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0:12 >> Hello and welcome to this first special edition of the Way to Wow shows for uh 2026. So it is Monday, January 19th, Martin Luther King Jr. day and as is my custom, my flag is flying for the federal holiday and um taking a break from uh business uh and um the topics we cover on at on at Jiggers's place, relationships and books and such to uh spend a little while reflecting on the
0:51 meaning of this day, the life of the Reverend Dr. for Martin Luther King Jr., his work, his impact on our our country and our society. Uh it's it's nice, I suppose, to have, you know, an extra day off work. If you're a uh you know, a government worker, you work for a bank or the post office or something like that. Uh but I think it's incumbent on us to make these days meaningful. They're not just a day for having a barbecue and and having a day off work. There's there's there's a reason
1:26 presumably why um these days have been established. And I think it's so that we will take a little while and just ponder um the the lives of the individuals, the the um the historical events that happened on these days, that sort of thing. So a as is my practice I I am going to talk uh a little bit about um the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's background, his life and his accomplishments. And then uh you know on
2:03 some days for example on Lincoln's birthday I look for a different speech to read each year. In uh the case of uh Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Although he gave many great speeches and he wrote many wonderful pieces um far and away I think the most powerful is what's come to be known as the I have a dream speech that he gave at the march at the march on Washington and I' I've read that now I think for the last two years I'm going to read it
2:38 again this year see see if I can get through it without tearing up it is incredibly powerful it remains I think among the very clearest statements of that to which we aspire or I hope to which we aspire here in the United States of America. So um talking first about um um Martin Luther King Jr.'s his biography. He was a Baptist minister and civil rights leader of course who became probably the most prominent figure in the American
3:15 civil rights movement in the 1950s and the 1960s. So his early life was shaped by his family education, the segregation of that time between blacks and other members or other yeah other members of American society. And this laid the foundation for his role as a leader in the civil rights movement. So it it blended his uh intellectual capabilities, his religious convictions. He was indeed a minister as I noted a moment ago and his personal experience
3:51 with racial discrimination. So he was born January 15th n uh 1929. Uh, interestingly enough, the the same year that my dear Marie, who I always um sign off to at the end of each show, uh, so again, January 15th, uh, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, to Reverend Martin Luther King, Senior, as you would imagine, a prominent minister, and Alberta Williams King, who was a teacher. He grew up in a tight-knit
4:27 middleclass family in Atlanta's sweet Auburn neighborhood. It was a thriving center for black culture and business during the era of segregation. He had an older sister Christine and a younger brother Alfred Daniel who uh went by the initials AD. From a young age, um King was uh exposed to the injustices of racism. He first experienced it, um when he was told he could no longer play with
5:03 white friends because he was black. Uh if and and I think it's sometimes hard to appreciate the impact that such instances have on children. Um my older sister Mara uh visited me yesterday and we we talked for a while. We went and had dinner and you know we're at the point in life where you we we take time not you know on purpose per se but we have you know reasonably long lives on which back to reflect. We shared you know childhood
5:38 together etc. and we talk about different things that we experienced uh when when we were children and we were sharing some of those those moments laughing a lot about them but also I think uh discovering uh from each other's impressions of those childhood memories the impact that they had on our lives. Now, we were fortunate not to have traumatic events, but for a black child growing up in the era of segregation,
6:14 um the idea that he couldn't play with his white friends, I I you know, because he was black, I I I can only imagine must have made a very very deep impression. um and and it I think um planted the seeds for his later work in the civil rights movement. And and two, I think that um one could imagine that while the um the worst ravages of segregation and racism were experienced
6:50 by blacks, um there were uh there was an impact on whites as well. Um I'm I you know with the kind of upbringing that um that King had the fact that white children would be denied the opportunity to get to know him to interact with him was surely uh a loss to those children. Now I'm not saying they experienced it as such. [snorts] Uh but the inability for uh or the um you
7:29 know the inability in the sense of um society being un unwilling to allow interaction between blacks and whites I think uh at least in part perpetuated um the divisions in our society. It's a lot easier to hate the other when one is uh isolated from the other, isolated from people that are not like oneself and the loss to uh both I think is is is unfortunate and real.
8:06 [sighs] Uh so King's parents were a strong influence on his life. His father was a fiery preacher and a civil rights advocate himself. Um, and he instilled in his son um, the importance of standing up against injustice, true injustice, which is what segregation was. His mother was a college educated woman at a time when uh very few black women went to college and she nurtured his intellectual and
8:42 emotional development. So academically King was quite gifted. He skipped two grades and he entered Morehouse College in Atlanta at the age of 15. today that just sounds you know extraordinarily extraordinarily unusual. Um but uh you know when colleges were first founded in this country was not unusual at all uh for boys in their mid teens uh to to go to college once they had finished their their uh primary and
9:18 secondary educations. Um, none nonetheless, uh, you know, and and and, uh, Morehouse College was a is was a historically black college. Um, but still, um, not a lot of blacks, men or women, went to college even at this time. So, uh, just a little bit about Morehouse College. It was founded in 1867 in Atlanta, Georgia, um, during the Reconstruction era. That was the post civil war era. um when Republicans went into the South to rebuild the South um
9:55 along um a a after the abolition of slavery and and with the intent to um advance blacks uh in society. Um and it was founded to educate newly freed African-American men. And over the years, it became one of the most prestigious um historic black colleges and universities in the United States. And it's known for its uh emphasis on leadership, character development, and academic excellence. So, it was an um it was an allmale institution as were most
10:30 colleges back then. Um there were uh all female institutions um colleges um as well. that was again much more common than it is today. Um and um it it produced a number of prominent uh leaders um in the African-American community in in addition to uh Martin Luther King Jr. in uh notable alumni included the theologian Howard Thurman, filmmaker Spike Lee, and former Atlanta
11:06 Mayor Mayor Jackson. So, um perhaps some of those names are are familiar to you. I I would guess Spike Lee being the one most likely. Um and um King initially resisted uh his father's uh uh following in his father's footsteps, I should say, and to become a minister. Um but after a period of of kind of self-reflection uh he embraced the calling and uh he was inspired by um having the church as a
11:42 platform for social change. Now um this was happening not only among Baptists um but uh the Roman Catholic Church was entering an era where um it became more involved in social change as well. Um as did uh Judaism for for that matter. And um so during this time of of you know King trying to figure out what he was going to do, he was influenced by Morehouse College's president uh Dr.
12:18 Benjamin E. Maize. He who was a theologian and an outspoken advocate for racial equality. Uh Maize became a mentor to King um shaping his moral moral and ethical framework. So, um, King graduated from Morehouse in 1840, I'm sorry, 1948. He graduated in 1948 with a degree in sociology and went on to earn a bachelor of divinity degree from Croer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania in 1951.
12:54 uh during his seminary years he was exposed to the teachings of Mahandis Gandhi um and the idea of nonviolent resistance which is what uh Gandhi had used to essentially um uh gain uh Indian uh Indian as an Asian Indian independence. So King rose to prominence by advocating for nonviolent resistance to race racial segregation and injustice. Uh drawing inspiration both
13:31 from Gandhi as well as Christian teachings. He first gained n national attention as the leader of the Montgomery uh bus boycott in 1955 through 1956 that was sparked by Rosa Parks's arrest for refusing to give up her seat to a seat on a bus um in Montgomery, Alabama to a white passenger. So in 1957, King co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the SCC. Um
14:07 through the collective effort of several civil rights leaders, most notably himself Martin Luther King Jr. uh he played a central role in the organization's creation. He served as its first president and his leadership and vision um at least initially became synonymous with the SCC's mission of nonviolent civil rights advocacy. Um Ralph David David Abernathy was a close confidant of King and he was um instrumental in organizing the Montgomery bus boycott and he served as
14:45 a key leader throughout the um key leader in the SCC uh throughout the civil rights movement. He was uh very very close friend of Martin Luther King Jr. Um Bayard Rustin um uh although he was not a form for formal founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he was a strong adviser and he he actually introduced King uh to the principles of nonviolence. He played a significant role in organizing the initial meeting and shaping the SCC's
15:21 philosophy. Uh Fred Shuttleworth um was a a a minister like King of of the the Fiery brand if you if you will. He was an activist from Birmingham, Alabama, a city in which I've spent a great deal of time and and is is is filled with history both good and bad of of the civil rights period in the United States. So Shuttleworth was a founding member of the SCC and he helped lead major campaigns including those targeting segregation in Birmingham. Uh Joseph
15:57 Lori was an early supporter and eventual leader of the SCC and he contributed to um its early organization as well as its longterm cons uh long-term success. And finally, Ella Baker uh who was an experienced activist and organizer. She really played a critical role in bringing together leaders for the initial meeting and helped to establish uh the Southern Christian Leadership Conferences infrastructure. So the uh official founding
16:32 um of the SCC took place during a meeting on Jan that went from January 10th through 11th, 1957 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, where uh King served as co-pastor. It was initially called um the Southern Leadership Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration. Uh but the the the name was was changed. I I I you know the SLCTNI doesn't have quite the elegance of the
17:07 SCC. Um but more importantly the the the the name by which it became known the SCC was was more indicative of the what the the organization was really seeking to accomplish. So as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, K King led numerous civil rights campaigns including the Birmingham campaign, the March on Washington in 1963 and the and and the Selma to come Montgomery marches um in 1965.
17:42 Um I have already mentioned briefly his I have a dream speech that was delivered during the march on Washington. It it it it is um among the most iconic speeches in American history and and I'll talk a little bit about the speech before I read it um in a few minutes. So, um King's leadership helped to achieve major legislative victories such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in
18:17 1964 for his efforts to combat um racial inequality through nonviolence. [snorts] In on April 4th, 1968, uh King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while supporting a strike by sanitation workers after [snorts] a two-month manhunt um that was led by the FBI. Um, uh, James Earl Ray was captured. He was tried and convicted for
18:52 King's murder. Um, it's it's interesting to note that the FBI um maintained a enormous dossier on Martin Luther King Jr. Um, Jay Edgar Hoover was to say the least not a fan of Dr. King. Uh, nonetheless, um, the FBI, um, like I said, led the investigation and and tracked down, uh, the murderer. Um, and and they they did so with a great deal of of elacrity. Um,
19:29 there's a number of books on it. I I I read one, the title is incumbent to me. It's uh, Hellhounds something or other. Um, it's a very powerful story. Uh one of the things that one learns uh as one reads about Dr. King's life is he was by no means a perfect man. He was a man and from my perspective uh his imperfection makes his accomplishments all the more notable. Um the great men and women of history were
20:06 first and foremost people. They were not perfect. They were not God or God's laab deal as we say. They were flesh and blood men and women like you and me. Uh and that they were able to almost rise above um their imperfections to accomplish great things for the world is a testament to their character. uh despite um their imperfections. So uh King's legacy as a champion of
20:43 equality, justice, and peace endures, and his life is celebrated annually um in the United States in the form of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which we celebrate today. [snorts] uh uh and uh um it it it is why um I do this show as well as the other special editions. So I'm going to move to talking for a few moments about um Dr. King's speech. Um
21:18 the the speech was given on August 28th, 1963. More than 200,000 Americans gathered in the nation's capital demonstrating in peaceful assembly on the mall between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument [snorts] and on behalf of uh equal justice for all. Uh in a day of stirring speeches, Dr. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s I have a dream speech was electrifying. His soaring eloquence and his conscious fus fusing
21:56 of religious rhetoric and familiar patriotic symbols conveyed a prophetic and uplifting sense of a world that might yet be. The I have a dream speech quickly entered the American language and national consciousness as a pathy a vocation of the goals of the civil rights movement. So, I'm I'm using the text from a book called The American Reader, edited by uh Diane Ravich. Um, this this is uh I believe the first edition of it, if I'm not mistaken. It
22:31 was originally published in 1990. It is a a tremendous resource for um for for works for literary works related to the history of of our country. And uh and indeed uh the I have a dream speech uh you know is is well accompanied by many other um many other amazing uh toms. Okay. So I'm going to read the entire speech. Um it it is not as as as brief
23:08 as uh other pieces that I read on these special editions. Uh but I think it is critically important for us to hear these words of uh the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on this day to that commemorates his life and memory. [snorts] Five score years ago a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon of light, a great beacon light of
23:45 hope to millions of negro slaves [snorts] who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But 100 years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. 100 years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.
24:21 100 years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. 100 years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So, [snorts] we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense, we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the
24:57 architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promisary note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promisary note in so
25:32 far as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check. A check which has come back marked insufficient funds. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So
26:08 we have come to cash this check. A check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the first of the fierce urgency of now. This is not a time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquil tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the
26:44 promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. It would be fatal for the nation to
27:21 overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. The sweltering summer of the league of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
27:46 >> [snorts]
27:46 >> 1963 is not an end but a beginning. Those who hope that the negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content to have a rude awakening if the nation return will have a will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tw tranquility in America until the negro is granted his citizenship rights.
28:21 The whirlwinds of revolts will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst
28:57 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 allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
29:33 The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust all white people. For many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge
30:08 that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, when will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as long as the negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies heavy with fatigue of travel cannot gain lodging in the motel of the highways and the cities.
30:44 We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No. No. We are not satisfied. And we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness,
31:21 like a mighty stream. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you batter left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of peace of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative
31:57 suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi. Go back to Alabama. Go back to South Carolina. Go back to Georgia. Go back to Louisiana. Go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
32:35 I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment. I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these
33:11 truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. I [snorts] have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that [snorts] one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and
33:49 justice. I have a dream that my four little children I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips, who are
34:26 presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight,
35:02 and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith 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. [snorts] 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
35:39 together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all God's children [snorts] will be able to sing with new meaning. My country is of thee. Sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father died, land of the pilgrims pride. From every mountainside,
36:16 let freedom ring. And [snorts] if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hills of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alaganis of Pennsylvania. [snorts] Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California. But not only that, let
36:53 freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountain side. Let freedom ring. When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet from every state and every city, we will we will be able to speed up the
37:28 day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, We'll be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual. Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty. We are free at last.
38:05 Haven't gotten through it yet without being emotional.
38:11 >> [snorts]
38:20 >> If we are discontent with our lives, with what's transpiring in our country, in the world. I hope that you will take to heart the words of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and realize that the goal is for us all to be brothers and
38:57 sisters, for us all to be able to join hands. because only then can each person truly be free. I thank you for joining me at at this special edition of the Way to Wow shows. I thank you for your viewership throughout the years and I thank you most deeply if you will commit to do your best to live your life
39:35 according to the principles of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to strive as well as you can to make each and every man and woman your brother and sister to hold out your hand to them in peace and love. I thank you so much for joining me today and I remind you Marie darling you are my bell.
40:11 Courage at all times my friends.