One of the articles I just read is really interesting about the inspiration for his final speech on the night he was assassinated. In 1958, he was stabbed in Harlem while siging books. The surgeons worked many hours to save his life, and one was quoted as saying, "had Dr. King sneezed or coughed the weapon would have penetrated the aorta.” This quote formed the foundation of King’s “I have been to the mountaintop” speech. I will let him tell you about it.
"There was another letter that came from a little girl… I looked at that letter and I'll never forget it. It said simply, 'Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School.' She said, 'While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I'm a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze.'
I want to say tonight that I… am happy that I didn't sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy, which were dug deep by the founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1961, when we decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in interstate travel.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great movement there.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I'm so happy that I didn't sneeze… 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."
I am too young to remember many details about Dr. King, but I do see his legacy in society today.
On a federal holiday like today, but MBH and I are off work. Of course, that just means we are doing housework instead of paid work. She did some laundry last night after watching the Dallas Cowboys lose to the Packers. Today, it is house straightening time... after we go shopping.
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