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A review by forgottensecret
Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr by Martin Luther King Jr., Clayborne Carson
4.0
'I don't ever want you to forget that there are millions of God's children who will not and cannot get a good education, and I don't want you feeling that you are better than they are. For you will never be what you ought to be until they are what they ought to be.'
It is interesting to see side by side the autobiographies of Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King. Frederick had a slave-owner for his father, Malcolm came from a mother with poor mental health whose dad was killed by racists, and only Martin seemed to have that rosy, supportive family unit. Each of these towering figures provide such different energies in their readings, their writing styles, that one can view the dynamism in character by their written word alone.
Martin grew up steeped in religion: 'I grew up in the church. My father is a preacher, my grandfather was a preacher, my great-grandfather was preacher'. He inherited his sense of justice from his father, but he credits both for his compassion: 'Because of the influence of my mother and father, I guess I always had a deep urge to serve humanity.' But to influence, one cannot expect to find all that within the aphorisms of a parent, but being a voracious reader helped him broaden his strategies. He read Aristotle, Locke, Plato, Hobbes, he read Nietzsche's The Will to Power, but he was convinced of the power of love by Gandhi: 'Gandhi was probably the first person in history to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction between individuals to a powerful and effective social force on a large scale.' For me, at least it again affirms the necessity to read of great people,to read history and biographies because it is possible that in doing so they could have a transformative effect on your choices.
In the past and to an extent the present, I have taken spiritual paths: texts of Buddhism, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching - so it is interesting to see how committed Martin was: 'As a young man with most of my life ahead of me, I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute. Not to these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow.' Imagine you based your conduct on the eternal, not to the luxuries of transient slot machines, which whimper away as they are replaced by new shiny objects. It reminds me of David Goggins' demand that we need to go inward to find purpose. Martin continues his path of asking the bigger questions by studying philosophy and theology at Boston University: 'This is where I met and fell in love with the attractive singer Coretta Scott', who for her own part 'had been engaged in movements dealing with these problems [of racial and economic injustice].' You might wonder who could captivate the soul of Martin, but in his own words: 'I didn't want a wife I couldn't communicate with. I had to have a wife who would be as dedicated as I was.' Without her, he believes that he wouldn't have been able to withstand the torments of the movement.
Two events happen in quick succession: Rosa Parks is arrested in December 1 1955, and Martin is elected as head of the newly formed group, the Montgomery Improvement Association. In the most decisive speech of his life at that point, which he unbelievably had only twenty minutes to prepare. The speech that is formed is more touching than any I could write in two hours! 'We are going to work together. Right here in Montgomery, when the history books are written in the future, somebody will have to, "There lived a race of people, a black people 'fleece locks and black complexion,' a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights. And thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and civilization.' I can't help but wonder what is happening in this present which will be written about in the future, and if I am positively contributing towards it passage. In his speech, he is indebted to God for helping him do so well 'Open your mouth and God will speak for you'.
In the above we saw the anxiety of Martin before a speech, demonstrating his humanity as phone call threats against him and Coretta intensify, and again in a poignant passage: 'Now, I am afraid. And I can't let the people see me like this because if they see me weak and losing my courage, they will begin to get weak. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I've come to the point were I can't face it alone'.
As I read history, or view other countries, I can feel gratitude at my good fortune. Martin felt that too when he reflected on his trip to India, the home of his hero Gandhi: 'How can one avoid being depressed when discovers that of India's 400 million people, more than 365 million make an annual income of less than sixty dollars a year? Most of these people have never seen a doctor or a dentist.' I can't help but chastise any complaining that arises from me, is there any excuse for minor ailments that happen in Scotland? I think that history should enforce perspective to allow for the armour of resilience to be crafted. Barack Obama used the same method for when he became a community organiser, being surged on by the images of the Civil Rights movement. That 390 million people achieved freedom in India by that British Empire juggernaut through non-violence enhanced Martin's optimism.
If I had to select just one villain in the story, I think it would have to be Bull Connor. 'You would be living in a city where brutality directed against Negroes was an unquestioned and unchallenged reality. One f the city commissioners, a member of the body that ruled municipal affairs, would be Eugene "Bull" Connor, a racist who prided himself on knowing how to handle the Negro and keep him in his "place".' The brutality in Birminghan led to an almost Purge atmosphere where 'Local racists intimidated, mobbed and even killed Negroes with impunity. One of the more vivid examples of the terror of Birmingham was the castration of a Negro man, whose mutilated body had then been abandoned on a lonely road. No Negro home as protected from burnings and bombings.' It is during this time that my favourite part of the book happens, Martin's letter from Birmingham jail. Even if you don't read the whole autobiography, fetch a copy of this letter as it is just so well-shaped, emotive, unquestionably just. Martin is at his best when he uses grandiose language, framing thing from a more global scale and its done to near perfect effect in the letter: beginning from discussing the eight century BC, to Jesus, to Paul, to 'We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly'. He uses examples of Hitler's Germany to compare to, exhorts white moderates for their failures 'all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.'
Later in his life he echoes a similar idea, which makes me pause in my own life: 'Man's inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the vitriolic actions of those who hare bad. It is also perpetrated by the vitiating inaction of those who are good.' What is occurring in the world right now that you are indifferent or ignorant to?
The Nobel Peace Prize for the Civil Rights movement must have gave hope to black people and minorities around the world, that change was possible despite the seeming unstoppability of oppression. Another aphorism from Martin to live: 'Something tells me that the ultimate test of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and moments of convenience, but where he stands in moments of challenge and moments of controversy.' The Stoics would probably say something similar.
Other events that happened were:
Trying to deal with race riots of LA and afterwards Chicago.
Commented on his impressions of JFK, Nixon, LBJ.
March on Washington.
Selma.
Going to jail many times.
This is a book that coupled with other biographies really allowed me access into a life that in Scotland is just inherently hidden from me. But I will end with a quote that I feel is a theme through this book, and could install real shifts in living if consciously abided by:
'So often I had castigated those who by silence or inaction condoned and thereby cooperated with the evils of racial injustice. Had I not, again and again, said that the silent onlooker must bear the responsibility for the brutalities committed by the Bull Connors, or by murderers of the innocent children in a Birmingham church. Had I not committed myself to the principle that looking away from evil, is in effect, a condoning of it. Those who lynch, pull the trigger, point the cattle prod, or open the fire hoses act in the name of the silent. I had to therefore speak out if I was to erase my name from the bombs which fall over North or South Vietnam, from the canisters of napalm.'
Three Lessons I learned:
1. The oppression of man will not change without some resistance from the part of the oppressed.
2. One can live by focusing on the eternal.
3. Be an engaged actor in the world: inaction is complicity.
It is interesting to see side by side the autobiographies of Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King. Frederick had a slave-owner for his father, Malcolm came from a mother with poor mental health whose dad was killed by racists, and only Martin seemed to have that rosy, supportive family unit. Each of these towering figures provide such different energies in their readings, their writing styles, that one can view the dynamism in character by their written word alone.
Martin grew up steeped in religion: 'I grew up in the church. My father is a preacher, my grandfather was a preacher, my great-grandfather was preacher'. He inherited his sense of justice from his father, but he credits both for his compassion: 'Because of the influence of my mother and father, I guess I always had a deep urge to serve humanity.' But to influence, one cannot expect to find all that within the aphorisms of a parent, but being a voracious reader helped him broaden his strategies. He read Aristotle, Locke, Plato, Hobbes, he read Nietzsche's The Will to Power, but he was convinced of the power of love by Gandhi: 'Gandhi was probably the first person in history to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction between individuals to a powerful and effective social force on a large scale.' For me, at least it again affirms the necessity to read of great people,to read history and biographies because it is possible that in doing so they could have a transformative effect on your choices.
In the past and to an extent the present, I have taken spiritual paths: texts of Buddhism, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching - so it is interesting to see how committed Martin was: 'As a young man with most of my life ahead of me, I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute. Not to these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow.' Imagine you based your conduct on the eternal, not to the luxuries of transient slot machines, which whimper away as they are replaced by new shiny objects. It reminds me of David Goggins' demand that we need to go inward to find purpose. Martin continues his path of asking the bigger questions by studying philosophy and theology at Boston University: 'This is where I met and fell in love with the attractive singer Coretta Scott', who for her own part 'had been engaged in movements dealing with these problems [of racial and economic injustice].' You might wonder who could captivate the soul of Martin, but in his own words: 'I didn't want a wife I couldn't communicate with. I had to have a wife who would be as dedicated as I was.' Without her, he believes that he wouldn't have been able to withstand the torments of the movement.
Two events happen in quick succession: Rosa Parks is arrested in December 1 1955, and Martin is elected as head of the newly formed group, the Montgomery Improvement Association. In the most decisive speech of his life at that point, which he unbelievably had only twenty minutes to prepare. The speech that is formed is more touching than any I could write in two hours! 'We are going to work together. Right here in Montgomery, when the history books are written in the future, somebody will have to, "There lived a race of people, a black people 'fleece locks and black complexion,' a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights. And thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and civilization.' I can't help but wonder what is happening in this present which will be written about in the future, and if I am positively contributing towards it passage. In his speech, he is indebted to God for helping him do so well 'Open your mouth and God will speak for you'.
In the above we saw the anxiety of Martin before a speech, demonstrating his humanity as phone call threats against him and Coretta intensify, and again in a poignant passage: 'Now, I am afraid. And I can't let the people see me like this because if they see me weak and losing my courage, they will begin to get weak. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I've come to the point were I can't face it alone'.
As I read history, or view other countries, I can feel gratitude at my good fortune. Martin felt that too when he reflected on his trip to India, the home of his hero Gandhi: 'How can one avoid being depressed when discovers that of India's 400 million people, more than 365 million make an annual income of less than sixty dollars a year? Most of these people have never seen a doctor or a dentist.' I can't help but chastise any complaining that arises from me, is there any excuse for minor ailments that happen in Scotland? I think that history should enforce perspective to allow for the armour of resilience to be crafted. Barack Obama used the same method for when he became a community organiser, being surged on by the images of the Civil Rights movement. That 390 million people achieved freedom in India by that British Empire juggernaut through non-violence enhanced Martin's optimism.
If I had to select just one villain in the story, I think it would have to be Bull Connor. 'You would be living in a city where brutality directed against Negroes was an unquestioned and unchallenged reality. One f the city commissioners, a member of the body that ruled municipal affairs, would be Eugene "Bull" Connor, a racist who prided himself on knowing how to handle the Negro and keep him in his "place".' The brutality in Birminghan led to an almost Purge atmosphere where 'Local racists intimidated, mobbed and even killed Negroes with impunity. One of the more vivid examples of the terror of Birmingham was the castration of a Negro man, whose mutilated body had then been abandoned on a lonely road. No Negro home as protected from burnings and bombings.' It is during this time that my favourite part of the book happens, Martin's letter from Birmingham jail. Even if you don't read the whole autobiography, fetch a copy of this letter as it is just so well-shaped, emotive, unquestionably just. Martin is at his best when he uses grandiose language, framing thing from a more global scale and its done to near perfect effect in the letter: beginning from discussing the eight century BC, to Jesus, to Paul, to 'We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly'. He uses examples of Hitler's Germany to compare to, exhorts white moderates for their failures 'all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.'
Later in his life he echoes a similar idea, which makes me pause in my own life: 'Man's inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the vitriolic actions of those who hare bad. It is also perpetrated by the vitiating inaction of those who are good.' What is occurring in the world right now that you are indifferent or ignorant to?
The Nobel Peace Prize for the Civil Rights movement must have gave hope to black people and minorities around the world, that change was possible despite the seeming unstoppability of oppression. Another aphorism from Martin to live: 'Something tells me that the ultimate test of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and moments of convenience, but where he stands in moments of challenge and moments of controversy.' The Stoics would probably say something similar.
Other events that happened were:
Trying to deal with race riots of LA and afterwards Chicago.
Commented on his impressions of JFK, Nixon, LBJ.
March on Washington.
Selma.
Going to jail many times.
This is a book that coupled with other biographies really allowed me access into a life that in Scotland is just inherently hidden from me. But I will end with a quote that I feel is a theme through this book, and could install real shifts in living if consciously abided by:
'So often I had castigated those who by silence or inaction condoned and thereby cooperated with the evils of racial injustice. Had I not, again and again, said that the silent onlooker must bear the responsibility for the brutalities committed by the Bull Connors, or by murderers of the innocent children in a Birmingham church. Had I not committed myself to the principle that looking away from evil, is in effect, a condoning of it. Those who lynch, pull the trigger, point the cattle prod, or open the fire hoses act in the name of the silent. I had to therefore speak out if I was to erase my name from the bombs which fall over North or South Vietnam, from the canisters of napalm.'
Three Lessons I learned:
1. The oppression of man will not change without some resistance from the part of the oppressed.
2. One can live by focusing on the eternal.
3. Be an engaged actor in the world: inaction is complicity.