A Man Who Tried To Love Somebody

A Man Who Tried To Love Somebody

From the box of old newspapers and headline magazines we’ve been going through this weekend, I saved these two for today.

There was an irony in the life of this man of peace. King was a non violent man who drew violence to him. In the service of his dream King mustered the eloquence of a born gospel preacher whose creed was Christ and freedom. His mission, pursued in a thousand speeches, was to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.
LIFE magazine, April 12th 1968.

…Here again was the stench of carnations sweetening the southern closeness, the white robed choir singing hymns so familiar to our down-home Sabbath, the black children wondering about the soul of the deceased floating somewhere above them. Here again were the Minister and his elders praying to God to take charge of the departed soul and here was the widow veiled and beautiful in grief… but in little Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, packed with this black congregation and this strange scattering of familiar white faces there was also something hauntingly different. The scratchy, taped voice of the man we sorrowed for, echoed off the walls and penetrated our hearts…

“…and if you’re around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell him not to talk too long.”
“I would like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr tried to love somebody…..”
LIFE Magazine, April 19th 1968
#MLK