Forty-seven years ago tomorrow, Martin Luther King Jr. would be gunned down outside room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. His death, which he predicted to his wife, Coretta Scott King, after the assassination of President John Kennedy is the subject of the same questions about motive as relate to the Kennedy assassination.
Some of King's words were as prophetic then as they are now regarding the loss of rights to a centralized government:
Somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for rights. And so just as I said, we aren't going to let dogs or water hoses turn us around. We aren't going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on.King also had a near prophetic commentary on his own life and how short it might be.
Like anybody, I would like to live - a long life; longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man.It is important to remember that before King arrived in Memphis to assist in the sanitation worker boycott on behalf of black Americans, his plane had been threatened by a bomb threat. On a regular basis his life was threatened by those who feared change, who worried what would happen when all men were treated equal. I worry that those days are still with us, but as for tonight, I will remember his struggle and his fight with my favorite band.
