Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr., January 18, 2016

 

"After preaching at Washington Cathedral on March 31, 1968, King went to Memphis in support of sanitation workers in their struggle for better wages. There, he proclaimed that he had been “to the mountain-top” and had seen “the Promised Land,” and that he knew that one day he and his people would be “free at last.” On the following day, April 4, he was cut down by an assassin’s bullet."

Prayer for Martin Luther King, Jr.

Gracious God, you create us and love us; you make us to live together in a community. We thank you for Martin Luther King, Jr. and all your children who have been filled with your vision for our lives and who have worked to make bring your vision into reality. Fill us with your vision. Guide us to live by your vision, working to build the beloved community where everyone is welcomed, all are valued, power is shared, privilege is no more, and all your children know wholeness and well-being. Through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

Free at Last! Free at Last!
God grant that right here in America and all over this world, we will choose the high way; a way in which men will live together as brothers. A way in which the nations of the world will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. A way in which every man will respect the dignity and worth of all human personality. A way in which every nation will allow justice to run down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. A way in which men will do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. A way in which men will be able to stand up, and in the midst of oppression, in the midst of darkness and agony, they will be able to stand there and love their enemies, bless those persons that curse them, pray for those individuals that despitefully use them. And this is the way that will bring us once more into that society which we think of as the brotherhood of man. This will be that day when white people, colored people, whether they are brown or whether they are yellow or whether they are black, will join together and stretch out with their arms and be able to cry out: “Free at last! Free at last! Great God Almighty, we are free at last!”

 

Martin Luther King quotes on Leadership

"A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace."

"Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

"Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality."

"Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?"

"I came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you."


March from Selma to Montgomery, March 1965