Thursday, September 30, 2010

A Friend's Frustration on April 4, 1968

Over the course of a weekend, some friends started talking to me about their experiences during the Civil Rights Movement. One friend in particular had an interesting view to share with me. Most people think that after Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, black and white Americans lived in harmony in the majority of the country. However, while on normal days they could live together in perfect harmony; this was not the case on that devastating day.

My friend attended a state university, where many of their friends were of different races or ethnicities. One of their best friends happened to be black. As soon as the news of the assassination rang through the halls of the state university's campus, African American students began to march in tribute to his life and the work he did to improve upon the lives of African Americans. Now, my friend is as racially accepting as they come, and was proud to support the SNCC (they even have a button) as well as support their friends who were fighting to obtain equal rights for themselves and their families. Naturally, my friend and some other white folks wanted to show their solidarity and wanted to march alongside their black friends on April 4, 1986, the day Martin Luther King Jr. passed away.

However, when my friend arrived in the middle of campus and walked over to his/her best friend and attempted to march right beside her, the friend told her to go away, that they did not want whites to march with them. Immediately, my friend was hurt and confused. Was it their finger that pulled the trigger? Did they tell James Earl Ray to kill him? No! So, why could they not march in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life? It was not as if the entire Caucasian race killed the civil rights leader, it was one man who pulled that trigger. My friend was angry with James Earl Ray just as much as the African Americans.

Angry with their black friends, my friend and other white students at this state university argued with the African American students until finally they understood that these white folks on campus, they were on the same side. They had fought with you, and they hated James Earl Ray too (of course they did not know it was him yet). Finally their friends allowed them to march alongside them, but it did not completely alleviate the confusion and pain that African Americans caused when they denied my friend, among others, the opportunity to march together earlier that day. After all, Martin Luther King Jr.'s entire life was about interactions with different races, would he want this separation on his death day?

I thought this was very different than what most people hear. Usually it’s all about how people march together every year in Memphis in King’s honor. But this shows just how much hurting there was that day. And it was not all anger on the part of African Americans, which is contrary to most beliefs.

What are your thoughts on this side of the story? How would you feel in the same situation? What would you have done if you were my friend? What would you have done if you were thier black friend?

11 comments:

  1. There was a recent trend of that going around because of King's death. Unfortunately, blacks did tend to point the finger at a the entire white race instantly. However, one man DID pull the trigger and one man DID do the crime, not an entire race. If I were in her position, I would be more mad at the fact that blacks are doing exactly what whites did to them. In some cases, this moment could be considered hypocritical. But, I can understand where blacks attitudes came from.

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  3. I feel that it is hypocritical. Dr. King's life was all about integration, so the turning away of white students went against all he worked towards. Is that really the best way to honor his memory?

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  4. I think it's normal to feel confused and hurt when one of the most important civil rights leaders is killed in cold blood. From the African American friends point of view, he/she probably felt that all of Dr. King's work wasn't helping very much since the advocate of nonviolence was killed in such a violent manner. However, in the end, his/her reaction was very hypocritical, and it should have been understood that the white friend was on her side.

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  5. I feel like because the death of such a pivotal leader of the civil rights movement would be such a crushing blow to followers, one could see why African Americans would like to portray a strong united front. Because the death of MLK had such a huge impact, I feel like it would be quite common for African Americans to look to other African Americans for help. It could have all been an issue of pride. However, with that being said, I do believe that the actions of the friend were entirely hypocritical. How could she oppose the idea of solidarity while at the same time mourning the loss of a man who gave his life to integration?

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  6. Hamza,
    I agree entirely. The united front makes a lot of sense, especially in the wake of such a tragedy. I think my friend just didn't understand why that united front was in fact not united, since other races were at first cast away.

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  7. The attitude of the African American friend who denied integrated marching, while hypocritical in every way, is easy to picture. In an attempt to relate to her perhaps she felt alienated from integration as the assumed leader of nonviolent integration had just been killed. Perhaps on that day African Americans feared the white man and his gun. Given the confusion of that dreadful day thoughts might have easily turned to an immediate fear that all efforts to integrate and end racism would be for nothing. How far could we have really come in terms of ending segregation if the leader is murdered? If fear was a prime motive of her actions, while not making them acceptable, can be interpreted as human nature.

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  8. Clearly that day was an extremely emotional one, and in such times people tend to act irrationally. Usually you do hear about white and black people marching together after King's death, but I would suggest that this image is a construction generated by more recent popular media. There were riots in numerous cities after the King assassination. City governments established curfews and beefed up police surveillance. I think it was an event that really polarized people-- no one really knew what was going on and there were so many questions with so few answers. I think many of us would be pissed off. Regardless, it was an emotional time, one which we as historians can only scarcely begin to understand. I think that we should be careful about trying to enter the minds of these people on the basis of a few actions, and especially about passing judgment on them.

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  9. I can understand why she did not want whites marching with them. It's as if she was merely concentrated on skin color, feeling as if that is the bond that brought these people to march for MLK. Skin color, however, was not the force that brought these people together; moreover, the idea and belief in equality for all is what led this march.

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  10. First of all, the moments directly after the shooting of Dr. King were, of course, shocking. In moments of this magnitude, people respond unlike they normally would. This strange reaction is seen in this friend’s story. A very good point was made by stating that these white friends were not the man that pulled the trigger. The patterns of racism in the south seemed to switch that day. For so long, Africa Americans were all placed together in a group because of their skin color. They supposedly all acted the same, thought the same, spoke the same. For this moment, white people were all thought of as the man who pulled the trigger. They all thought the same way and felt the same way.

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  11. good stuff, all. question: apart from hypocrisy, what other factors could be in play to motivate a black person to feel this way in the wake of King's death?

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