Fig. 1: Martin Luther King Jr., Encyclopedia of World Biography

Martin Luther King Jr., the Great American Hero By Brian Dillon

On a beautiful spring day in Memphis, as I waited outside the National Civil Rights Museum for a tour guide, I took delight in the old decrepit buildings and factories that surrounded the unobtrusively modern museum. The picturesque and evocative industrial-age structures reminded my unconscious of pictures from American History books and PBS documentaries long forgotten. In my mind, I played the appropriate blues music to accompany the imagined workers walking up and down the sidewalks, lunch-pails in hand. History was tangible in this place. Somehow, this small section of Memphis had resisted the forces of time and McDonalds. The feelings of happiness and sadness, success and loss, compassion and oppression still inhabited the upright lampposts and crumbling bricks. Permeating the charm of the river port city, however, was the overwhelming feeling of tragedy.

The feeling gently and patiently grew on me as I noticed the motel I had been standing next to (see Fig. 2). What would now be seen as a sleazy, cheap motel was certainly a luxury in its time, with doors painted a very “sixties” shade of aqua and fronted by geometric, mod-art railings reminiscent of the same time period. The motel was eerily familiar, its image persisting in an elementary-school-history-class memory. After considering the overall impression of the motel, the details slowly led me to the reverent realization of precisely where I was. A small wreath hung on the second-floor balcony in front of one of the rooms. The cars parked near the hotel were models from the 1960’s, as if part of a set. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that the motel was, in fact, part of the museum. Before the painful realization of the site’s historical significance had a chance to sink in, the guide approached the group of tourists and said, “You are standing next to the Lorraine motel. The wreath hanging on the banister,” which he pointed to, “is the place Martin Luther King Jr. was standing when he was assassinated shortly after 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968.”

The word "assassinated" echoed through the street like a gunshot, and seeped into the porous walls of the surrounding buildings. The city, desecrated by the reverberating utterance, had long ago lost its innocence. I stood transfixed before the funerary wreath that memorialized the place where the grave tragedy took place. The world around the Lorraine Motel slowly disappeared, and I was forced to focus on the aqua door, the lonely wreath, and the word that too frequently disrupted the linear flow of history—assassinated.

Absorbed in this new reality, I felt King's presence as if he was living. Peering through one of the hotel doors, I saw him preparing for what he thought would be a normal day. He prayed for his family, fellow civil rights activists, and even his segregationist opponents. He walked between his bed and desk with the serenity of a man at peace with himself. When he stepped on to the balcony to enjoy the morning, however, the deafening sound of a bullet tore the calm air apart and exposed the naked ugliness of reality. The horrific antithesis to King’s peaceful and faithful nonviolence campaign for human rights, James Earl Ray’s assassination of the civil rights leader was one of the greatest crimes committed against humanity. Finally escaping this dreadful reality, I was left in a state of spiritual despair.

I was initially surprised by my powerful reaction to the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. As a white middle-class male, I have not been directly affected by King's role as an African-American cultural leader or as a leader of the civil rights movement. However, the thought of his assassination had deeply affected me because of my great respect for King as a humanist whose message transcends social, racial, and cultural affiliations. His message is that social justice is a goal for all of humanity, not just various groups of oppressed people. To me, King represents an ideal that human rights are to be cherished above all else. I had never directly thought about King’s death before my experience at the National Civil Rights museum, because the idea is too surreal to me. I link his murder to the murder of the ideal for which he stood for. When I stood in front of the Lorraine Hotel, I was forced to look at that melancholy wreath and acknowledge humanity's self-destructive nature.

Soon after entering the museum, I found a display featuring King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail," which I had recently read. As I looked over the document, I remembered my feelings of triumph when reading it for the first time. In his letter, King had won a battle for humanity. Every paragraph forcefully claims new territory for social justice and human rights. This letter still remains the primary source of my great respect for the civil rights leader.

The letter was written while the civil rights movement was at its peak. In May 1962, King went to Birmingham, Alabama to assist with the civil rights movement in the heavily segregated city. He initially ran workshops on nonviolent protest, and eventually led nonviolent sit-ins and marches. The white segregationalists responded with violent attacks on the marchers and with bombings, the worst of which killed four little girls in a church. After one peaceful protest in April of 1963, King was arrested and jailed. While in jail, he responded to a statement made by eight clergymen called “A Call for Unity,” which admitted that social injustice did exist, but asked that it be resolved in the courts rather than on the streets. King’s response was an eloquent defense of nonviolent protest and its role in attaining a just society.[1]

King did not only uphold an ideal for all of humanity to follow, he fought for that ideal, even though he had to take horrible blows. Because King worked toward his ideals, he is an example of a great American hero. Martin Luther King Jr. is well defined by The Oxford English Dictionary’s antiquated definition of “hero” which is a man “of superhuman strength, courage, or ability…[and] regarded as…immortal.”[2] King’s superhuman strength, courage, and ability is well documented in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

The first heroic quality displayed in King’s letter is his ability to masterfully craft arguments that appeal to both logic and emotion. His ability to communicate his values and arguments for social justice is the primary source of his historical influence. One of the best examples of King’s reasoning abilities is his justification of disobeying unjust laws, such as the segregation laws and the laws which restrict marches without permits. He first distinguishes between just and unjust laws. Just as one is morally obligated to obey just laws, King says “one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”[3] He supports this claim by citing Saint Augustine. King then cites the philosophers Saint Thomas Aquinas and Martin Buber to define an unjust law as “any law that degrades human personality.”[4] Specifically appealing to his audience, this definition refers to the Judeo-Christian idea of inherent human dignity. He ends his argument with a well-placed condemnation of his opponents when he writes, “In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law as the rabid segregationist would do.”[5] By saying this, King both exposes the segregationists’ disregard of the desegregation laws and contrasts their “rabid” nature to the peaceful protests that King supports.

In addition to his masterful appeals to reason, King exhibited the keen insights into humanity required to craft compelling emotional arguments. The following example of the dehumanizing effects of segregation targets the paternal emotions that his intended audience of priests and rabbis would most strongly respond to:

I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say wait. But…when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people…then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.[6]

Often, segregation was considered a merely external difference between white and black people. The group of people who King would call “mild segregationalists” would not dispute that both races should possess the same rights. They simply believed that it was more peaceful for the two races to abide separately. In the previous passage, Kind exposes the harmful overlook of the insidious psychological effects of segregation. The “depressing clouds of inferiority” which form in a child’s “little mental sky” is an example of the subtle evil caused by segregation. By negatively affecting the way a child perceives himself, segregation prevents the child from being fully human. The psychological effects of segregation and oppression are difficult to recognize and therefore are even more harmful than outright violent attacks. When oppressed black people were assaulted by white policemen, as they often were, they could recognize the attacks as outright injustices and preserve their human dignity. However, when segregation distorts the very personality of a child, the child has no method of defending himself. King adeptly illustrates the more underhanded effects of segregation and serves as a hero to those who have been deprived of their humanity.

His many speeches, demonstrations, and marches proved that the courage required of a hero was one of King’s main attributes. He criticized the Church for being “more cautious than courageous”[7] because he considered courage to be a necessity in the quest for positive change. He was bewildered by the white moderate who admitted that segregation was unjust, but preferred to allow time to take its course to end segregation. King denied that time was by nature a creative force that could cause positive changes to happen. “Actually,” he said, “time is neutral. It can be used either destructively or constructively.”[8] By insisting “We must use time creatively,” King demonstrated his courageousness. He was willing to be the direct cause of change in society, even though this made him, as well as his wife and children, constant targets of extreme racist groups. Heroically confronting danger, he consistently sought to use time creatively through countless demonstrations.

King acknowledged the “force of bitterness and hatred” in the black community that “comes perilously close to advocating violence.”[9] King’s heroic strength allowed him to avoid the lure of violent retaliation against the unjust treatment of his people and to use nonviolent campaigns to seek justice. One of the questions nonviolent protesters had to ask themselves was “Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?”[10] The question seems almost unnatural. How is justice to be won without such retaliation? King understood that strength was not shown with the fist, but with the unfaltering will.

The final criterion of heroism that King displays is immortality. Nowhere is his immortality more present than the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. His statue in the east mall reminds students of his presence among them. His outreached hand is a beacon of compassion and solidarity. He wears the robes of a preacher, alluding to his moral uprightness. The quotes around the base of the statue remind onlookers of the civil rights struggle to which he gave his life.

When I first saw the statue on the campus of my university, I was immediately reminded of my experience at the Civil Rights Museum. I again looked reverently at the likeness of the great leader and felt the presence of an American hero. I wanted to discover the origins of the statue, so I journeyed to The Center for American History on campus and found news footage of the statue dedication.

The statue originated in the dreams of three students in 1987. They wanted to bring some balance to a campus where statues of Confederate leaders proudly stood. Five years later, students took a serious step toward the realization of the original dream when they planned a method of financing the sculpture. They suggested that one dollar be added to the tuition of every student each semester to fund it. The student body responded overwhelmingly favorably to this financing plan. On September 24, 1999, the sculpture was officially dedicated during a ceremony that included a speech by Martin Luther King III, the son of Martin Luther King Jr.

The statue should remind us of the civil rights movement at the University of Texas. The sad history of segregated dorms and drinking fountains still lingers on this campus when a racial joke is uttered by a student unaware of its implications. Fortunately, the existence of the statue also reminds us of the positive aspects of the civil rights movement. The students who crusaded for the MLK statue can be likened to the students of the civil rights movement who participated in sit-ins at southern lunch counters. Indeed, the triumph of the statue committee is an extension of the triumph of the noble and heroic efforts of the youth of the past.

The presence of Martin Luther King Jr. reflects the values and goals of the University of Texas. Dave Winter, who helped start the MLK Statue Foundation, commented on the day of the statue dedication that “the values that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for matter to people here at the University and obviously matter to enough of us to make [the dedication of the statue] happen.”[11] King stood for justice, equality, love, and compassion. These ideals transcend the civil rights movement and affect daily university life. I think it is important to understand that King is first a humanist and moral leader who only happened to be alive at the time of the civil rights movement. We can still look toward him for inspiration to aid us in the social struggles of our own time. As a hero, King should inspire the students of UT to be courageous and strong.

King stands for the ideals that I value and find important, I will never forget the recreation of King’s Birmingham jail cell at the National Civil Rights museum. I saw the small isolated desk from which he wrote his powerful document on human rights and remembered his playful self-criticism: “Never before have I written a letter this long (or should I say a book?)”[12] It is hard to believe that he could retain his sense of humor after suffering countless indignities. But, it is exactly this poise and patience that made King such a crucial leader for the civil rights movement. After reading King’s letter, I felt that my soul was somehow intertwined with his extraordinary soul. His mission to promote social justice is the same goal I have inherited.

Word Count: 2697 (2224 after initial edits and deletions)

URL: https://webspace.utexas.edu/bad344/P1B-2.htm
Works Cited

King, Martin Luther Jr. "Letter from Birmingham Jail." American Friends Service Committee, 1963.

KVUE 24 News Report. Video. 1999; Austin, TX.

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[1] Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2^nd ed., s.v. "Martin Luther King Jr.," 

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[2] Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. "Hero, n.,"

[3] Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (American Friends Service Committee, 1963), 6

[4] Ibid., 7.

[5] Ibid., 7.

[6] Ibid., 6.

[7] Ibid., 11.

[8] Ibid., 9.

[9] Ibid., 9.

[10] Ibid, 4.

[11] KVUE 24 News Report, Video (1999; Austin, TX).

[12] Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (American Friends Service Committee, 1963), 13