#rev dr mlk jr

[blackbrownfamily]

Marva Collins

[whenweallvote]

On this day in 1960, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested for joining a sit-in protest against segregation at Rich’s Department Store in Atlanta. He was jailed along with dozens of student protestors. 

While many of the students’ charges were released, Dr. King was ordered to serve a five-month prison sentence for unknowingly violating his probation from May of that year. He had been stopped by police for driving with expired tags and was issued a $25 citation for driving with an out-of-state license.

Today we honor Dr. King for fight for civil rights, and for knowing when to get into good trouble. ✊🏾

[forever70s]

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (1963)

[clowngirrl]

💜💜💜💜🫶🏾💜💜💜💜💜

[cyarskaren52]

[kaleb-is-definitely-sane]

For the love of God let's just please stop responding to hatred or rudeness with "I hope you die" or "I hope someone treats you horribly" and idk just call out horrible behavior? Like, you can call out bad behavior without stooping to their level.

[tonyburgessblog]

Remembering Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. May we all take these words to heart. Thank you Dr. King for your sacrifice, service, and spirit.

[firstumcschenectady]

“If I Fall…” based on Micah 6:6-8 and Matthew 5:1-16

January is National Mentoring Month, and so this year for Human Relations Day, we decided to look at Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in context – along with the people who inspired him, and the people he inspired. Thus, I opened a lot of articles on the people who served as Dr. King’s mentors and I have three things to say based on that: OH MY GOODNESS were those impressive men; thank goodness for Ghandi and his witness to the powers of nonviolence that these mentors heard loud and clear; and finally – what an extraordinary group of superbly well educated men of color!

In the end though, I found myself more interested in Dr. King’s co-mentoring relationships. Perhaps that would be more normally construed as his collaborators. The key, I think, is to remember that Dr. King was the best known leader in the Civil Rights movement, but he was by no means alone. Dr. King worked side by side with Ralph Abernathy, and the impacts on the movement of Coretta Scott King and Juanita Jones Abernathy was also enormous. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was working tirelessly as well, with its wise leaders and faithful on the ground workers. Movements, it turns out, involve a lot of PEOPLE. No one person is a movement, nor can a single person lead a movement alone. Movements are the embodiment of “we’re in this together.”

With the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was a woman by the name of Fannie Lou Hamer:

Born in Mississippi in 1917, Hamer was a working poor and disabled Black sharecropper who joined the Civil Rights Movement at the age of forty-four. In 1962, her life changed dramatically after attending a mass meeting at a local church. The gathering had been organized by activists in SNCC. The speakers that night highlighted how ordinary citizens could transform American society with the right to vote, a message that resonated with Hamer. She went on to become a field secretary for SNCC and assisted Black people in Mississippi and beyond with voter registration.

This was dangerous work. In June 1963, Hamer was returning from South Carolina with a group of other activists. They stopped in Wynona to grab a bite to eat. Hamer’s colleagues encountered resistance from the owners of the café who made it clear that Black people were not welcome. The police arrived. And when Hamer exited the bus, an officer grabbed her and started kicking her. After Hamer and her colleagues were arrested, they received brutal beatings from the police officers who also instructed prisoners to do the same. Hamer’s injuries left her with kidney damage, a blood clot in her eye, and worsened a physical limp that she would carry for the rest of her life. However, Hamer was undeterred and continued her efforts to expand Black political rights.

...In April 1964, she joined forces with several other activists to establish the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, the MFDP. The group challenged the Mississippi all-white Democratic party. In August of 1964, only months after the establishment of the MFDP, Hamer and others traveled to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to attend the Democratic National Convention.

...The experience in Atlantic City transformed Hamer. Although she encountered resistance, she persisted and delivered the most well-known speech of her political career before the Credentials Committee at the Convention. Hamer used her speech to describe the acts of racist violence Black people faced on a daily basis in the Jim Crow South. She told the stories of shots being fired at the homes of those who supported voting rights, and she told the story of what happened to her in Wynona. As she reflected on the painful experiences that Black people face in the South, Hamer could not help but to question America. In her words, is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives are threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings in America?”1

She was a woman who was inspired by Dr. King, and then inspired Dr. King. They were even known to disagree and push on each other. That is, she was a full collaborator with him in the movement towards freedom. One of many famous quotes by Fannie Lou Hamer is, “If I fall, I’ll fall five feet four inches forward in the fight for freedom. I’m not backing off.” Another great one, one I think we’re going to need in coming days is, “There is one thing you have got to learn about our movement. Three people are better than no people.” Finally, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

I hadn’t heard of Fannie Lou Hamer in my education, I didn’t learn about her until Shirley Readdean’s daughter Cyndee co-directed “Freedom Summer.” I’m so glad I did learn about her, because she was a living force for good, and I needed to know.

The leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, with their commitments to freedom for all people, to transforming oppression, and to doing so through non-violence carefully followed the Way of Jesus, and the calling of God. We hear in Micah famous words:

[God] has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

It is awe-inspiring how well the Civil Rights Movement embodied this. Dr. King and others preached goodness for oppressors, including in Dr. King’s sermon “Loving Our Enemies”:

Another way that you love your enemy is this: When the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must not do it. There will come a time, in many instances, when the person who hates you most, the person who has misused you most, the person who has gossiped about you most, the person who has spread false rumors about you most, there will come a time when you will have an opportunity to defeat that person. It might be in terms of a recommendation for a job; it might be in terms of helping that person to make some move in life. That’s the time you must do it. That is the meaning of love. In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about. It’s not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system..2

As they worked for justice, as they walked with God, they embodied kindness on the deepest levels – calling for true love for those who harmed and oppressed them.

Beloveds, this is a reminder we need. There is no one in the world that we are allowed to discount the humanity of – no one we seek to defeat. We want to change systems, we want to bring freedom, we want to care for the vulnerable, but we aren’t going to get to the kin-dom of God any way but through love – EVEN for those who do immense harm.

No one ever said following Jesus was easy.

Not even Jesus, whose famous Sermon on the Mount blesses those who are struggling with hopes that it will not always be this way. But not with the power to oppress those who oppressed them. The Jesus movement is nonviolent and loving – it isn’t passive, it isn’t willing to let injustice stand, but it is COMMITTED to being nonviolent and loving.

Jesus showed us that the nonviolent love of God could change the world. So too, did the Civil Rights Movement. Today, so too does the Poor People’s Campaign.

Dear ones, in the days to come, I am going to hold on to Fannie Lou Hamer, especially her words, If I fall, I’ll fall five feet four inches forward in the fight for freedom. I’m not backing off.” Whatever comes at us, if we respond with a commitment to justice, to goodness, and to being with God – we can bring good out of ANYTHING. (Eventually.)

May we follow the lead of those who call us to love, to justice, and to nonviolence. They have already shown us the power, we simply get to follow in the way and trust in God. Thanks be to God. Amen

1 Keisha N. Blain, “Fannie Lou Hamer Embodied Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Vision of Courageous Black Leadership” March 02, 2022, found at https://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2022/03/fannie-lou-hamer-embodied-martin-luther-king-jrs-vision-of-courageous-black-leadership.html, on January 15, 2025.

2https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/loving-your-enemies-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church

Rev. Sara E. Baron  First United Methodist Church of Schenectady  603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305  Pronouns: she/her/hers  http://fumcschenectady.org/  https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

January 19, 2025

[whitesinhistory]

White Mob Terrorizes 1,000 Black Residents Inside Montgomery, AL, Church

On the evening of May 21, 1961, more than 1,000 Black residents and civil rights leaders including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth attended a service at Montgomery's First Baptist Church. The service, organized by the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, was planned to support an interracial group of civil rights activists known as the Freedom Riders. As the service took place, a white mob surrounded the church and vandalized parked cars.

The Freedom Riders began riding interstate buses in 1961 to test Supreme Court decisions that prohibited discrimination in interstate passenger travel. Their efforts were unpopular with white Southerners who supported continued segregation, and they faced violent attacks in several places along their journey. The day before the Montgomery church service, the Riders had arrived in Montgomery and faced a brutal attack at the hands of hundreds of white people armed with bats, hammers, and pipes. The May 21 service was planned by the local Black community to express support and solidarity. 

As the surrounding mob grew larger and more violent, Dr. King called U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy from the church's basement and requested help. Kennedy sent U.S. Marshals to dispel the riot; the growing mob pelted them with bricks and bottles, and the marshals responded with tear gas.

When police arrived to assist the marshals, the mob broke into smaller groups and overturned cars, attacked Black homes with bullets and firebombs, and assaulted Black people in the streets. Alabama Governor John Patterson declared martial law in Montgomery and ordered National Guard troops to restore order. Authorities arrested 17 white rioters and, by midnight, the streets were calm enough for those in the church to leave.

Three days later, troops escorted the Freedom Riders as they departed to Jackson, Mississippi, where they would face further resistance.

[blackbrownfamily]

Reverend Dr. MLK Jr

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

#20yrsago Aschroft: judges shouldn’t uphold the Constitution https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna6472084

#20yrsago Fighting spam shouldn’t mean fighting free speech https://web.archive.org/web/20041116043239/http://www.eff.org/wp/?f=SpamCollateralDamage.html

#20yrsago FCC thinks it has authority over PCs and everything that can play a show https://web.archive.org/web/20041117014541/http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/11/11/180969.html

#15yrsago TSA bans snowglobes. TSA, meet Archimedes. https://memex.craphound.com/2009/11/13/tsa-bans-snowglobes-tsa-meet-archimedes/

#10yrsago Americans believe things https://web.archive.org/web/20141102085809/https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3466/Perceptions-are-not-reality-10-things-the-world-gets-wrong.aspx

#10yrsago XKCD’s epic, day-long Rosetta mission flipbook https://xkcd.com/1446/

#10yrsago Roca Labs sends abusive, unwarranted DMCA notices to banish negative reviews https://www.techdirt.com/2014/11/12/roca-labs-issues-bogus-dmca-takedown-notices-to-google-to-try-to-hide-pissedconsumer-reviews/

#10yrsago When the FBI told MLK to kill himself (who are they targeting now?) https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/11/fbis-suicide-letter-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-and-dangers-unchecked-surveillance

#10yrsago Cheap dates: the pitiful sums that Big Cable used to buy off the politicians who oversee it https://gizmodo.com/how-much-money-big-cable-gave-the-politicians-who-overs-1657002442

#5yrsago alt.interoperability.adversarial https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/11/altinteroperabilityadversarial

#5yrsago A woman’s stalker compromised her car’s app, giving him the ability to track and immobilize it https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/11/06/womans-stalker-used-an-app-that-allowed-him-stop-start-track-her-car/

#5yrsago Transcription service rev.com cuts “professional transcriptionists'” effective hourly wage from $6.35 to $4.50 https://gizmodo.com/transcription-platform-rev-slashes-minimum-pay-for-work-1839784941

#5yrsago Before you ask your Chinese factory for a discount, make sure you won’t be kidnapped and/or have your product cloned https://web.archive.org/web/20191113124342/https://www.chinalawblog.com/2019/11/the-right-way-to-reduce-your-china-product-costs.html

#5yrsago EFF and ACLU triumph as federal judge rules that warrantless, suspicionless device searches at the border are illegal https://www.eff.org/press/releases/federal-court-rules-suspicionless-searches-travelers-phones-and-laptops

#1yrago The (open) web is good, actually https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/13/this-is-for-everyone/#revisiting

[cartermagazine]

“I Am A Man.” - Rev. James Lawson

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. joined Rev. James Lawson to lead the Memphis garbageman’s strike seeking economic justice for African American sanitation workers.

CARTER™️ Magazine carter-mag.com #wherehistoryandhiphopmeet #historyandhiphop365 #cartermagazine #carter #mlk #martinlutherking #jameslawson #blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #history #staywoke

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

Rev Dr MLK jr casually being a literal heretic will always make me die a little inside.

[readyforevolution]

Former Ghana President Kwame Nkrumah and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pictured above.

Martin Luther King Jr. was invited to Ghana’s Independence Day celebration in 1957.

“Before I knew it, I started weeping. I was crying for joy…I knew about all of the struggles, & all of the pain, & all of the agony that these people had gone through for this moment”- MLK Jr.

[rodrickcolbert]

MLK's Lawyer Details How Harry Belafonte helped bail him and Protestors Out of the Birmingham Jail.

A Classic Episode of American History. 91-year-old Dr. Clarence Jones, former personal attorney and speechwriter to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., joins Jonathan Capehart to tell the surprising story of how he smuggled out MLK’s famous “Birmingham” letter, which involves movie stars, bags of cash, and unexpected help in very powerful places. 7:04 starts the story about how Harry Belafonte���

[crochetdragons]

For anyone who has never been to the cathedral, the building is shaped like a giant cross and the Canterbury pulpit (where she is standing in the photo above) is in the part of the nave where the cross “arms” intersect in the middle (fun fact, Rev. Dr. MLK Jr. Gave his last Sunday sermon from the same pulpit before being assassinated) and the main crowd of people attending service sit in the bottom long part of the cross.

Matthew Shepard is buried in the crypt, in the lower level of the building, approximately slightly below the intersection/near the top of the long part of the cross.

So, she gave that sermon from a pulpit used by Dr. King to an audience that was seated almost directly over the ashes of Matthew Shepard. It was a very conscious decision to specifically call out and ask for mercy and absolutely informed by the time and place of the prayer service.

I saw something in the news today that truly took my breath away. If you have been paying attention to U.S. politics over the past few days, you’ve most likely seen this woman:

This is Bishop Mariann Budde, and on Monday (Trump’s inauguration) she led an interfaith prayer for Trump and the incoming administration. During the service she asked him to have mercy for LGBTQ+ Americans and undocumented immigrants. This was badly received by the Trump administration (as expected).

After seeing headlines about this woman, I read something that I wanted to share. In 1998 a man named Matthew Shepard was murdered for being gay. I’m not going to get into the details of his death on this post, but please be warned it is extremely triggering if you do choose to read more on your own. Matthew Shepard’s death caused a lot of change in the U.S. regarding how LGBTQ hate crimes are handled, and laws that were passed to protect LGBTQ+ people.

Now you’re probably wondering what Matthew Shepard has to do with an Episcopal bishop. For years after Matthew Shepard’s murder, his family had held onto his remains, too scared to lay him to rest in fear of his final resting place being vandalized. In 2018, Budde had his remains interred at the National Cathedral, which is also the place where the interfaith prayer for Trump and his administration took place. The impact of this really had an effect on me. Budde could have led a non confrontational prayer service, and chosen not to mention the harm that will come to the people Trump and his administration are going after. Instead she chose to call out hate and fear in front of some of the most powerful people on the planet, and at a place that has such a large historic meaning to the LGBTQ community.

In the next few years there will be many challenges in protecting free speech, standing up against hate, and protecting those in our communities. But I would like to believe that for every Donald Trump and Elon Musk, there are people like Marianne Budde. There are those of us who can’t speak up for themselves, so it’s important for those of us who can to amplify our voices, even if it’s not the ‘popular’ thing to do.

“And he said you should apologize. Will you apologize?

I am not going to apologize for asking for mercy for others.” - Mariann Budde’s response in a Time interview

Link to articles: x x x

Link to the Matthew Shepard Foundation if you would like to donate