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<DIV>(This short piece on MLK was written by Steve Chase, the Director
of<BR>Antioch University New England's Environmental Advocacy and
Organizing<BR>Program. His contact information is at the bottom of this email.
The <BR>piece is adapted from a posting on "The Well-Trained Activist"
blog<BR>(<A
href="http://eaop-blog.blogspot.com">http://eaop-blog.blogspot.com</A>). Please
feel free to forward this on to<BR>anyone you think might be interested.)
<BR><BR>MARTIN LUTHER KING'S JOURNEY TO ACTIVISM<BR><BR>For the last two years,
I've broadcast a Martin Luther King Holiday<BR>special on WKNH, the Keene State
College radio station. The segment<BR>that always gets the most listener comment
is the little-known story <BR>about how King actually became an activist during
the Montgomery Bus<BR>Boycott. It gets a laugh and an "aha."<BR><BR>In 1955,
King was fresh from seminary, only 26 years old, and new to<BR>town. His church
was one of the smallest, wealthiest, and most <BR>conservative of the two-dozen
African-American churches in Montgomery.<BR>His personal ambitions at the time
were to run a solid church program,<BR>be well paid for it, have a nice house
for his growing family, write<BR>theology pieces for his denomination's
magazine, and do a bit of<BR>adjunct teaching at a nearby college. He was not
dreaming of becoming a<BR>leader in the struggle for civil rights, economic
justice, and a<BR>peaceful US foreign policy. <BR><BR>Indeed, if it had been
left up to King, the Montgomery Bus Boycott<BR>would never have happened. The
real organizer of this effort was E.D.<BR>Nixon, an experienced civil rights and
labor activist who created the<BR>Montgomery Improvement Association and
launched the Montgomery Bus<BR>Boycott within the first four days after Rosa
Parks' arrest for<BR>refusing to move to the back of the bus. It was Nixon who
recruited<BR>King to the civil rights movement. After bailing Rosa Parks out of
<BR>jail, Nixon went home and started calling local ministers to line
up<BR>their support for his boycott idea. As Nixon later explained:
"I<BR>recorded quite a few names. The first man I called was Reverend
Ralph<BR>Abernathy. He said, 'Yes, Brother Nixon, I'll go along. I think it's a
<BR>good thing.' The second person I called was the late Reverend
H.H.<BR>Hubbard. He said, 'Yes, I'll go along with you.' And then I called
Rev.<BR>King, who was number three on my list, and he said, 'Brother Nixon,
let<BR>me think about it awhile, and call you back.'"<BR><BR>When King finally
agreed to come to a meeting, Nixon chuckled and told<BR>King, "I'm glad you
agreed, because I already set up the first meeting<BR>at your church." At this
first ministers' meeting, King was very <BR>nervous about Nixon's idea of
conducting an illegal boycott campaign.<BR>Several other ministers soon began to
side with King against the<BR>campaign. In his own memoir on the Bus Boycott,
King recalls how Nixon<BR>exploded towards the end of the meeting and shouted
that the ministers <BR>would have to decide if they were going to be like scared
little boys,<BR>or if they were going to stand up like grown men and take a
strong<BR>public stand against segregation. King's pride was so hurt by
Nixon's<BR>comment, he shouted back that nobody could call him a coward. Then,
to<BR>prove his courage, King immediately agreed to Nixon's plan for
an<BR>aggressive, community organizing campaign to build up the
boycott.<BR>Everyone in the room quickly agreed with King and the matter was
<BR>settled.<BR><BR>With that decision made, the group began to discuss who
should lead the<BR>effort. Everyone present had expected Nixon to become the
president of<BR>the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association. But when he
was <BR>asked about serving, Nixon answered, "Naw, not unless'n you all
don't<BR>accept my man." When asked whom he was nominating, Nixon said,
"Martin<BR>Luther King." Having just loudly declared his courage to the
whole<BR>group, King felt that he had to agree to take on this
responsibility.<BR>Then, Nixon told King he would have to give the main address
at the<BR>mass rally scheduled that very night to announce the boycott plan
to<BR>the black community. <BR><BR>King rose to Nixon's challenge. Serving as
the leader of the Montgomery<BR>Bus Boycott for the next twelve months changed
King. Watching 42,000<BR>poor and working-class black people stay organized and
do without <BR>public transportation for a year, he discovered things about
the<BR>courage and capacity of ordinary people to resist oppression and
move<BR>toward freedom. Watching the conservative, rightwing city
government<BR>finally cave in to the boycott, he discovered the power of mass
<BR>nonviolent direct action campaigns to win real victories--even when<BR>they
are opposed by powerful interests. By seeing his own power to<BR>inspire people
to become active citizens for a noble cause, King<BR>discovered just what kind
of person he wanted to be in this life. He <BR>now fully embraced his new
mission as an activist leader for building<BR>what he called the "Beloved
Community."<BR><BR>There is an important lesson here for all of us. We don't
have to be<BR>born leaders. We don't have to know everything before we get
started. <BR>We just have to get started.<BR><BR>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *<BR>Steve Chase, Ph.D.<BR>Director,
Environmental Advocacy and Organizing Program<BR>Department of Environmental
Studies @ Antioch University New England <BR>40 Avon Street, Keene, NH
03431<BR><A
href="mailto:Steven_Chase@antiochne.edu">Steven_Chase@antiochne.edu</A>;
603-283-2336 (office); 603-357-0718 (fax)<BR><BR>* EAOP's Main Website: <A
href="http://www.antiochne.edu/es/eao/">http://www.antiochne.edu/es/eao/</A><BR>*
EAOP's "Well-Trained Activist" Blog: <A
href="http://eaop-blog.blogspot.com">http://eaop-blog.blogspot.com</A><BR>*
EAOP's Online Activist Bookstore:<BR><A
href="http://www.antiochne.edu/es/eao/bookstore.cfm">http://www.antiochne.edu/es/eao/bookstore.cfm</A><BR>(7.5%
of the purchase price is donated to the EAOP Scholarship Fund at<BR>no extra
cost to you)<BR><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>