In spite of very cold weather, my roommate and I visited the King Center on Martin Luther King Day. Neither of us had ever been before, despite having lived in Atlanta for a combined total of 7 years. Speaking for myself, I’ll admit that I did not know much about the historical site, despite driving through the Sweet Auburn neighborhood all the time.
We toured the museum at the main building, while outside organizers were getting ready for the annual march on Auburn Avenue. A service was held at Ebeneezer Baptist Church and we were able to watch it from a large screen outside. There were lots of people in the museum—students, boy scout troupes, church groups—it was really inspiring to see so many people taking time out of their day off to learn more about Dr. King’s life and work. The historic site covers much of the neighborhood—the original birth home, the King’s tomb, smaller museums, the fire station—it wasn’t hard to imagine the once-vibrant neighborhood as the center of the civil rights movement.
When the Dalai Lama visited Atlanta last October, I remember thinking to myself “why Atlanta? Why not New York, Chicago, Los Angeles?” It’s not that Atlanta isn’t a major city, but after two years here, I never considered it on an international scale. In the first few minutes of his speech, he highlighted the importance of Atlanta to the international community. As the center of the civil rights movement and home to Dr. King, Atlanta is a city that symbolizes much to other groups of marginalized, oppressed peoples around the world. Furthermore, the impact of Dr. King on the international movement against colonization, racism and economic oppression is far greater than most Americans realize. A friend of mine (from GA) once hypothesized that the reason Atlanta was able to become the commercial center of the southeastern states was its progressive stance on race in comparison to other southern cities.
We listened to the service for a while—before she died, Corretta Scott King established an all girls school in Atlanta. One of the students, she might have been 8 or 9 years old. She told us that when the school was inaguarated, they took a pledge to, among other things, “devestate mediocrity." I keep wondering how to ensure that my work, my life, my interactions result in something positive for my friends, family and community--don't we all have a bit of Dr. King in us?
While looking at photographs of protest marches, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, rallies in Chicago, Washington—I was impressed by the level of organization, commitment and dedication Dr. King and his supporters brought to the civil rights movement. I asked my roommate if he thought it were possible for a similar movement to occur in the US now? Who is our Dr. King? Is our society so disaggregated and apathetic that we allow our government to mortgage our economic future, unravel our civil liberties and ignore our constitution with out much ado? He said that most people are worried about paying their bills… I agree—but there have always been bills to pay, everybody has something to lose.
We walked up and down Auburn Ave. waiting for the march to start--things had taken on a carnival feel with food stalls (hot barbecue!), t-shirt vendors, old R&B music and Atlanta's resident Christian fundamentalist (see photo--I can't figure out how to rotate it, sorry) who seems to be around every time I'm downtown.
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