When people visit Atlanta today, they will see a city that has modernized over time. Georgia’s capital is home to the global headquarters of several Fortune 500 companies, three major sports franchises, and the site of the Centennial Olympic Summer Games. It boasts a booming economy, one of the country’s largest metropolitan areas by population, which is a majority African-American. Atlanta is a cultural hub, diverse in music and the arts. Its three high-rise districts are surrounded by the greenery of its beautiful parks. However, what one may miss when touring the city is the history woven into its roots.
Fortunately, there are several landmarks, laced with the greatness of humankind, that have been built and well-preserved to showcase this significance. Two blocks, in particular, of the Sweet Auburn neighborhood are dedicated to the city’s most notable son. The birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stands alongside the church where his father and he preached at, Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the remains of the reverend and his wife, Coretta Scott, can be found encompassed by the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic Center and Freedom Hall.
“An individual has not started living until [they] can rise above the narrow confines of [their] individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
By his own definition, Dr. King “started living” almost immediately after his birth. Born into a middle-class family of pastors, selflessness and serving a higher purpose were ideals instilled into the children of Alberta and Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. at a very young age. These beliefs, coupled with his own higher education, would develop Dr. King into one of the leading figures of the Civil Rights movement.
Leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott, protests in Birmingham, and the March on Washington would help bring about national change through the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, his most impressive achievement was not the federal legislation he helped procure or the national attention that he brought to struggle for civil rights, but the way in which it was all accomplished. The non-violence approach that Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi championed to undermined Britain’s oppression of India, served as a precedent and inspiration for the philosophy that Dr. King preached to his followers.
“Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve…You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
Having been allowed the opportunity to tour the birth home of Dr. King, where he spent the first 12 years of his life, was enlightening. This glimpse into his past allowed me to gain some insight into the early psyche of a man who would become one of the most revered individuals in the nation’s history. And it was not the accolades or achievements that I was most impressed by.
The tours, exhibits, and stories showed that Dr. King was an ordinary man who would go on to do extraordinary things. As a child, he and his brother would pick on their younger sister. At dinner, each of the King children would have to recite a bible verse. A very young Dr. King sought out and recited the shortest verse, “Jesus wept.” He would play as children played and did chores as children do. And as he grew older, history has shown that he had his shortcomings and made mistakes just as any other person does. What would transform into the visionary that we know today is the way in which he lived his life: in service of others.
He is deservedly placed on a pedestal because he never allowed the movement to be deterred by the obstacles set in front of it, but helped push past them through non-violence and love. Although there will only be one Dr. King, he taught us that we can all be great by living life with the values that embodied him. It simply boils down to a choice and a question.
“Every [person] must decide whether [they] will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?” – Martin Luther King Jr.
Article by Raj Manimaran