FOUR DAYS AGO WE CELEBRATED Martin Luther King’s birthday. Three states, Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama also celebrated Robert E. Lee’s birthday on the same day, which, at best, is a bit of a “mixed message.” For me, MLK Day is a chance for me to listen to King’s remarkable “I Have a Dream” and “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top” speeches (Both are on the web, just type in the name). The passage of time has only made them more powerful.
On the negative side, during the holiday I’m always reminded by the archived news coverage of how badly King was tormented by our government. Jay Edgar Hoover spied on King, illegally tapped his phones (sound familiar?), sent anonymous blackmail threats, and even encouraged King to kill himself. Between Hoover’s disgraceful illegal practices and his predilection to wearing chiffon dresses, I can’t understand why the FBI Building still bears his name.
MLK Day seems even more important this year with Barack Obama running for president. A black man, a woman and a Mormon running is a testament to how far we’ve come. Or maybe how far we have to go. As Chris Rock lamented, “Dr. King spent his whole life devoted to non-violence, but if you’re on MLK Drive, anywhere in the country, the chances are there’s some violence going on!” Send angry e-mails to Chris Rock.
Dr. King was deemed the “American Gandhi” as he turned around a nation. But people forget that when LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 it was far from a popular move. He predicted, “There goes the South to the Republicans for three generations.” The red-blue map is testimony to Johnson’s prescience.
My mother spent time with Martin Luther King in 1957 in her capacity as chairwoman of our temple’s Social Action Committee (Temple Isaiah in Cheviot Hills). In December of 1955 King led the Montgomery bus boycott during which he was arrested, beaten, and had his home bombed. When the boycott was finally successful, King and the civil rights movement were thrust on the national stage, and there was no turning back.
Dr. King was invited to speak at our temple. My mother picked him up at LAX, drove him to temple and introduced him to the congregation. At my age Martin Luther King didn’t mean much to me. If my mother had picked up Mickey Mantle, that would have been a different matter.
Late in her life my mother commented that meeting Dr. King “was like meeting a prophet.” Even though he was only 29 she felt she was in the presence of a spiritual man twice his age. As a gift she gave me the audiotape of his speech and then confessed a detail about the drive from the airport.
My mother owned a Hillman Minx, a British compact car that got 40 miles to the gallon, and why not, it only had 30 horsepower (Hillman was an ironic name because it could barely get up a hill). Even with the American Ghandi in the passenger’s seat my mother was not at a loss for words. The two were deep in conversation (she probably advising him on the civil rights movement) when a concerned Dr. King politely volunteered,“Mrs. Neworth, isn’t that the Pacific Ocean?” At the intersection of Sepulveda and Pico, instead of turning right my mother inadvertently made a left. “What did you do?” I asked, embarrassed for her.“What could I do?” she said matter-of-factly,“I made a U-turn.”
Not long ago I listened to that tape which is now 50 years old. The quality wasn’t very good but it made me miss my mother. And then at the very end there was another surprise. Dr. King concluded his talk with a rousing, “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty free at last!” But wait! That was how he ended the “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 in front of a quarter of a million people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I had always thought that the emotionally powerful ending had been some sort of divine inspiration. It turns out Dr. King had that card up his sleeve all along. I suppose the youngest person to ever win a Nobel Peace prize is entitled to a trick or two.
Dr. King’s speech at Temple Isaiah was a huge success. Over the years many other notables came to speak: Eleanor Roosevelt, Bobby Kennedy, Margaret Mead, Ashley Montagu, Sen. Wayne Morris, Daniel Shore and Rod Serling (almost as good as Mickey Mantle because by then I wanted to be a writer). And yes, in that little Hillman Minx my mother picked all of them up from LAX. Looking back, I just hope she made a right turn at Pico.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 25, 2008. Read the original PDF.