Martin Luther King: Honoring Justice's Drum Major

He never commanded an army, never held political office, never made a fortune nor ruled a corporate empire. He had no use for the trappings of worldly power; his clout came from the urgency of his message and his unwavering moral courage. Of this century's heroes, the man he most closely resembled was his model, India's Mohandas K. Gandhi. Combining Christian idealism with Gandhi's principle of nonviolent resistance, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. awakened the conscience of the U.S. and the world to the plight of America's blacks. More than any other single person, King was responsible for the endowment with legal equality of a people who had been enslaved for two centuries, then denied many of their country's basic civil rights for another hundred years. In 1968, at the age of 39, this Southern Baptist preacher, winner of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, was cut down by an assassin's bullet. On that day the charismatic leader became the transcendent martyr.

Last week for the first time, the U.S. began celebrating King's birthday as a national holiday. When Congress in 1983 established the third Monday of January as a federal observance, it bestowed upon King an honor granted to only one other U.S. citizen, George Washington.[*] While an estimated 5 million civilian and military personnel were given this Monday off, the tributes to King began on Jan. 15, his actual birthday, and in some cases before that. From Alaska to Florida, candlelight vigils, religious services, concerts, photo exhibits, readings and teach-ins were held in commemoration. "There is a heightened awareness of him that was not present before the holiday," said King's widow Coretta. "I think it has made greater believers of many more people."

The ceremonies became occasions to recall one of the most painful and dramatic eras of American history. Segregated schools, lunch counters and bathrooms. Freedom Riders. Churches bombed and civil rights workers murdered. Helmeted police wading into demonstrators with attack dogs, tear gas, hoses, guns and bayonets. Then the fight to win passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Setting the stage for those landmark bills was the 1963 March on Washington. From a platform in front of the Lincoln Memorial came King's voice, an instrument of astounding resonance, mingling the powerful cadences of black spirituals with majestic Whitmanesque imagery in one of the best-known speeches in American oratory: "I Have a Dream."

In Washington last week, 1,000 guests filled the Capitol Rotunda to witness the unveiling of a cast bronze bust of King, marking the first time a black American has been so honored in the Capitol. On this week's official holiday, concerts were scheduled at Washington's Kennedy Center, New York's Radio City Music Hall and Atlanta's Civic Center, featuring such performers as Stevie Wonder, Bill Cosby, Bob Dylan and Harry Belafonte. The highlights were to be aired on national TV and the profits from the shows donated to Atlanta's King Center for Non-violent Social Change.