10 NSRF® Connections • January 2015

Book review Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Final Year Reviewed by Dave Lehman, Connections Executive Editor Death of a King: school building, the New Junior High in this book is simple: In his last year, The Real Story of Program. The breakfast was started what kind of man has Martin Luther in 1975 by myself and three others King Jr. become? Dr. Martin Lu- from the community—a professor from “In my view, he is a man whose ther King’s Final Cornell University, our African-Ameri- true character has been misinter- Year can school district social worker, and preted, ignored, or forgotten. I want the African-American director of the to remember–and bring to life–the by Tavis Smiley center. I mention this here because, with David Ritz essential truths about King in his final like Tavis Smiley, author of Death of a months before they are unremem- Little, Brown and King, my life has been, and continues bered and irrecoverable. This is the Company, 2014 to be, profoundly affected by the life King that I cherish: the King who, and teachings of Dr. King. As Smiley enduring a living hell, rises to moral January 19th would have been the says in the introduction to the book : greatness; the King who, in the face 86th birthday of Rev. Martin Luther “As a young boy growing up in of unrelenting adversity, expresses King Jr. As Dr. King has had a major a trailer park in rural Indiana, my the full measure of his character and impact on my life, and we share Janu- initial encounter with the speeches courage. This is the King who, despite ary birthdays (mine ten years after Dr. of Martin Luther King Jr. altered the everything, spoke his truth….” King), this review will be more per- very course of my life…. I became sonal than others I’ve been writing for Smiley uses strong words here – “a a lifelong student of his work as a Connections. man whose true character has been minister, advocate, and writer. His misinterpreted,” “enduring a living Subtitled, The Real Story of Dr. call to radical democracy through re- hell,” and “in the face of unrelenting Martin Luther King’s Final Year, demptive love resonated with me on a adversity.” What do these phrases this book reviews King’s life between profound level…. I was barely a teen- mean? Through 24 chapters Smiley 4 April 1967 and 4 April 1968. At the ager when I began entering statewide elaborates further on these issues sur- time, I was in Ghana, West Africa, oratorical interpretation competitions rounding King’s life. Smiley has inter- directing the UNESCO Pilot Project by declaiming King’s most famous viewed nineteen individuals who knew for English Speaking African Second- speeches.” King well, including his wife, Coretta ary Schools. I learned about many of So here’s another connection. Scott King, and such famous names these events via the Voice of America Although I didn’t enter statewide as Harry Belafonte (a popular singer and BBC radio. As one of only two oratorical contests, one year I did win of the time and particularly close Americans on the project, I was the the adult division of the Martin Luther friend of King), activist and comedian brunt of criticisms by some of the Afri- King oratorical contest in Ithaca. And Dick Gregory, and longtime politicians cans with whom I was working, and, as my career demonstrates King’s influ- Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young. a white American, I was viewed being ence in my own commitment to demo- Another person interviewed is Dorothy guilty of King’s assassination. cratic schools. Cotton, author of her own book about On January 19th this year, were Smiley may not be new to you as her work with King, If Your Back’s I back in Ithaca, New York, where I he is the host of the PBS-TV program Not Bent: The Role of the Citizen- was principal/teacher of a middle and “The Tavis Smiley Show,” and author, ship Education Program in the Civil high school for thirty years, I would co-author, or editor of several previ- Rights Movement. Cotton is a friend be one of the cooks for the school’s ous books including The Covenant of mine from Ithaca, and I was happy annual MLK Jr. community breakfast with Black America, The Covenant to be of some assistance in the writing birthday celebration. The breakfast in Action, What I Know for Sure, and and editing of her book. will again be held in the gymnasium of Keeping the Faith, among others. Smiley includes accounts of the an elementary school with hundreds steady stream of strategic meetings attending. It was initially held in the In his introduction to Death of a between King and various organiza- small gym of the Greater Ithaca Activi- King, Smiley explains why he wrote tions with which he was involved: the ties Center, a community center just the book: National Association for the Advance- across the street from the our original “The question I attempt to answer ment of Colored People (NAACP), the NSRF® Connections • January 2015 11

of 1965. He came to be denounced returned and was shot, that he gave “I believe that unarmed truth publicly and privately (“enduring the a speech at Memphis’s Mason Temple and unconditional love will have public hell” and the “unrelenting to rally the garbage strikers and their adversity”) by Roy Wilkins and Whit- supporters: the final word in reality. That is ney Young, who led the NAACP and the why right temporarily defeated is “You are demonstrating that we Urban League; by clergyman and con- are all tied in a single garment of stronger than evil triumphant.” ~ gressman Adam Clayton Powell; and by Tavis Smiley, Death of a King: destiny… The man who has been to legal giant Thurgood Marshall. ‘No House’ is as significant as the man The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther Yet, Martin Luther King Jr., the who’s been to Morehouse [referring King Jr.’s Final Year consummate preacher, carried on, to his alma mater]… The person who speaking his truth as in the several picks up your garbage is as signifi- sermons which Smiley includes in cant as the physician…. All labor has Student Nonviolent Coordinating Com- Death of a King. Smiley notes that worth…. You are reminding not only mittee (SNCC), the United Pastors As- King was often at his best when he Memphis but the nation that it is a sociation, the Poor People’s Campaign, strayed from his prepared text, and crime for people to live in this rich and the Clergy and Laymen Concerned spoke from his heart and soul. For nation and receive starvation wages…. about Vietnam. Smiley also refers example, in these excerpts from one The vast majority of Negroes in our to subsequent planning meetings for of King’s many sermons given at the country are still perishing on a lonely “The Mobilization,” the March in New Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, he island of poverty in a vast ocean of York City from Central Park to the anticipates his impending demise: material prosperity.” United Nations building in protest of the Vietnam War. The book includes “I’d like somebody to mention snippets of news stories from the New that day that Martin Luther King Jr. York Times, the Washington Post, Life tried to give his life serving oth- and Time magazines, and interviews ers. I’d like for somebody to say that on such television shows as “Meet the day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried Press” and the “Merv Griffin Show.” to love somebody. I want you to be able to say that day that I tried to be In this final year of his life, King’s right on the war question… say that I messages consistently connected three did try to feed the hungry… say that of his passions, as evidenced in this day that I did try in my life to clothe quote: “We must see how the evils those who were naked… say that I was of racism, economic exploitation and a drum major, say that I was a drum militarism are all tied together … you major for justice. Say that I was a can’t really get rid of one without get- drum major for peace. I was a drum Tavis Smiley ting rid of the other(-s).” major for righteousness.” It was this expansion of Martin Lu- Smiley’s book also includes lighter So I find myself wondering on this ther King Jr.’s mission, to poverty and moments when King is being driven in 86th birthday of Martin Luther King militarism, beyond his original com- a car to a march or speech, or fly- Jr.: what would he have to say about mitment to civil rights, which brought ing cross-country, returning home to Ferguson, Missouri? What would he disagreement from some of his fellow Atlanta, too often for too short a visit have to say about Citizens United? organizers and closest friends. re-connecting with his family. It was What would he have to say about the “Voter ID” law? What would he say The dates that bracket Smiley’s at these times that we learn of King’s about 25% of American people, pre- “final year” in the life of Martin Lu- love of gospel and rhythm and blues dominantly people of color, living in ther King Jr. are April 4th, 1967, when music as he would listen to Sam and poverty, with a government unwill- King delivered his impassioned speech Dave, Ike and Tina Turner, his good ing to raise the minimum wage? And in opposition to the Vietnam War at friend Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, what would he have to say about Riverside Church in New York City, and the Staple Singers and others. Love of our schools, particularly our urban exactly twelve months later, on April this music led to an eight-city series schools, with the dramatic achieve- 4th, 1968, when he was assassinated of fundraising concerts which became ment gap between whites and stu- in Memphis where he had traveled in a tremendous disappointment as most dents of color? support of the striking garbage work- of them barely broke even, and the ers. crowds were nowhere near what he Therefore, I invite you readers had expected. of Connections to use this January King’s friends and colleagues of 2015 to read Tavis Smiley’s book, pleaded with him to keep the focus Then in mid-March of 1968 King Death of a King: The Real Story of on seeing to the full implementation first went to Memphis to offer his sup- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final of Lyndon Johnson’s “Civil Rights Act” port to the striking garbage workers. Year. of 1964 and the “Voting Rights Act” It was there, barely a month before he