I’m understanding it more and more every day as I continue to mature so these are principles that young people and mature people can embrace.

 And like I say, if you make a mistake just get up and keep going. If you can remember the days that when you were learning to ride a bicycle, when you fell off, you didn’t quit riding your bike. You got back on. When you were on the skating rink, if you fell over, you got up and kept skating. If you were at the bowling alley, if the ball went in the gutter, the next time you took it and you made a spare and found your strike. So these are the ways that we advance in life in Christ. And I do want to encourage all young people to live accordingly.

Dr. Alveda King is a civil rights and pro-life activist and founder of King for America Inc. which endeavors to “to assist people in enriching their lives spiritually, personally, mentally and economically.”

Dr. King also made an official statement regarding the dedication of Dr. King memorial…

Thank you God for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr….and Thank you God!

Any thoughts?