Happy Birthday Dr. King

Dear Dr. King,

It is amazing how much you have touched my life — especially when you consider that you were murdered nearly a decade before I was born.

Growing up in a virtually all-white community (only two girls in my school were non-white and they were adopted) it wasn’t until I entered college that I experienced those from other cultures. But even then, the majority of my connections were mostly “like me”.

But then one thing changed my life forever — “African American Rhetoric” was supposed to be a fulfillment for my Mass Media minor. Rather it would change my life.

Dr. William Coleman, professor of communications and a Baptist minister, brought the subject to life in a way that this small-town boy could have never imagined. Dr. Coleman had been at theology school at Temple when he felt the calling south. He never met you, though he was in your presence on several occasions.

It was I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World that led us into your mind. And while “I Have a Dream” is your most famous speech — and rightfully so — I have some more lesser-known favorites.

Following your arrest in 1963, you wrote a series of letters to fellow clergymen and in one these you wrote:

“Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere … Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincal “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives in the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere in this country.

But, one of your greatest points is that God’s law is more important than “human” law. I was a very naive young-man and the “law” was the “law” and it wasn’t to be broken. But Dr. King’s expression really made me understand that human laws can be just as injustice as the white upper-class men that make them.

So on the anniversary of your birthday, God bless you Dr. King.

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