Ken Dobson's Queer Ruminations from Thailand
Search this site
  • Life in Thailand
  • Queer Issues in Thailand
  • Queer Christian Issues
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Stories

Freedom

1/15/2018

2 Comments

 
Picture
                                                             REMINISCENCES 

This is the 50th anniversary year of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. whose birthday is a US national holiday this week on January 15 the anniversary of his birth.   I have vivid personal memories of Dr. King and what he marched for, and how I followed.  His Freedom March from Selma to Montgomery Alabama in March 1965 was a major event for me.

When the US government ordered National Guard and US Army troops to safeguard the Freedom march after a bloody failed attempt ended when Alabama police rioted, Dr. King invited everyone to join in the last leg of the march from the Montgomery city limits to the steps of the state capitol building.  Alabama Governor George Wallace has vowed to block the march and we were not sure what he would do that day.  As I remember, four of us from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago announced our intention to travel to Montgomery for the march and got good wishes and some traveling money.  We rode the train all night and arrived in plenty of time on March 25.  There were an estimated 25,000 of us flooding the streets leading to the capitol building.  Dr. King’s address was carried over loud speakers, even to us 3 blocks away.  His most memorable quote was, “The end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. ... I know you are asking today, ‘How long will it take?’ I come to say to you this afternoon however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long.”  The march ended peacefully.  After he spoke, we were among the first to leave for Union Station.  Although the stewards and porters had been very attentive to us and expected us on the return trip, the GM&O would be leaving on schedule.  We got back to Chicago in time for Friday classes.

I have often wondered, “What difference it made?”  We swelled the crowd by a miniscule amount, as we had done on June 21, 1964 when we were 5 or 6 of 65,000 who walked behind Dr. King through the Chicago Loop to Soldier’s Field to hold the Illinois Rally for Civil Rights.

My closest experience in his presence was when he came to Athens Ohio to speak to the Triennial assembly of the World Student Christian Federation.  I was in the choir on stage with him and had a chance to shake his hand.  It is remembered that his speech congealed the Student Christian Movement and Christian students to join the US civil rights campaign and provided impetus for lunch counter sit-ins and freedom rides, as well as other non-violent acts of defiance.

Back in my home town of Jacksonville, Illinois my senior year at Illinois College in 1961 was unlike other years in several ways, following the Athens Triennial conference.  I was a chairman of the United Campus Christian Fellowship, and, along with countless other new civil rights activists, we decided to join the MacMurray College Wesley Fellowship in bringing civil rights to our town starting with Spatz’s ice cream parlor on East State Street.  We were informed that students of color had to order their milk shakes and banana splits at an outside window along an alleyway.  The district attorney had advised us that he would prosecute to end this racial injustice if we could gather state’s evidence.  We formed two small student groups, one all white, and the other integrated, and entered the store a few minutes apart.  The white group was served, but milkshakes for the integrated group never came.  After a while the owner demanded that the second group leave since he had a sign posted that announced he “had the right to seat and serve” whomever he chose.  We got his order to leave and the reason for it on cassette tape.  The issue was in the newspaper and on radio.  We heard that rather than have a repeat of the action, the movie theaters and other restaurants in town quietly ended their racist practices.  My father was livid that commercial businesses could be bullied that way, and that his own son was one of the radicals.  It was a new aspect of me he had not guessed I would develop.  He joined George Wallace’s campaign for President to show his aggravation with the way Democrats like me were telling people how to run their lives.

It began with my failure to see how any of our friends in high school were significantly defined by color.  It went on with my commitment to live as a Christian making a difference.  But it would never have gotten beyond a philosophical point of view if it had not been for a half- hour in an ice cream parlor following a call to action by Dr. King. 

It all comes back to me, as we get ready to mark the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.     
2 Comments
Roy A DeBolt
1/16/2018 06:09:31 am

I found this blog very interesting. I had no idea you had participated as much as you had. I find myself in agreement with you. I have been surprised to find out that Asians, although not to the extent as blacks, also face a great deal of discrimination. The think what bothers me the most is how we are becoming so polarized. It is "us" and "them" and that is not a good thing.

Reply
Kenneth Chester Dobson
1/16/2018 07:18:34 am

Yes, integration has to be seen in light of current polarization. It is true that racial minority groups in the USA have made progress in being included in the mainstream of economic life and opportunities, but if society breaks down that will count for nothing.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson posts his weekly reflections on this blog. 

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Copyright © 2023 Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson