In the hallowed memory of our dear, respected and martyred Brother Martin

Velandy Manohar, MD
Distinguished Life Fellow, Am Psychiatric Assoc.
860-345-8980, [email protected]
09 17 11
In the hallowed memory of our dear, respected and martyred Brother Martin

Dear neighbors,
I am extremely happy that this magnificent memorial that rises from the mountains of despair that existed when our dear and respected brother Martin was the King in the hearts and minds of people all over the world as well as most people in the USA and still is the beacon of hope, the tower of strength and focus of admiration and affection across the United States and World will be dedicated 08 28 11(I began writing this tribute during the last week of August)
“Has any one here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he is gone?
Oh! He freed a lot of people
But is seems the good, they die young, yeah
I looked around and he was gone.” Dion
It is disappointing that the dedication of this magnificent monument cannot be successfully or safely completed August 28 because of Hurricane Irene. It was on Aug. 28 1963 that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the immortal “I have a dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial the 200,000 people who had assembled there to participate in the March on Washington D.C. When this monument is dedicated we will all be able to make the pilgrimage and reacquaint ourselves with our brother Martin’s inspiring words and courageous deeds and make our amends with our brother Martin for not fulfilling the dream that he spoke about in this speech and make our peace with Almighty who gave us by his grace a noble and compassionate son who was tragically martyred who deserves to be heeded, cherished and honored.
In a 1956 letter to Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Ms. Lillian Eugenia Smith [1897-1966] wrote "My warmest greetings to you and your congregation and to your people, who are my people, too; for we are all one big human family. I pray that we shall soon in the south begin to act like one." This statement gives a glimpse of her views on racism and her longing to see all people united as one. Ms. Lillian Eugenia Smith was not only a writer but also an activist. She was the first white woman in the South to speak openly against racism and segregation. She wrote and lectured widely on civil rights and race relations.” Our Faces Our Voices is one of her many eloquent books. Her lifelong convictions are summed up in her acceptance speech for the Charles S. Johnson Award at Fisk University in 1966: "Segregation is evil; there is no pattern of life which can dehumanize men as can the way of segregation."
Our Brother Martin’s life, words and deeds make him an exemplar of this definition of Freedom. Lyndon Eaves, “Freedom is the ability to stand up and transcend the limitations of the environment.”
In his “I have a dream” speech he developed further the great themes of justice, personal liberty, dignity and honor that he had most eloquently and poignantly expressed in writing while he was imprisoned in Birmingham, Alabama which was at that time the most segregated city in the South. In this letter dated 04 16 1963smuggled out on scraps of paper he responded to an “ Open letter” published by 8 white clergymen in which they accused him of promoting civil unrest and urged him to call of the demonstrations.
In his Aug 28th 1963 he ended his speech with these ringing words which formed the blue print of the design the mighty monument created on the mall in the vicinity of the magnificent memorials to Jefferson and Lincoln to our brother Martin. This is what he said “This is the faith; this is the hope with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the ‘mountain of despair a stone of hope.’ With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together knowing that we will be free one day.”
Peter, Paul and Mary chose to sing Mr. Bob Dylan’s song “The answer is blowing in the Wind” on the steps of the Lincoln Monument on that memorable day 08 28 1963. These words are especially evocative and wonderfully embodied in the vision of mass movement that was unfolding before their very eyes.
“How many years can a mountain exist,
before it is washed to the sea?
How many years can some people exist,
before they're allowed to be free?
And how many times can a man turn his head,
and pretend that he just doesn't see?”
I have wondered if our brother Martin recalled the visions of Ms. Harriet Tubman, ‘the Moses of her people.’ Rev. Henry H. Garnet a fiery Presbyterian Minister and dyed in the wool Abolitionist in whose NY home Ms. Tubman resided witnessed an episode of her trance like state soon after the President Lincoln was inaugurated. She woke up form sleep and descended to the first floor of the home singing, “My people are Free, My people are free.” He tried to dismiss these cries, "My grandchildren may see the day of the emancipation of our people, but you and I will never see it,” he said. Ms. Tubman was not to be discouraged; she pushed aside breakfast, absorbed in the power of her prophetic vision. She sang out gain and again” My people are free! My people are free!” (H Magazine Sept/Oct 2011)
I wonder if the Prophetic Vision of the Moses of her people from March 1861 was one of the wellsprings of the vision and wisdom, courage and compassion, faith and hope that our brother Martin presented to the world during his life and especially in the Letter from the Birmingham Jail and the “I have a dream speech”
In both these remarkable statements (the letter from Birmingham jail and the Address from the steps of the Lincoln monument) which passionately and precisely advanced arguments for securing the personal Liberty, Equity and Justice for the descendants of slaves, rights guaranteed under the US Constitution he documented the long torturous delay between the declarations of inalienable human rights that God endowed each and every one of his children and the true emancipation of African Americans who were born and brought up in the USA.
Dr. Martin L. King Jr. wrote: We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights…. I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait”…; when you harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a “negro”, living constantly at tiptoe stance never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “Nobodiness”; then you will understand why we find it difficult to “Wait”. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of injustice where they experience the blackness of corroding despair. At this point he addressed the clergymen who had published an open letter condemning our brother Martins plans for civil disobedience. He wrote, “I hope, Sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.”
This verse in Bob Dylan’s song captures the essence of this eloquent expression of the pent up yearning for Freedom.
“How many roads must a man walk down,
before you call him a man?
…………………………………………………………………………

“How many times must a man look up,
before he sees the sky?
And how many ears must one man have,
before he can hear people cry?
And how many deaths will it take till we know,
that too many people have died?”
President John. F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin L. King Jr. have both documented the terrible disparities in the social, economic, educational and health status between those who were deprived of their humanity and those who exercised unlawful over lordship / dominion over their dark complexioned fellow citizens who had been maliciously disenfranchised by unjust laws. These facts made the case for “our legitimate and unavoidable impatience” with which the civil rights and freedoms under the US constitution had to be secured post haste for any and every citizen of the USA.
President John F. Kennedy in his June 11, 1963 televised address made these assertions: “It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being an American without regard to his race or color. Every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. But this is not the case today. A Negro Baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the nation in which he is born, has about half as much chance of completing high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day, one third as much chance of becoming a professional man, twice as much chance of becoming unemployed, about one in seven as much chance of earning $10,000 a year or more, a life expectancy which is seven years shorter, and the prospects of earning only half as much…If, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? Who among us would be content with the counsels of patience and delay?”
“One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.”
President John F. Kennedy then posed this powerful question: “We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home,: but are we to say to the world, and, much more importantly, to each other, that this is a land of the free except for the Negroes; that we have no second class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or caste system, no ghettos, no master race except with respect to Negroes.”
President Lyndon B. Johnson in March 15, 1965 Special message to the Congress: “The American Promise spoke eloquently in support of the passage of the Voting rights Act. “ This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart… “All men are created equal”- “Govt by the consent of the governed”- “give me Liberty or give me death.” Well, those are not just clever words and those are not just empty theories. In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our Liberty risking their lives.”
“Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. This dignity cannot be found in a man’s possessions; it cannot be found in his power, or in his position. It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. It says that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children, and provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being.”
“To apply any other test- to deny a man his hopers because of his color or race, his religion or place of birth- is not only to do injustice, it is to deny America and to dishonor the dead who gave their lives for American Freedom.”
“Our fathers believed that if this noble view of the rights of man was to flourish, it must be rooted in democracy. The most basic right of all was to choose their own leaders. The history of this country is the history of the expansion of that right to all of our people.”
Our brother Martin, dear, respected and martyred emphasized these themes eloquently and poignantly in his address on Aug 28th 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Monument. “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. (Jan 1, 1863). This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous day break to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. … His life is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and chains of discrimination…he still lives in islands of poverty in the midst of vast ocean of material prosperity. Crippled by the One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have here today to dramatize their appalling condition.”
The Emancipation Proclamation was limited and applied only to the residents of the Old Confederacy and not to the residents of Border States or in states under Federal military control or to slaves living in states loyal to the Union cause.
This poignant letter from Ms. Annie Davis to President Lincoln expresses the very sad predicament of slaves in the Border States.
Belair [Md.] Aug 25th 1864
Mr president It is my Desire to be free. To go to see my people on the eastern shore. my mistress wont let me you will please let me know if we are free. and what i can do. I write to you for advice. please send me word this week. or as soon as possible and oblidge.
Annie Davis
I wonder who she was referring to when Ms. Annie Davis mentioned “my people on the Eastern Shore” Could it be she was thinking of meeting up with the Moses of her people Ms. Harriet Tubman? Ms. Tubman who organized the Underground Railroad (she never lost a passenger) was known to travel into Eastern Maryland which was a hot bed of pro-slavery Confederate sympathizers and move them along the various trails to Canada after the 1850 Fugitive Law was enacted. This placed the slaves she freed who lived in Northern cities at great risk. She did place a few of her passengers at the home Frederick Douglass. Even if Ms. Annie Banks was traveling to the Eastern Shore to get on board the Underground Railroad, she was placing herself in mortal danger if in fact she made the trip.
Mr. Frederick Douglass was able to return from England in 1847 to visit the USA as freed man after his friends raised the funds to purchase his freedom. These powerful words express the horrors of slavery in the pre-Civil War era and the terrible hypocrisy rampant in the USA at that time even though the Constitution promised justice and equity and to secure the blessings of liberty to posterity. “ But when I remember that the blood of four sisters and one brother is making fat the soil of Maryland and Virginia – when I remember that an aged grandmother…reared 12 children for the Southern (slave) market, and these one after another … were torn from her bosom – when I remember that when she became too much racked for the toil, she was turned out by a professed Christian master to grope her way in the darkness of old age, literally to die with none to help her, and the institutions of this country sanctioning and sanctifying this crime, I have no words of eulogy, I have no patriotism.”
He asks how I can love a country where the blood of my blood and flesh of my flesh, is now toiling under the lash. He asserted if I had a country I would be a patriot. He said there is no mountain so high, no plan so extensive, and no spot so sacred, that it can secure to me the right of Liberty. He believed that a true lover of his country is one who rebukes and does not excuse its sins. These words are from the address he delivered in Syracuse, New York. It is important for all of us to take a moment to reflect on his words and absorb the devastating impact of slavery on both slave owner and the slave. All involved in the institution of slavery were totally deprived of their common humanity and deprived any links to their own spiritual core.
Notwithstanding the pious protestations that the Leaders of the Confederacy that they waged war for the “sacredness of states’ rights” (from South Carolina’s monument erected at Gettysburg in 1965) and Confederate President’s statement, “the existence of African servitude was in no wise the conflict, but only an incident” the unmitigated racial hatred and dyed in the wool segregationist sentiment were the motivations for waging the devastating civil war. This was clearly articulated by Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens in Savannah, Ga. a few weeks after the South seceded from the Union. “… Slavery was the immediate cause of the…present revolution. He asserted that the United States has been founded on the false assumption that all men were created equal, and that the” cornerstone” of “our new Government is founded upon… the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man…This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the World, based upon this great physical, philosophical and moral truth”
It is important to remember that the economic value of the goods and services produced by the enslaved Americans and their individual dollar value of the individual enslaved person and their potential value as procreators of more enslaved people equaled or exceeded the value of the goods and services produced by the industries of the states above the states in the north.
Confluence of positions of CSA and the II Reich (Prologue to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis) on Race Branding
I shudder to think what would have happened if the Civil War had ground into a lose-lose stalemate to African Americans in the South had the leaders of the CSA who were committed to establishing the superiority of the White Race had made common cause with the Leaders of Germany of Bismarck and the II Reich governed by Emperor Kaiser- Wilhelm II and Chancellor Bernard Prince Von Bulow. These leaders of Germany fervently believed in and sought to establish the supremacy of the Aryan race, create an Uber Menschen and eliminate Unter Menschen from the parts of world habitable for White persons to provide the living spaces (Lebensraum) and resources required by the burgeoning populations in the European cities.
Most European nations embraced the outright racist theories of Prof. Fredrick Ratzel of the University of Leipzig who pushed for creating Lebensraum for the Aryan Race at the expense of every other race. The inferior people were categorized as vermin or animals. They were described as Life not worthy of life (Leben sum werthes Leben.) These people were seen as wastefully utilizing precious resources that could be better used to support, to create and sustain the Uber Menschen. Extermination by any means including euthanasia in medical facilities of human beings who are deemed not worthy of being alive was determined to be justifiable, in addition to prevention of inter-racial marriage, sterilization of Unter menschen were considered both essential and mandatory.
These racist theories were blended in with the pseudoscience of superiority of the people of Northern European descent espoused by Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin who believed in Social Darwinism. Prof. Ratzel’s and Galton’s theories fitted very well with the Nationalism, Imperialism and Rampant outright Racism that were widely supported by the general population. Francis Galton was developing his pseudoscience after visiting GSWA in 1850 about the same time the tensions were building up in the USA leading to the explosive firing of the cannons onto Fort Sumter in the USA.
Following a major conference convened by Bismarck in Berlin representatives of 14 European nations carved up Africa during this avaricious and mad scramble for Africa 1884. There were predictably no representatives from any African Nation. Germany ended up with the vast territory of what is now (since 1990) Namibia. In this vast territory west of the Kalahari Desert which became German South West Africa (GSWA) in 1884, Lebensraum for the Germans who wished to emigrate to the GSWA required the seizure of the property and the cattle of the two major local residents - the Hereros and Namas.
This set in motion a series of progressively Nationalistic Imperialistic and Racist strategies by the German Govt. Illegal seizure of the assets of the local inhabitants of the GSWA, assault, murder and rape. This escalated into massacre of Hereros by Gen. Lothar Von Trotha who was sent to eliminate the local inhabitants in 1904. This General a representative of the top leaders of the II Reich issued an Extermination order not unlike the order that would emerge at the end of the day at the Wannsee gathering of the top Nazis of the III Reich which was called ‘The Final Solution.’
Following the massacre a series of steps were taken to eradicate the Hereros and Namas. These efforts were coordinated with the needs of the major German Business interests. Some of them had their own slave labor Camps. In addition there were sex slave camps run by the Govt. of the GWSA. Predictably the children born to the terrorized Herero and Nama women who were raped by Europeans were subject to the privations and evil research of Eugen Fischer and his willing and eager torturers including Joseph Mengele.
They set up components of systems –laws, institutions, technology and funding which were worked on to eradicate and exterminate people efficiently and large numbers:
1. Concentration camps- run by the Army and powerful Corporations. The first time the term Concentration camp in the Parliament was heard in connection with the extermination policy in GSWA in 1904
2. Extermination camp at Shark Island. There was no pretense like at Auschwitz that work would set the inmates free. Only death would set them free. Gen Von Trotha’s order to exterminate whole populations was first one in the 20th century.
3. Each inmate of these Camps and the of the two tribes were forced to wear an elliptical metal disc with a unique number (harbinger of the branding 30 years later by the Germans of individuals belonging to whole populations of so called Unter menschen after the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis)
4.Appropriation of the resources of the German Empire to lay railroad track and use cattle wagons to transport several thousands of the Hereros and the Nama’s to the Concentration camps and the Death Camps was very meticulously done. The work camps and projects were organized to make sure most of the people in the work details died. It was all very well documented much like the records of the Death camps of the III Reich.
5. Under the Leadership of Eugen Fisher unconscionable research was done on the inmates of the camps. There were infected with deadly diseases, subject to extreme conditions to study their ability to withstand stress before succumbing to the extreme cruelty, starvation and exhaustion. In fact there preprinted death certificate with Exhaustion in the death camps and concentration camps. He advocated sterilization of the Unter Menschen of all different categories.
All these efforts were fuelled and fomented by the work of Eugen Fischer. He worked in the GSWA and studied the bodies and skulls of the in two settings
1. On the French, African soldiers and children of the mixed ancestry who were stationed in the border area of Germany
2. The local inhabitants of GSWA people, of the children of local women inhabitants and Germans and published two studies which influenced public opinion in the II Reich and the seeds of racial branding found fertile soil in the mind of the incarcerated Adolph Hitler. He was so impressed that he made references to the Eugen Fischer’s theories in his book Mein Kampf. Eugen Fischer purported to prove the need for miscegenation and prohibit inter-racial marriage.
The title of his first book is "Rehoboth Bastards and Bastardization problems among Humans.” He co-wrote a major research paper supporting his extremely racist theories; “Principles of Human Heredity and Race Hygiene. Eugen Fischer may have coined the word Eugenics.” This construct of Racial Hygiene caught on in the USA, England and Europe.
Adolph Hitler appointed Eugen Fischer Chancellor of the Berlin University. From 1927 he was the Director of the German Institute for Race Biology which is called the Humboldt University now. His students and associates in GSWA included Dr. Josef Mengele and Hendrick Verwoerd who returned to South Africa and implemented strict laws of Apartheid. This evoked the monumental struggle that Mr. Nelson Mandela inspired and lead to a successful conclusion.
The leaders of the extermination policies in GSWA included Gen. Franz Ritter Von Epp. After he returned to Germany who helped to pulled together the core leaders of the Nazi movement by recruiting Hess, Rohm who recruited Adolf Hitler. He may have been responsible for extermination of Bavarian Jews to successfully implement the Final Solution. He was well acquainted in GSWA with Heinrich Goering, who was the father of Reichsfuhrer Hermann Goering. The senior Goering was Governor of the GSWA.
Racial Branding - Impact on Spouses, Parents and Children
It is terrifying to think what would have happened if the Leaders of the II and III Reich had developed a collaborative relationship with the leaders of the CSA to deal with inter-racial relationships. How would the 1.5 million German immigrants to the USA respond to the theories of Frederick Ratzel and Lebensraum, the theories of Eugen Fischer and the essential need for racial branding? And what plans may have been developed as result of cross pollination of extreme racist concepts to address the problems of miscegenation and determination of the fate of the children of mixed racial marriages and liaisons. Would they consider the children of Thomas Jefferson with Ms. Sally Hemings differently from his children with his Mrs. Jefferson differently? I imagine they would especially since the V-P of CSA had asserted “the United States has been founded on the false assumption that all men were created equal and that the cornerstone of our new Government is founded upon… the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man…This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the World, based upon this great physical, philosophical and moral truth”
It was also common practice for the children of the slaves who were raped and exploited by their white owners were bought and sold as chattel. Even Ms. Sally Heming’s children with Jefferson were subject to these legal and economic systems that enslaved millions of Americans based on their race and descent. Jefferson’s children with his wife Mary were counted as whole persons and accorded all the rights and protections of the US Constitution accorded to people of European descent but Jefferson’s children with Ms. Sally Hemings were counted as 3/5 of a person and subject to all the horrors of slavery and could be separated from their mother, siblings and their half sibs (children of Mrs. Jefferson) when they were bought and sold as mere chattel.
It appears that Jefferson allowed two of his sons to escape towards the end of his life and the other two were freed in his Will. Ms. Sarah “Sally” Hemings was never freed by Jefferson, not even in his will. Jefferson never entered his name as father to the names of the six children who were born to Ms. Hemings and him. Only 4 children appear to have survived. Jefferson’s daughter gave Ms. Hemings an unofficial Freedom document. Ms. Hemings herself was the daughter of Jefferson’s father- in-Law and a mixed race lady (a slave of his father in law). In effect Ms. Hemings was the half sib of Jefferson’s spouse Mary. I wondered if Jefferson or any one in his position would have impregnated full sib of his spouse Mary or a half sib of Mary if the half sib was of European descent. Also would Mary have handled such social transgression and impropriety committed by her husband the same way if the half sib was of European descent? Does the fact that Ms. Hemings was a slave and a lady of mixed race make this liaison permissible? Was it morally, socially and legally permissible for Jefferson to make his wife’s half sib a concubine and have her bear his children with total impunity because Ms. Hemings as a person of mixed race didn’t quite count as a full human being?
Ms. Hemings notwithstanding what her master and the father of 6 of her children asserted publically were her God given rights( as a human being) didn’t have the right behind closed doors to give or withhold her consent to those who controlled every aspect of her life and those of her children and the manner in which the lives of her people was governed legally under the US Constitution which essentially codified Racial Branding before the Civil War and prior to the passage of the XIII and XIV amendments. Ms. Hemings was the aunt of Mr. Jefferson’s children with Mary who was Sally’s half sib which made her 6 children she had as Mr. Jefferson’s slave and concubine the first cousins of the children Mary had with Mr. Jefferson. One can only try to imagine the tremendous emotional torment and family tensions in the Monticello household. I take it back I don’t believe it is possible to imagine what the torments were like in a family riven by racial branding living in a community that didn’t count them as full human beings.
Race branding and slavery apparently made social transgressions and impropriety at this level of intimacy fade into the background were such things were practiced in the community even though miscegenation was condemned in the strongest terms and the babies born from such liaisons were scorned and vilified. It is not clear what happened to the sons who were never freed. It is rumored that Ms. Hemings and some of her family moved as far away as possible from Monticello to live in Wisconsin in order to be less vulnerable to seizure under the Fugitive slave Law. Ms. Hemings was never freed legally from her enslaved status in her lifetime and being of mixed race her children and she herself could be seized and returned to Monticello after the death of Jefferson and especially during his lifetime if they chose to leave Monticello.(because Jefferson didn’t free them all in his lifetime)
It is instructive to consider the fate of Jefferson’s flesh and blood in specific detail because the Jefferson saw fit until after his death not to “...secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity” for which he and the delegates of the Constitutional Convention ordained and established the Constitution for Ms. Hemings and her children :
1. Ms. Hemming’s children- the flesh and blood of Jefferson who proclaimed “All men are Created Equal and were endowed by God with Inalienable rights would be classified as mongrels, half breeds because they were mixed race progeny of the abhorred but rather commonplace practice of miscegenation.
2. American Sympathizers and adherents of Race branding theories especially because slavery appears to be sanctioned by the Bible would feel empowered to treat Jefferson’s flesh and blood born of Ms. Hemming’s body to treat them as sub-humans with no rights at all and subject them to all manner of degradation and harm with total complete impunity
3. Jefferson’s flesh and blood born of Ms. Hemming’s body could be worked to death, denied adequate food, water, and clothing and lodging, deprived of medical attention and at risk of being subject to unethical, cruel and malicious medical experimentation because they were products of race mixing.
Mr. H.W. Longfellow published in 1842 a slender volume entitled “Poems on Slavery.” In his eight poems he describes the many horrors of Slavery and the dire consequences that can befall the nation (This cautionary poem is entitled “the Warning”). One of the poems is the “Quadroon Girl.” It attempts to portray the cruel and tragically ambivalent relationship between the Master and the slave he takes as his paramour.
President Kennedy eloquently expressed the unimaginable chasm between those who were enslaved for centuries and those who had right to enjoy the blessings of liberty and emphasized why it is imperative to secure this right to all Americans and our posterity in his televised address to the Nation on June 11 1963.
“One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet the Slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They were not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not freed from social and economic oppression. And this Nation, for all its hopes and all of its boasts, will not be fully free until all of its citizens are free.”
This letter from Mr. John Boston, a freed slave to his wife eloquently expresses the terrible personal torments experienced by human beings whose bodies were enslaved but spirit and personal integrity were unshackled.
Upton Hill [Va.] January the 12 1862
My Dear Wife it is with grate joy I take this time to let you know Whare I am i am now in Safety in the 14th Regiment of Brooklyn this Day i can Adress you thank god as a free man I had a little truble in giting away But as the lord led the Children of Isrel to the land of Canon So he led me to a land Whare fredom Will rain in spite Of earth and hell Dear you must make your Self content i am free from al the Slavers Lash and as you have chose the Wise plan Of Serving the lord i hope you Will pray Much and i Will try by the help of god To Serv him With all my hart I am With a very nice man and have All that hart Can Wish But My Dear I Cant express my grate desire that i Have to See you i trust the time Will Come When We Shal meet again And if We dont met on earth We Will Meet in heven Whare Jesas ranes Dear Elizabeth tell Mrs Own[ees] That i trust that She Will Continue Her kindness to you and that god Will Bless her on earth and Save her In grate eternity My Acomplements To Mrs Owens and her Children may They Prosper through life I never Shall forgit her kindness to me Dear Wife i must Close rest yourself Contented i am free i Want you to rite To me Soon as you Can Without Delay Direct your letter to the 14th Reigment New york State malitia Uptons Hill Virginea In Care of Mr Cranford Comary Write my Dear Soon As you C Your Affectionate Husban Kiss Daniel For me
John Boston
Give my love to Father and Mother
Between the April 16 1963 letter and the August 28 1963 address, there was intense political ferment brewing throughout the South leading to violent attacks on non- violent civil rights activists. President John F. Kennedy directed the resources of Federal Govt. to be focused on protecting the Civil rights of those whose lives were being threatened, opportunities for educational and economic advancement were being illegitimately restricted and whose freedoms under the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendments were being severely constrained. He ordered the National Guardsmen to implement the order of the US District Court of the Northern District of Alabama which called for the admission of two African American Alabama residents to the University of Alabama.
In his national address on June 11, 1963 President John F. Kennedy announced that he would send to the US Congress Legislation outlawing discrimination in all public facilities. Sadly he was assassinated in November 1963 but the Legislative initiative he set in motion lead to the formulation and passage of the Landmark Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 1964 under the expert political leadership of President Lyndon B. Johnson. He augmented this exceptional accomplishment with the passage of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) on August 6th 1965. He signed the Voting Rights Act into Law in the same Senate Chamber where President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation about hundred years earlier in 1863.
By the end of 1965, 250,000 African Americans had registered successfully to vote for the first time in their lives. The importance of these two Acts CRA and VRA cannot be overstated in the ongoing struggle for social justice, equal access to educational and employment opportunities and political levers of the Govt. In a mere 43 years after the passage of the VRA we the people elected an African American to become the President of our USA. Mr. Frederick Douglass would be proud to calls himself a patriot. He had famously asserted with a great deal deal of personal pain “If I had a country I would a patriot.”
The importance of fighting for civil rights and for securing the blessings of liberty by gaining the right to vote cannot be overestimated. Within a mere 60 years of the enactment of XIII amendment which abolished the 3/5 apportionment to non-white residents of the USA ( three score and three years after Slavery was abolished by the XIII Amendment) an African American person was elected from the South Side of Chicago in 1928. Mr. Oscar Stanton De Priest was born in Alabama. His parents were slaves. He was the first African American elected to the Congress of the USA in the 20th Century. In four score years from that political revolutionary event Mr. Barack H. Obama was elected from Chicago. Earlier our 44th President served in the State Senate in Illinois from 1997- 2004.
Another son of Alabama who resided in Chicago Joe Louis son of slaves in the second boxing bout in 1938 with Max Schmelling of Hitler’s Germany knocked out the representative of the Master race in 2 minutes 4 seconds. Hitler had waxed eloquent when Max Schmelling defeated Joe Louis in 1936 and proclaimed that “America was a Mongrel nation” and the biggest mistake the United States made was to free the slaves who were inherently inferior to the Aryan race. Hitler had fully embraced Eugen Fischer’s theories. These beliefs are very similar to the ones voiced by the Vice President of the CSA. I shudder to think what would have happened in the Second World War if Hitler had like-minded allies south of the Mason Dixie line.
After the 1938 loss where he was knocked down three times in 2 minutes and 4 secs Mr. Max Schmelling disappeared from the scene. No more talk of Aryan Supremacy. Two years before this slap in the face Hitler had his Aryan supremacy proclamations covered with the dust flying from the spikes of Mr Jesse Owens shoes as he won 4 gold medals and set four world records in the 1936 Olympic Games. While the Olympic Games were being conducted with pomp and splendor Genocidal hospitals and concentration camps were being prepared and some were operational beyond the eyes of the world press at the Olympic venues.
Dr. Martin L King Jr in his letter from the Birmingham Jail (Alabama- the place of birth of the first African American elected to the Congress and the Boxing Champion of all the World) in April 1963 and in his speech on August 28 1963and President Kennedy in his national address on June 11 1963 echoed similar themes reinforce the commitment of the USA to secure the blessing of liberty justice and peace for all of its citizens. President Lyndon B. Johnson in his special message to the Congress- the American Promise spoke passionately and very specifically about what the mission was when he advocated for the passage of the VRA of 1965. “Our Mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country – to right wrong, to do justice and to serve man.”
It is extremely important that the address of the Dr. Martin L. King Jr. Memorial on the Mall is 1954, Independence Ave. because it reminds one of the nodal date, the starting point of the Civil Rights Movement in America which culminated in the enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.It was in May 1954 that Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous decision of the US Supreme Court in the now famous litigation argued by the future Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Mr. Thurgood Marshall. It is the Brown V. Board of education. Case 347 US 483.
Chief Justice Warren concluded on behalf of the highest court in the land, “We conclude that in the field of Public Education, the Doctrine of Separate and equal has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the Plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the Segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the Laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment...” The Brown decision struck a massive blow against racial segregation in Schools and struck down the legal protection offered by the infamous and odious Plessy V Ferguson decision of 1896 to the “Separate and Equal Doctrine” and formed the rock solid foundation on which the most extremely racist statutes and ordinances were promulgated across the land and thus constituted the cornerstone of the Viciously racist and pervasive Jim Crow statutes.
Directly and indirectly the Brown Decision lead to dismantling of segregationist legal structures that had a punishing stranglehold on voting rights, employment opportunities and access to housing in most jurisdiction s in the Old South. In all these different ways the 1954 Brown decision set into motion a broad ground swell that lifted the civil rights movement and our brother Martin to heights that were unimaginable in 1963 a hundred years after the President Lincoln promulgated the Emancipation Proclamation. That is why it is important that address of the monument to our dear and respected brother Dr. Martin Luther King contain this number 1954.
Mahatma Gandhiji, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mr. Nelson Mandela:
I want to discuss the methods our brother Martin developed to bring his goals derived from his noble and lofty ideals to fruition. I will do this by delving into the convergence and parallels between the ideals and methods of Dr. Martin Luther King and guiding principles of and underpinnings of the Satyagarha od Mahatma Gandhiji in South Africa and India and Mr. Nelson Mandela
I have studied and written about Bapu (Mahatma Gandhiji. I have presented a poster board exhibit on Bapu in Hartford, CT and a PP Presentation entitled "Porbandar (Bapu’s birthplace) to Prayag (sacred site where some of his Ashes were immersed in a place where three rivers meet-Triveni) - The Dik Vijayam of Ba (Kasturba-spouse of Bapu) and Bapu. I have spoken about Bapu also.
I was so excited to see the" white Gandhi caps" on the supporters of our dear and respected brother Bapu during the heyday of the Civil Rights movement that inspired people in distant lands and in the USA. It is interesting historically that the leader of the anti-corruption mass movement in India that has nonviolently brought the National Govt. of India to the table to discuss the corruption fighting legislation(Lok Pal), Mr. Anna ( Older Brother) Hazare who is a Gandhian, wears the Gandhi cap practices fasting and uncompromising opposition to corruption and graft that is choking the success of efforts to lift the masses of India from the chains of poverty that wastes human potential and degrades the human spirit.
These are the 11 Observances that were part of the Constitution of Satyagarha Ashram founded by Bapu. It was first introduced in 1915 and revised in 1928. 1. Adherence to the Truth, 2. Non Violence, 3.Chastity, 4. Control of the Palate, 5.Non-stealing, 6 .Non-possession, 7.Physical labor, 8.Swadeshi, 9.Fearlessness, 10.Removal of Untouchability, 11.Tolerance of all faiths and creeds. Bapu formulated the 7 Social Sins in addition to the 11 observances to help the residents of his Ashram and people of India attain their personal spiritual goals while working towards establishing social justice (eliminating untouchability and extreme crippling poverty) and achieving political freedom.
The 7 Social Sins are: 1. Politics without principles 2.Wealth without work. 3. Commerce without morality. 4. Education without building ones character. 5. Pleasure seeking without Conscience. 6. Pursuit of Science without concern for Humanity. 7. Worship without personal sacrifice. He was very concerned that unless the future leaders and Body Politic of India had developed personal morality and standards of Public ethics India would be subject to brown domination once white imperialism is eliminated and a power vacuum emerges when India achieved independence.
Bapu reflected in 1947 on commitment over 6 decades to these principles and he said this," I am surrounded by exaggeration and untruth. Inspite of my best efforts to find it, I don't know where Truth (Sat in Sanskrit) rests. But is seems to me that I have come nearer to God and Truth (by adhering to these principles).It has cost me old friendships and I am not sorry for it. To me it is a sign of having come nearer to God that I can speak and write to everybody plainly and fearlessly about delicate issues in the face of fiercest opposition, practice in full the 11 vows, which I have professed, without the slightest perturbation or unrest. Sixty years of striving have at last enabled me to realize the ideal of truth and purity which I have ever set before myself.
It is extremely tragic and sad that their adherence to these lofty principles cost them more than friendships, it cost them their lives and deprived the rest of us bereft, bereaved and bewildered. What do we do next? Who do we turn to for guidance and support? Whose words and deeds shall we seek to decide on what means and ends we should commit our honor and our very existence to?
As I reflect on both these noble martyred lives I recall with affection and admiration these inspirational concepts that emerged from the heart of One Mahatma and apply equally to both the Mahatmas.
Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.
Mohandas Gandhi (Mahatma, Bapu)
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Mohandas Gandhi
God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless.
Mohandas Gandhi
I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.
Mohandas Gandhi
Our dear and respected brother Martin’s words and deeds, aspirations he pursued and exhortations to all of us his legatees to be dedicated to the cause of freedom for which he gave his life. Like Bapu, Brother Martin's life is his message. When we make our selves open to the better angels of our nature we can also make our lives the message of hope, economic justice and political freedom.
This passage from Dr. Martin L. King Jr.’s address at the March on Washington on 08 28 1963 clearly enunciates the principles of Satyagraha (Soul Force) These were developed and successfully applied to achieve political and social goals by Mahatma Gandhiji at the turn of the Century in South Africa and in the first part of the 20th century in India. This is what brother Martin said:
“But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the Palace of Justice. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our Creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the Majestic fights of meeting physical force with Soul force.” 08 28 1963
Another great Leader Mr. Nelson Mandela was in Robben Island prison when our brother MLK Jr was assassinated in 1965. He was at that time into the 4th year of the 27 years he spent in that hell on Earth Jail created by Afrikaners and the British to break the will of leaders committed to political freedom and socio-economic justice. Mr. Mandela, Dr. King and Bapu shared the vision of freedom and social justice for all and lead the struggle for emancipation by mobilizing the masses to walk to assert the justness of their cause and willingness ot risk everything but their dignity and their humanity to attain their goals.
Mr. Nelson Mandela and his followers were subject to severe privations and worse under Apartheid promoted and enforced by Hendrick Verwoerd who was inculcated and inspired by Eugen Fischer in GSWA.
Mr. Mandela said this during his Rivonia trial, “I have fought against White domination and I have fought against Black domination. I have cherished the ideal of democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal, for which I am prepared to die.”
Mr. Mandela found inspiration and drew strength from Dr. MLK Jr life of struggle and sacrifice because our Brother Martin’s dream of equality and social justice closely mirrored the dreams of the dispossessed masses of South Africa. Mr. Mandela said this when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. Dr. MLK Jr was conferred the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964,
“Let the strivings of us all prove Martin Luther King Jr to have been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war”
The following news item documents the impact of the vision and resolve, courage and commitment embodied in their inspiring words and exemplified in their outstanding leadership roles they played under extra-ordinarily challenging times of Bapu, our brother Martin and Mr. Nelson Mandela.
Leaders of Bil’in a Village in Palestine adopted the non-violent political strategies espoused by Mahatma Gandhiji, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Mr. nelson Mandela against the Wall and settlements dividing the West bank on 05/03/2010. Reported by Bil’in Popular Committee:
“During this week’s demonstration in Bil’in, protestors dressed up in masks representing Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela to commemorate their nonviolent creativity against occupation, oppression and colonialism. The struggles of Gandhi against oppression and occupation in India (First in South Africa in the late 19th C and then in India in 20thC-VM), Martin Luther King Jr. against racism in the USA and Mandela against the apartheid in South Africa are all similar to Bili’n’s ongoing struggle against occupation here.
The idea to representing these historic activists who fought all types of racism, oppression, occupation and apartheid using nonviolent methods came from the constant determination of Bil’in to use popular nonviolent resistance against the occupation, the wall and the settlements. “
These are daunting goals to set before us, ordinary mere mortals. I take heart when I recall these inspirational words of W.E.B. DuBois;
“The prayer of our souls is a petition of persistence;
Not for the one good deed, or the single thought,
But deed on deed and thought on thought,
Until the day calling unto day shall make a life worth living.”
Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in his Day of Affirmation Address at the University of Capetown, Capetown, S. Africa on 06 06 1966 said, “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
"If Athens shall appear great to you," said Pericles, "consider then that her glories were purchased by valiant men, and by men who learned their duty." That is the source of all greatness in all societies, and it is the key to progress in our time.
Our brother Martin understood as well as Pericles and other great Athenian Leaders the full significance of this noble concept Logoi Koi Erga. He knew this had to be incorporated as a foundation and accepted as the fundamental guiding beacon for his organization and the mass movement it had evolved into which was committed to achieving social and economic justice within a democratic republic. This is the explanation of the concept from the website of the Columbia University Undergraduate Students program- Center for Student advising.
The Program's motto, “Logoi kai Erga” — “Words and Deeds”—a distinction hearkening back to IV Century Athens, highlights our goal of underscoring the correlation between one's words and one's actions, between the ideas one garners from books and theories and their translation into action.
As our mantra of civic engagement, “Logoi kai Erga” keeps us all actively searching for intelligent and generous intersections of knowledge and action, opportunities where the life of the mind finds always new and creative outlets in the community and on the world stage to better serve the human race. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee knew that our brother Martin was one of the best exemplars in modern times of these ennobling ideals.
The words that follow sound a clarion call for all of us to recommit and work for economic justice and political freedom.
“Now the only thing I did was wrong Staying in the wilderness too long
Keep your eyes on the Prize, Hold On, and Hold On”
“The only thing we did was right, was the day we started to fight,
Keep your eyes on the prize, Hold On, Hold On.”
An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In his book, “Stride toward Freedom” the Montgomery Story. He documents the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In Chapter 4, The Day of Days Dec 5 (1955) he writes, the day of protest had arrived. It was Monday morning. The Buses start running at 6 AM. “We were up and full dressed by five thirty. I was still saying that if we got 60% cooperation the venture would be a success.... I was sitting in the Kitchen drinking my coffee when I heard Coretta cry, “Martin, Martin, come quickly!” As I approached the front window Coretta pointed joyfully to a slow moving bus: Darling, its empty!” I could hardly believe what I saw. Normally the first bus is filled with domestic workers going to their jobs on the South Jackson line. The second bus was also empty and the third bus had no African American passengers and only 2 white passengers. During the peak hour Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. counted only 8 African Americans riding the buses. Instead of a 60 % cooperation we had hoped for, it was becoming apparent we had reached almost 100%. A miracle had taken place. The once dormant and quiescent community was now fully awake. From that auspicious beginning freedom struggle was reaching for the prize.
In the previous chapter, entitled the Decisive Arrest he sets the stage for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. On December 1, 1955, an attractive seamstress boarded the Cleveland Avenue Bus in downtown Montgomery. Not long after she boarded the bus and rested her tires feet after long day of hard labor she and three others were asked by the bus operator to move back to accommodate boarding white passengers. Although the three others complied she quietly refused to obey the unjust command. The result was her arrest. Our brother martin writes, “Mrs. Parks’ refusal to move back was her intrepid affirmation that she had had enough. Her cup of endurance had run over finally. It was an individual expression of a timeless longing for human dignity and freedom. “She was anchored to that seat by the accumulated indignities of days gone by and the boundless aspirations of generations yet unborn. She was a victim of both the forces of history and the forces of destiny. She had been tracked down by the Zeitgeist- the spirit of the time. Fortunately, Mrs. Parks was ideal for the role assigned to her by history. She was a charming person with a radiant personality, soft spoken and calm in all situations. Her character was impeccable and her dedication deep rooted. All these traits made her one of the most respected people in our community.”
Finally I close with this memorable vignette shared by our Brother Martin after ne climbed the steps of the Capital the end of the Selma March. (This Selma march reminds me of another mighty march the Salt Satyagraha lead by Ba and Bapu that shook the foundations of the British Empire in India). “…Sister Pollard…. Who lived in Montgomery, Alabama during the Bus Boycott… was asked if she didn’t want a ride, and when she answered “No”, she was asked, “ Well, aren’t you tired?’ And with ungrammatical profundity she said, “My feet is tired, but my soul is rested.”

At this point I am confident you will agree with me that what I have described about our brother Martins extraordinary life of sacrifice, resolve, self-determination and ownership in terms of being of accountable ( by willingly put himself in harm’s way) embodies the core attributes of Freedom. Matt Ridley- Freedom lies in expressing your own determinism, not somebody else’s. It is not the determinism that makes the difference but the ownership. If freedom is what we prefer then it is preferable to be determined by forces that originate in ourselves and not in others.”
I offer this letter written to an unnamed person by a 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature laureate Dr. Rabindranath Tagore to pay homage to our brother Martins unshakeable faith and in exhaustible hope. I seek the forgiveness of the Dr. Rabindranath Tagore’s descendants for substituting our brother Martin’s name in this letter. I trust in my heart the great poet will not consider this a problem.
“My dear... (brother Martin)
What is Faith? Faith is the bird that sings when the night is still dark. One that sings for the light. A voice that believes in the light so much that is starts singing before the light shows. An itty, bitty teeny weeny voice of hope in the darkness. One that sings for the Light. It hopes for the light. Not all birds sing when the dawn is still dark. And not all men have faith when the world is so cruel.
Truly yours
Rabindranath Tagore.
Dr. Tagore wrote, “I slept and dreamed that life was joy; I woke up and saw that life was service, I acted and discovered that service is joy.” This is the experience of great ones including our brother Martin.
In the great collection of philosophical writings- the Gitanjali Dr. Rabindranath Tagore expressed these words of prayer for his enslaved and humiliated, degraded and despoiled motherland-
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into the fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where the words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
into the dreary desert sands of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever widening thought and action—
Into that heaven of Freedom, my Father, let my Country awake” R. Tagore.
We probably still dream of social justice but the question we have to ask and answer on the day we dedicate this magnificent memorial to our gifted and martyred brother “Do we brother Martin’s legatees have the heart and will, persistence and courage to make a chain of compassion and care hand and hand to sustain the fight to advance the cause for which he gave his last full measure of devotion.
“Didn’t you love the things, they stood for?
Didn’t they try to find some good for you and me?
And we’ll be free someday soon, And it is gonna be one day soon. Dion.
Our martyred brother placed this challenge before us. “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” Are we living his dream? Are we up to this redeeming and ennobling pursuit of creative altruism wherever it takes us and whatever hardship it accrues to us as did our brother Martin?
Whether we are visiting the Monument at 1954, Independence Ave, Washington DC , or seated in a Bus or Lunch Counter or busy at work, doing our homework, or enjoying our family and friends in our homes, walking through our neighborhoods it behooves us, no it is incumbent on us to take a moment to pause and ask ourselves the questions that Peter, Paul and Mary sang on the day our dear respected and martyred brother left us as Stewards of his Dreams and reflect on the answers that is blowing in the winds all around us where we go.
How many roads must a man walk down,
before you call him a man?
How many years can some people exist,
before they're allowed to be free?
And how many times can a man turn his head,
and pretend that he just doesn't see?
And how many ears must one man have,
before he can hear people cry?
And how many deaths will it take till we know,
that too many people have died?

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind,
the answer is blowing in the wind.

………………………………………………………..

The Psalm of life written by Mr H.W. Longfellow apparently represents what a young man of his day said to his Minister. As I reflected on this Psalm it occurred to me that this young man is known to us - in our time he is our brother Martin. Perhaps you too will be able to perceive how this psalm expresses at its core the strivings, yearning, words and deeds of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! --
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem…

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day…

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Mr. H.W. Longfellow’s 1842 work Poems on Slavery needs to be revisited and reflected on from time to time if we are to act in a manner that is befitting our role as the trustees of Dr. Martin L. King Jr.’s invaluable unfulfilled Dream.
In the very powerfully eloquent last Chapter XI of his book, “Stride toward freedom” entitled, Where Do We Go From Here? Our brother Martin writes, “Many of the problems America now confronts can be explained in terms of fear. There is not, only the job of freeing the Negro from the bondage of segregation but also the responsibility of freeing his white brothers from the bondage of fears concerning integration. One of the best ways to rid oneself of fear is to center one’s life. In the will and purpose of God “perfect love casteth out fear.”
“Fortunately, however, the success of this method is not dependent on its (non-violent non-cooperation with segregation) unanimous acceptance. A few Negroes in every community, unswervingly committed to the non-violent way, can persuade hundreds of others at least to use non-violence as a technique and serve as the moral force to awaken a slumbering national conscience. Thoreau was thinking of such a creative minority when he said, “I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name- if ten honest men only-aye, if one honest man, in the State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves were actually to withdraw from co-partnership, and be locked up in the County Jail therefore, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be, what is once well done is done forever.”
“We must not try to leap from a position of disadvantage to one of advantage, thus subverting Justice. We must seek democracy and NOT the substitution of one form of tyranny over another. “
“Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man. We must not be victimized with a philosophy of black supremacy. God is not interested merely in the freedom of black men, and brown men, and yellow men; God is interested in the Freedom of the whole human race.”
“In short we must work on two fronts. On the one hand, we must continue to resist the system of segregation which is basic cause of our lagging standards; on the other hand we must work constructively to improve the standards themselves. There must be rhythmic alternation between attacking the causes and healing the effects.” Amen
I found the auto-biographical ballad “Welcome to the Future” composed by Mr. Brad Paisley and Mr. Chris Dubois and released in July 13, 2009. The lyrics describe the social, cultural and political changes experienced over the balladeer’s lifetime, including the advances in technology and inter- racial and inter-cultural relationships. I found the thoughts of the balladeer quite insightful and very relevant and believe these lyrics can help to advance the cause of social justice and promote inter- racial harmony
In the first verse, Mr. Brad Paisley tells of how he wanted to be able to watch television in the car as a child, or have his own video game system instead of having to go to the video arcade. The second verse addresses advances in international relationships, by telling of how his grandfather fought against Japan in World War II, but the narrator "was on a video chat this morning / with a company in Tokyo." Verse three addresses the issue of racism after recalling a black friend who had a cross burned in his front yard by the Ku Klux Klan. This verse also alludes to the anti-racism movements of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the line "From a woman on a bus / to a man with a dream."
Mr. Brad Paisley told Country Weekly magazine that he was inspired to write the song after hearing the announcement that Barack Obama would become President of the United States who he endorsed, and realizing that the first President in his children's lives would be an African American. This thought also led him to include memories of his own childhood in the song, as well as those of his grandparents: "If you went back in time and told me, waiting in line for Pac-Man, or [my grandfather] that his grandson would be playing Japan that is just something."[4] Paisley also said that he included the allusion to Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech in the final verse because he thought that King's "dream of racial equality" was realized by Mr. Barack Obama's election.
He-e-ey...
So many things I never thought I'd see...
Happening right in front of me.

I had a friend in school,
Running-back on a football team,
They burned a cross in his front yard
For asking out the home-coming queen. V3

I thought about him today,
Everybody who's seen what he's seen,
From a woman on a bus
To a man with a dream. V4

He-e-ey...
Wake up Martin Luther.
Welcome to the future.
He-e-ey...
Glory, glory hallelujah.
Welcome to the future.”
Benediction
Prayer from Rk Veda
(Revealed Scripture of Sanatana Dharma in accurately referred to as Hinduism)
“Common be your prayer; Common be your end; Common be your purpose; Common be your deliberations. Common be your desires, Unified be your hearts; United be your intentions; perfect be the union amongst you.”
“Sarve Janana Sukhino Bhavantu” (May all of humanity be blessed with comfort and joy. May peace prevail in all three spheres namely Mind, Body and Soul of every individual and between individuals, within communities and between nations.
Psalm 36.9:
For with Thee is the fountain of Light, in thy light shall we see the Light,
36.10:
O Continue thy loving Kindness unto them that know Thee; and thy righteousness to the upright heart.
36.11:
Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of wicked remove me.
36.12:
There are the workers of iniquity fallen; they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May God Bless the United States of America.
Velandy Manohar, MD
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
And References
1. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Stride toward Freedom” The Montgomery Story. HarperCollins Publishers, NY, NY 1958
2. Ms. Lillian Eugenia Smith [1897-1966], Our Faces-Our Voices. While working at Laurel Falls Smith helped edit a magazine, which was eventually called South Today (1936-1945). She also wrote her best-known work Strange Fruit is about the tragic outcome of an interracial love affair in the Deep South. Strange Fruit raised controversy and even got banned in Boston as indecent. Some of her other works included the non - fiction books Killers of the Dream (1949; revised in 1961) The Journey (1954), Our faces, Our Words (1964), and Now Is The Time (1955). She also wrote Memory of a Large Christmas (1962), One Hour (1959), The Winner Names the Age: A Collection Of Writings (1978) and How Am I to be Heard? : Letters of Lillian Smith (1993). Lillian Smith was not only a writer but also an activist. She was the first white woman in the south to speak openly against racism and segregation. She wrote and lectured widely on civil rights and race relations
3. Ms. Caroline Kennedy-“A Patriots Handbook.” 2003 Hyperion, NY. NY.( in this book Annie Davis is referred to as Annie Banks.( vide infra)
4. Juan Williams with the Eyes on Prize Production Team. “Eyes on the Prize” America’s Civil Rights Years. 1954-1965. 1986-Viking Penguin Inc., NY. NY.
5. Annie Davis to Mr. president, 25 Aug. 1864, D-304 1864, Letters Received, ser. 360, Colored Troops Division, Adjutant General's Office, Record Group 94, National Archives. A Bureau of Colored Troops notation on the outside of the letter reads merely “file,” and no response to Annie Davis appears among the copies of letters sent by the bureau or by other offices in the War Department. Published in The Destruction of Slavery, p. 384, in Free at Last, p. 349, and in Families and Freedom, p. 227 Freedmen and Southern Society Project.
Reference provided generously by Ms. Gwen Ragsdale, President and Film maker- “Lest we forget” Traveling Slavery Museum and Film Production.
6. John Boston to Mrs. Elizabeth Boston, 12 Jan. 1862, enclosed in Maj. Genl. Geo. B. McClellan to Hon. Edwin Stanton, 21 Jan. 1862, A-587 1862, Letters Received, ser. 12, Adjutant General's Office, Record Group 94, National Archives. The envelope is addressed, in a different handwriting, to “Mrs. Elizabeth Boston Care Mrs. Prescia Owen, Owensville Post Office Maryland.” Published in The Destruction of Slavery, pp. 357–58, in Free at Last, pp. 29–30, and in Families and Freedom, pp. 22–23.Freedmen and Southern Society Project.
7. Dr. Rabindranath Tagore- “Gitanjali” with an introduction by W. B. Yeats.1997 Scribner Poetry Edition. Simon and Shuster NY. NY.
8. Dennis and Peter Gaffney: The Creation of the Confederate States of America. History
Channel Magazine Sept/Oct 2011.
9. Annika Westman, 1.Nazi Forefathers ravaged Africa 2. Concentration camps already in 1904 Published in Sydsvenska Dagbladet, Swedish Newspaper 08 21 2004, Aug 26, 2004 is the centenary of the [email protected]
10. “The Herero and Namaqua Genocide” BBC Documentary. Aug 26 every year is dedicated to pay homage to massacre of Herero in Waterberg and the Genocide. It is called Maherero day.
11. “From Herero to Hitler- Planting the seeds of future Genocide.” BBC Documentary
12. Prof. Nick Gier, “South West Africa - A century of Brutal Occupation. [email protected]
13. History Channel 09 03 11
12 Noon: America - the Story of us: Civil War
2 PM: America – the Story of us: Metropolis
4 PM: America – the Story of us: Rise of a Super Power
6 PM: America – the Story of us: Millennium.
14. Mr. Brad Paisley and Mr. Chris DuBois, “Welcome to the Future” 07 13 2009
Stay well, stay safe, stay free and please stay in touch.
Semper Fi
Velandy Manohar, MD