Your Turn: Please Share Your Understanding of Call in Your Life

In my blogs of August 6, 9 and 15 I referred to Martin Luther Kings, Jr. “Call.”  The word “call” in the church and religion is imbued with deep and often confusing meaning.  In one way it is quite simple: we are referring to the ways God “calls” us to follow.  However, trying to understand and interpret that calling can often be confusing.  And throughout our lives that “call” often changes, as I have tried to suggest regarding the lives of Coretta and Martin King.

When we come to a time in our life when we decide we really want to try to be open to God’s call, the first thing we normally seek is some kind of a clear sign.  We would be fine with a burning bush, a dream, a vision, or some kind of voice speaking from the heavens.  However, it seldom happens that way.  And that is where the confusion comes in.  Just as most of us did not become a Christian or follower of Jesus through some dynamic “religious or conversion experience,” so most of us will not discover God’s calling for us through a clear, defining event.

On NPR the other day I heard an interview with a 32-year old folk singer named Regina Spektor.  She was asked what event precipitated her writing the song, “Laughing With,” which refers to a great variety of experiences in life in which a person does not laugh at God.  I loved her answer.  It was not one event or experience.  It was a constellation of experiences that somehow just came together in that song, a constellation she probably could not separate out or explain clearly.

So it goes in the spiritual life.  Often a calling starts out as a faint inclination, a strange restlessness, a new insight, and then grows into something bigger and clearer.  Or, sometimes the clarity never comes, but we venture forth anyway, like Abraham and Sarah, not exactly knowing where they are going, but trusting that God is somehow leading them.

I will share some examples from my own life.  But first I would like to hear from you.  Past, present, future, how do you understand God’s calling in your life?

The Little Rock Nine 1957

Little Rock Central High School had been voted the most beautiful high school in America.  It is immense: it took me 3 pictures from across the block to capture the entire school.

It was three years after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, which officially outlawed public school segregation.  A federal court had ordered Little Rock to comply.  In September of 1957 nine  African-American students were set to enroll.  However, on Sep. 1 Orval Faubus, Arkansas Governor, announced he would use National Guard troops to prevent their enrolling.

On September 4 the 9 students attempted to enroll, but were turned away by troops.  One of the most famous pictures from that day is of 15 year-old student Elizabeth Eckford being taunted by a white student, named Hazel Bryan Massery.  Because her family lacked a phone, she did not get the information that the Nine were supposed to meet with activist Daisy Bates (see below) and enter from the rear of the school.  She was thus attempting to enter alone.

On September 14 Faubus met with President Eisenhower, and six days later a court ordered the guard to be removed.  At that point local police took over and the Nine again tried to enter school.  Around the world television viewers watched as rioting broke out and the Nine students had to be smuggled out of the back of the school for their protection.   Finally, President Eisenhower sent in federal troops and the Little Rock Nine had their first day of school on September 25. 

However, that was only the beginning of the problems.  Student leaders pledged to obey the law, but throughout the year a group of white students verbally and physically harassed the Nine.  Finally, one of the Nine, Minnijean Brown, fought back and was expelled in February of 1958.

On May 25, 1958 Ernest Green became the first African-American to graduate from Little Rock High School.  He stated, “It’s been an interesting year.  I’ve had a course in human relations first hand.”  We heard that Martin Luther King, Jr. drove over from Montgomery to quietly observe the ceremony.

Faubus closed the school for the 1958-1959 school year.   When it re-opened by federal order in 1959, three African-Americans enrolled, including Jefferson Thomas and Carlotta Walls, of the original Little Rock Nine. 

An important mentor for the Nine was Daisy Bates.  She, and her husband, Lucius, provided their home as a drop off and pick up point for the Nine.  As a result, the home became a frequent target of violence and damage. We were able to find that home, which presently is unoccupied, with plans to make it into a museum.

In 1999 Presdient Bill Clinton, who grew up in Hope, Arkansas (100 miles from Little Rock), and who, at the age of 11, was aware of the violence in Little Rock, presented the highest civilian honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor, to the Little Rock Nine.

All of the Little Rock Nine are still alive except for Jefferson Thomas, who died in 2010.  About half of them have written books.  I am awaiting an autographed book by Carlotta Walls, to get a better idea of what exactly that first school year was like.  Another interesting book was recently written about Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan Massery.  Massery sought out Eckford in 1963 to apologize to her, and eventually they became friends, only to have that friendship dissolve.  It is a real-life look at the complicated dynamics of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Interlude: The Civil Rights Sites We Visited

Mary and I were astounded by the variety and quality of the various sites and museums we were able to visit.  Our entire trip was from Arlington, Virginia to Las Cruces, New Mexico, but on the way out and the way back we saw many wonderful civil rights sites and museums.

We began planning our trip with an excellent internet site maintained by the National Park Services called the “We Shall Overcome” tour.  It lists many of the museums and sites available for visit, and gives a nice, one-page summary of the history of each site.

Atlanta, Georgia:  Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site:  This museum is right across the street from Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church in which Martin Luther King, Jr. was raised and where he served his last call.  The church is now a museum you can visit.  You can also visit Martin’s birth home, which has been restored to the way it looked when he was growing up. The museum itself is rather small, but does a good job of going year by year through Martin’s life as it relates to the Civil Rights Movement.  There are beautiful grounds and a large mural outside depicting Martin’s life.  All of this is free of charge, although you need to reserve a ticket to visit the birth home. [See 8/2 Blog for pictures]

We also drove over to Morehouse College and Spellman College.  Spellman is where many of the women in the King family went to college (and where Martin lay in state prior to his funeral) and Morehouse is where Martin and A.D. King, his younger brother, attended college.   Although no specific tour is available, by asking around we were able to see the dorm Martin stayed in, the burial site of Dr. Benjamin Mays (long-time president of Morehouse who was very influential in Martin’s life and preached at his funeral on the campus).  We were also able to gain entrance to the Martin Luther King International Chapel, built in 1978.  

Birmingham, Alabama:  West (Kelly Ingram) Park has now been turned into a memorial for those who died in the marches and demonstrations of 1963.  This park was the assembly point for the sit-ins, marches, boycotts and jailings that were a part of the plan to end segregation in Birmingham.  Across the street from the park you can visit the 16^th Avenue Baptist Church,  which was also vital as a staging ground.  This is also the church that was bombed on September 15, 1963, resulting in the deaths of 4 girls attending Sunday School.  Around the corner from the park you can see the Gaston Hotel, where Martin Luther King, Jr. and many of the other organizers stayed much of the time they were in Birmingham.  This hotel was also bombed and is no longer operating.  On our own we were able to track down Zion Hill Baptist Church (which is now abandoned), which is where Martin, Fred Shuttlesworth, and Ralph Abernathy began their march the night they were arrested and jailed (resulting in Martin’s famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail.)

Also next to the park is the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.  This is an excellent museum detailing the long history of the Civil Rights Movement.  It is the second best museum we visited (see Memphis below).  There is a fee to visit ($12).

Montgomery, Alabama:   There are so many things to see and do here.  We toured both Dexter Avenue Baptist Church (Martin’s first call) and the parsonage in which he and Coretta lived (it was used as a parsonage until the 1990’s but then was restored to look much as it did when the Kings lived there.)  Both visits require reservations and cost $5.50 each. [See my 8/6/12 Blog for pictures]

A block from the church is the Southern Poverty Law Center, which houses a small museum focusing on hate crimes and honoring all the people who died (including many unknown) in the Civil Rights Movement.  The fee is $2.   A highlight there is the sculpture outside designed by Maya Lin, who also designed the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C.

Also downtown is the excellent Rose Parks Library and Museum, maintained by Troy University.  There is a small fee to visit.  Also downtown is the Freedom Rides Museum in the Historic Montgomery Greyhound Bus Depot.  This is a small museum detailing the Freedom Rides with a special focus on the violence that occurred when the bus came to this station in Montgomery.  The fee is $5.

On our own we also tracked down the Mt. Zion AME Church, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, and Holt Avenue Baptist Church, where he gave his first speech to 5000 people that same night.  Neither building houses a functioning church today.  We also found the First Baptist Church where Ralph Abernathy was pastor.

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Selma to Montgomery:  We followed the 1965 Voting Rights March of 54 miles in reverse.  The march took 5 days with 4 overnights.  There are signs along highway 80 that mark each of the campsites.  About half way between Selma and Montgomery we discovered a wonderful museum that tells the story of the 3 marches.  It is called the Lowndes Interpretive Center (at what once was Tent City) and is maintained by the National Park Service and is free of charge.  On the east side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, as you enter Selma, is the National Voting Rights Museum.  In Selma itself you can find the First Baptist Church, which hosted SNCC, and the Brown Chapel AME Church, which hosted the SCLC and from which the marches started.

Little Rock, Arkansas:  Little Rock Central High School is still a functioning high school, and can only be visited by groups, and with an appointment.  It is an amazingly large and beautiful school, voted the most beautiful high school in the nation.  Across the street the National Park Service has a fine museum, free of charge, which documents the 1957 and beyond struggle to desegregate the school.  You can also drive to the Daisy Bates Home, where Daisy often housed the Little Rock Nine.  The house is now unoccupied and there are plans to turn it into a museum.

Nashville, Tennessee:   In the downtown public library there is a Civil Rights room that documents the extensive sit-ins that took place in 1960.  In that room you can find a great map which I took downtown where I was able to find several of the places where the sit-ins first took place, such as Walgreens, and the buildings that once housed S.H Kress & Co., McLellan, and F.W. Woolworth.

Memphis, Tennessee:  The National Civil Rights Museum (at the Lorraine Hotel) is the finest museum we saw, covering the entire period from slavery through the Civil Rights Movement.  You can see both the Lorraine Hotel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, and the boarding house where James Earl Ray stayed.  The fee for the museum is $11.  We also drove to see the Mason Temple where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his last speech the night before he was assassinated. [See Blog of 8/17 for pictures]

In upcoming blogs I will continue to tell the story of the Civil Rights movement from 1957 forward, focusing on many of the sites mentioned above.

Memphis: The Dream Ends, or Does It?

Today was a hard day. We are in Memphis. In this blog on our Civil Rights tour I have only gotten to the point in 1960 when Martin left his call at Dexter Avenue in Montgomery and moved back to Atlanta. There are so many pictures and experiences to share between 1960 and 1968--but, when you are in Memphis, 1968 shouts out.

This is a sad place, and you can get so close to it--painfully close. The National Civil Rights Museum here incorporates both the Lorraine Hotel, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, and the boarding house where James Earl Ray was staying. The museum takes you through the entire history of being black in America, from slavery to the Civil War, to Reconstruction, to segregation, and then all of the major events of the Civil Rights Movement.
It is the winter of 1968, and the sanitation workers in Memphis have decided to go on strike because of the terrible ways in which they are being treated. At this point Martin is putting most of his effort into the Poor People's Campaign, an effort to bring attention to the tremendous amount of poverty present in America. The plan is to begin a march in Mississippi that will go all the way to Washington, D. C. But, since the sanitation workers were themselves extremely poor, he decides he should support this effort.

On March 18 Martin goes to Memphis, where a crowd of 15,000 awaited him at the Mason Temple. He encourages the workers to continue their strike, which had started on February 12. He ends his speech with these words: Having to live under the threat of death every day, sometimes I get discouraged. Having to take so much abuse and criticism, sometimes from my own people, I get discouraged. . . . . .sometimes I feel discouraged and that my work is in vain. But then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again. In Gilead, there is balm to make the wounded whole. If we believe that, we will build a new Memphis.

Martin returns to Memphis on March 28 to lead another march. However, some young folks who had not been trained in the methodology of non-violence joined the march, and, far behind Martin, who was at the front of the march, starting breaking windows in the stores and violence resulted. The march had to be stopped, and Martin was rushed away for his own protection.

Martin was extremely disturbed by this, not only worrying that people would see him as not being able to prevent violence in a demonstration, but also that he might not be able to prevent violence in the march on Washington scheduled for April 22. Those around him say he is as depressed and anxious as they have ever seen him.

Martin and David Abernathy, who now is also a pastor in Atlanta, fly home. Martin is convinced they need to have another march very soon in Memphis to demonstrate that it can be done non-violently. After much negotiating and planning, that date is set for Monday, April 8.

Martin and David return to Memphis on Wednesday, April 3 to work on the march plans. They check into room 306 of the Lorraine Hotel, a black-owned hotel, where Martin had been staying on his trips to Memphis since the 1950's. As part of the build-up to the march, another rally is being held at the Mason Temple. It was a rainy, dark night, and a small crowd is expected. Martin was still depressed about the events since the last march, and was fighting a cold, and told David to go and address the audience himself.

When David got to the Temple only about 2000 people were there. However, he quickly realizes that Martin is the one they want to hear. He calls the Lorraine Hotel and asks Martin to come over. He agrees to do so. Not planning to speak, he has no notes.

David gives a lengthy introduction, and finally calls on Martin. He gives what we now call the "Mountaintop" speech.

After the speech David and Martin have a late dinner with friends, and return to the Lorraine Hotel late at night. Martin's brother, A.D. had arrived from his new call in Louisville, and they and others stay up even later to visit.  Martin and A.D. also call their Mother in Atlanta and visit with her for about an hour.

The next day, April 4, was filled with a number of meetings in preparation for the April 8 march. Martin and David and many of the SCLC staff had been invited to dinner at the home of Rev. Billy Kyles, a local pastor. Billy and Martin are standing on the balcony outside room 306, just after 6pm, when the shot rang out. I took these pictures from where James Earl Ray was standing, and where Martin was standing just outside of room 306.

Below is how Martin ended his last speech the night before:

Well, I don't know what will happen now; we've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life--longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

One's Call Often Changes throughout Life: MLK Moves

On November 13, 1956, the US Supreme Court declared bus segregation laws unconstitutional and on December 21 the MIA voted to end the boycott.  Martin Luther King, Jr. walked out of the front door of the parsonage and was one of the first passengers to ride the desegregated buses.

Martin and David Abernathy began to talk about the need to form a new organization that would work to implement the Supreme Court decision throughout the South by nonviolent means. The first discussions were held around this parsonage dining table (Martin seen here with daughter, Yolanda), and the official decision to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference came at Atlanta on February 14, 1957, with Martin elected as president.

Throughout this time Martin was working on his first book, about the Montgomery bus boycott, titled Stride toward Freedom. He finished the book in 1958 and on September 20 did a book signing at a Harlem department store.  A "demented black woman," as Martin would put it, entered the store and plunged a letter opener into his chest. It stopped just short of his aorta and he was told later by his doctor that if he had sneezed, he probably would have died.

That fact came out the next morning in the New York Times. Shortly thereafter Martin received a letter from a ninth grade white girl from White Plains High School. Many times thereafter he liked to quote the last line of her letter to him. "I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze."

With all of these events Martin was becoming more and more known throughout the world. On February 18, 1957 his picture appeared on the cover of Time Magazine.

He kept receiving invitations to speak all around the country, and eventually the world.

Martin struggled to fulfill all of these commitments and still faithfully serve the members of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. In his latter years there in his annual reports to the congregation he would talk about the guilt he felt at being away from his congregation so much.

Throughout life, whatever our particular calling is at that time, we struggle to know how long to stay in a particular calling, and when it may be time to change. This happened to Martin at Dexter.  Not only did he feel he was not adequately fulfilling his call there, but he longed for more time to read, write, reflect, pray, and provide leadership to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Finally, in early 1960, Martin resigned his call to Dexter, and he and his family moved to Atlanta. He became co-pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church with his Father, who promised that in that position he would have more time for his work outside the parish and as president of the SCLC.

Crossing Borders

Yesterday was one of those beautiful, but rare days, that happens only every 3 or 4 years.

Four 9 years now members of my family (my wife, Mary, son, Brian, and daughter, Jessi)
have been visiting our families in Lomos de Poleo, Mexico, a colonia on the edge of Juarez.  By "our families" I mean the 7 families who have received us into their lives, and treated us as members of their families.  We have lived with them, eaten with them, worked with them, prayed with them.

I usually find one way or another to visit Lomos de Poleo every year, but it is only about every 3 or 4 years our entire family is able to go there together.  Yesterday was one of those days.  We began the day at Cristo Rey Lutheran Church in El Paso, Texas, Mission Partner of the church I serve in Arlington, Virginia: Faith Lutheran.  Here we are with Cristo Rey's Pastor Rose Mary.

We loaded Cristo Rey's van and headed across the border.  At Lomos de Poleo we were welcomed with the usual fiesta, featuring chile rellenos. 

After feasting, we talked about how life is going for everyone, with a special focus on the students who are part of the scholarship program we support for children of these families.  We heard from these students, who are part of the program, and doing very well in school.



This past year through the scholarship program we were able to support 5 students in college and 3 in high school, as well as those in junior high and elementary school.

I often get asked why, given the level of violence in Mexico, especially around the border, we keep crossing that border.  The answer is really quite simple:  these are our families and they can't cross the border to us.

This particular trip all started when my daughter visited here in May with a group that decided not to cross.  The group had met our families at the border fence, and all Jessi could do was touch our family members through the fence.  She immediately called me and asked when we could go together to Lomos de Poleo and again hug each other as family members do.  So, here we are.

It is hard to describe how difficult life in Mexico is, day after day.  By contrast, the opportunities we have as US citizens is almost incomprehensible. Indeed, the first thing one always has to do is get byond the guilt of our privilege.  Beyond the guilt comes the solidarity, love, and feeling of family.

And so, until our families can cross to visit us, we will cross to visit them.  And I will continue to relish the rare times when we can all break tortillas together, and through laughter and tears, celebrate what it means to be brothers and sisters in Christ.

Sometimes Saying "Yes" is the Easy Part

Within a matter of hours Martin Luther King, Jr. had been asked to serve as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, said, "yes," and then that same evening had delivered a rousing speech to some 5000 people, exhorting them to keep the boycott going. His leadership had been responded to in a very positive way.

That morning Martin and Coretta had looked out of the front window of their parsonage on Jackson street (picture below from our visit there), to see with joy that blacks were not boarding the bus stop on the corner right next to their house. They would keep watching that scene, day after day. However, things would get ugly very soon, and stay that way for a very long time: in fact, for 381 days, which is how long the boycott would last.

People had hoped for a quick resolution with the city bus system. When that did not happen, some began to question Martin's leadership. In fact, in January he offered to resign as president, but it was not accepted. Then the city began its "get tough" campaign. Martin was arrested on a trumped-up speeding charge, and for the first time (there would be 13 other times in the coming years) thrown into jail.

He also began to receive threatening phone calls and letters. They kept increasinging in number and by the middle of January were up to 30 to 40 per day. The calls threatened Martin, Coretta, and even their baby, Yolanda. This was the day when there were no answering machines and when pastors were expected to pick up their phone in case of an emergency, or simply to plan normal pastoral ministry.

The ugly, hate-filled phone calls began to take their toll on Martin. One night he didn't get home from a meeting until almost midnight. (On our visit to the parsonage our group stood around the kitchen table as a CD was played of Martin describing the experience below).

He tried to sleep, but couldn't. Then the phone rang, and the man threatened Martin and his family. Martin hung up and went into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. He sat there, filled with fear and regret. His courage had left him. A voice in his head said to him, You can't call on Daddy now, you can't even call on Mama. You've got to call on that something in that person that your Daddy used to tell you about, that power that can make a way out of no way. Lord, I'm down here trying to do what's right. I'm here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But Lord, I must confess that I am weak now, I'm faltering, I'm losing my courage. Now, I am afraid. . . . . .I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I've come to the point where I can't face it alone.

And then, Martin heard an inner voice saying to him, Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo, I will be with you. Even until the end of the world. . . . .I had heard the voice of Jesus say to fight on. He promised never to leave me alone. At that moment I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before. Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.

Martin would not have to wait long to 'face anything.'  Three nights later, while he was away from home, and Coretta, Yolanda, and a parishioner were in the house alone, a car drove by and threw a bomb onto the porch.  On our visit to the parsonage we were able to see where the bomb exploded, breaking out windows.

Fortunately, no one was hurt. Martin raced home, and from the porch addressed the large crowd that had gathered. While they were seeking revenge, he told them to go home quietly and remember that non-violence is the only proper path, no matter what others may try to do to you.

Later Martin would say that it was his religious experience three nights before, over a cup of coffee, that gave him the strength to face his fears that night, and the mulitude of fears he would face in the years to come.

The Call: God's Leading and Our Response

Secular people call it "fate." Spiritual people call it "a call." It is a mysterious and often strange combination of God leading us, sometimes where we may not want to go, and the issue of how we will respond.

As Martin finished his doctoral studies in Boston, he had to decide which way to go next with his theological calling, and whether to stay in the North or return to the South. Churches in Massachusetts, New York and Detroit had expressed interest in him. Three colleges had offered attractive posts, including his alma mater, Morehouse in Atlanta. Coretta felt she would have more opportunities in the North for her career as a musician. This was their chance to escape the segregated system they had abhorred since childhood.  After days of praying and discussing, they decided they had a moral obligation to return to the South and try to do something about the problems they had felt so keenly throughout childhood.

Although Martin always had the option of returning to Atlanta to work with his father, as he had already done throughout his years as a student, he accepted a call to Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, which sits in the heart of the city one block from the state capitol. It was here, on February 18, 1861 that Jefferson Davis had taken the oath as President of the Confederate States.

Martin began his call at Dexter in May of 1954. It was from this pulpit that he had the chance to develop his own theology and preaching skills, again back in the South, but 175 miles from Daddy King. A year and a half later the nature of Martin's Call would change abruptly and radically. 

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the local chapter of the NAACP, refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. She was arrested, jailed, and released that evening on bond.

The next day black leaders decided it was time to finally organize a boycott of the bus system. They contacted one of Montgomery's most outspoken black pastors, Ralph David Abernathy of First Baptist Church, and it was decided to hastily call a meeting of all of Montgomery's black pastors. They needed a downtown location, and Abernathy suggested Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. When Martin Luther King was called and asked to support the boycott and host the meeting, he hesitated. Only weeks earlier he had declined the opportunity to be considered to be president of the NAACP chapter. He had a new baby at home and so many responsibilities in his new call at Dexter. However, he did eventually agree to host the meeting that Friday night, and they met in the Dexter basement.

At the meeting it was decided to call a mass meeting for Monday night at the Holt Street Baptist Church.

On Monday afternoon several dozen black leaders and clergy met at Mt. Zion AME Church, which is also located on Holt Street in a traditional black area of Montgomery.

They decided to call the new organization that would organize the boycott the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). Next they had to elect officers. Rufus Lewis, one of the black leaders, nominated his own pastor, Martin Luther King, Jr. It was seconded and no other names were put forth. The group asked Martin if he would accept, and he replied, much to the surprise of Abernathy, "Well, if you think I can render some service, I will."

Martin had to quickly put together a speech. When he arrived for the 7pm rally at Holt Baptist Church, 1000 people were packed inside, and another 4000 outside, listening to loudspeakers positioned outside.

Martin's Call had changed radically. He was thrust into leadership of an activist organization that would plant the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement, which would in turn eventually change forever the segregationist structure of the South. When Martin and Coretta returned to the South, they had absolutely no way of foreseeing the way God's Call would change for them. They could have said "no," but that's the problem with God's Call. Like Moses or Jeremiah, you may try at first to wiggle out of it, but the Spirit will push you to say yes. Martin did some quick wiggling, too, but he, too, eventually said yes.

He admitted later that if he had had more time to think about it, he might have said no. But forced to make a quick decision, he said yes.  And the rest, as we say, is history.

Atlanta: Formative Influences in Martin's Early Years

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born January 15, 1929 at home (501 Auburn, Ave., Atlanta, Ga.) to Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King, the 2nd of their three children. Today we toured his birth home, seeing where he studied, learned reluctantly how to play the piano, ate family meals, slept in a single bed with his young brother, A.D., and played baseball and board games like Monopoly.

Down the street two blocks, which we also toured, is Ebenezer Baptist Church, where his father was pastor and he grew up in the Christian faith. It is also the last church he served as a pastor, along with his father, and where his funeral took place. Yes, Atlanta does bring you full circle, but we are getting ahead of ourselves. 

This is the pulpit from which both Martin and his father preached.

The neighborhood Martin grew up in was the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, just east of downtown. It was one of the areas blacks went to after experiencing the segregation of Atlanta, and built their own world. It was filled with all kinds of businesses and many professional folks. Martin could look out his window to the left and see what we call poor row houses. They called them shotgun houses, because if you opened the front door and the back door and shot a shotgun, it would go straight through without touching anything. To the right he would see the affluent houses of successful black entertainers, lawyers, doctors, etc. He grew up middle class, but surrounded by those poorer and richer than himself economically. And he was around many black men like his Father who hated the segregated world of Atlanta, and refused to give in to it. If his Father wasn't served by a white merchant, he would simply leave rather than suffer further humiliation. Martin tells of two childhood experiences that had a profound impact on him: the time his father took him go get shoes and they sat at the front of the store to get fitted. When the proprietor said they had to move to the back of the store, Daddy King, as Martin called him, left the store instead. The other experience had to do with a white boy who was a great playmate from ages 3 to 6, until the white boy's father told Martin he didn't want him hanging around his son anymore.

Of those early years, Martin writes: Of course I was religious. I grew up in the church. My father is a preacher, my grandfather was a preacher, my great-grandfather was a preacher, my only brother is a preacher, my daddy's brother is a preacher. So I didn't have much choice.

When Martin was 15 he went to work on a tobacco farm in Connecticut. He wrote back to his parents. After we passed Washington there was no discrimination at all. The white people here are very nice. We go to any place we want to and sit any where we want to.

The following fall he entered Morehouse College, an historically black school on the west side of downtown Atlanta, 4 1/2 miles form his home. There he encountered more progressive theology which challenged some of the fundamentalist theology on which he had been raised. This was inspiring and enlightening to Martin. It was in his final year there he finally felt the call to ministry: My call to ministry was not a miraculous or supernatural something. On the contrary it was an inner urge calling me to serve humanity.

After touring King's birth home, the church and the wonderful museum dedicated to him across the street from the church, Mary and I decided to drive over to Morehouse. When we came to the campus gate, and asked if we could see the campus, the guard let us in and told us where to go. As we starting trudging up the hill to one of the highest points in Atlanta, where the first Morehouse building was constructed in 1879, a security guard offered to put us in his golf cart and give us a tour. He took us up to that first building, called Graves Hall, which was the dormitory that Martin lived in.  He also got us into the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel, constructed in 1978.

Martin would go from Morehouse to Crozer Seminary in Chester, Pa., and then to Boston University to work on his Ph.D. There he would meet Coretta Scott, whom he would marry one June 18, 1954 Of her he wrote: I am indebted to my wife, Coretta, without whose love, sacrifices, and loyalty neither life nor work would bring fulfillment. She has given me words of consolation when I needed them and a well-ordered home where Christian love is a reality.

Picture from the Museum Above 

Martin received his doctorate in systematic theology in June of 1955. It was time for his first call. Both Coretta's parents and his parents wanted him to remain in the North. But he was determined to return to the South. Against his father's wishes, he took the call as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Al.

Mary and I head in that direction tomorrow.

Much of the material in this and upcoming blogs comes from two wonderful books I have been reading:  Clayborne Carson, The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.: New York: Grand Central Publishing, 1998 and David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross:  Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference: New York: HarperCollings, 1986.