Remembering MLK’s Alabama Roots In The Fight For Civil Rights
It is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a day commemorating King’s impact on our nation. But King’s life and legacy are deeply intertwined with Alabama history.
MLK and Coretta Scott were married on June 18, 1953, in the Perry County City of Marion, at her family's home, with King's father officiating the ceremony. Throughout their marriage the couple shared the events, both positive and negative, that shaped the civil rights struggle in Alabama and beyond. Ms. King owned property in Perry County until she passed away in 2006.
Dr. King served as the 20th pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery from 1954 to 1960. That pastorate became what he called the “growing ground” for non-violence and passive resistance that catapulted him into a national civil rights leadership role.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was supposed to be a one-day protest after Rosa Parks' was arrest for attempting to sit in a white man's seat on a segregated city bus. That one-day protest became a year-long boycott and sparked a movement with the formation of the Montgomery Improvement Association at a mass meeting that same evening. King became its first president. His leadership launched him as a national figure in the civil rights movement.
On January 30, 1956, one month after the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott, the home of Dr. King. was bombed while his wife Coretta, seven-week-old daughter Yolanda, and a neighbor were inside. The front of the home was damaged, but no one was injured. There was never a conviction for the act.
He was an active member of the Montgomery NAACP, and vice-president of the Alabama Council on Human Relations, which employed educational methods to achieve its purposes. He preached non-violence while others wanted to resort to violence.
Despite advocating nonviolence, dignity, and equal treatment under the law, King was arrested several times on minor charges. Most notably, King and the SCLC organized massive protests against Birmingham's segregation, using sit-ins and marches, which drew global attention when police used dogs and fire hoses on demonstrators, including children, leading to King's famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail". The letter is considered a foundational text of the Civil Rights Movement, a powerful defense of nonviolent civil disobedience, and a profound theological/philosophical statement on justice, timing, and the moral duty to resist oppression.
MLK was a key leader of the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March, organizing the effort to protest voter suppression, leading marches, delivering powerful speeches like the March 25, 1965 "How Long, Not Long," and ultimately galvanizing national support that led to the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. He coordinated the three major attempts, including turning back on "Turnaround Tuesday" due to a court order, before successfully leading the final, protected march to Montgomery's capitol steps.
Dr. King was instrumental in the selection of Rev. T.Y. Rogers as pastor of Tuscaloosa's 1st African Baptist Church downtown. Rogers was a protégé and former student of King's and MLK attended his installation on March 8, 1964, where he spoke. He called for the start of the Tuscaloosa civil rights campaign.
While King was a national and internation figure, it was Alabama where his legacy was built.
More From Tuscaloosa Thread
