King: A Biography

Epilogue: Free at Last

Epilogue: Free at Last If a man hasn't found something he will die for, he isn't fit to live. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., had told them that he wanted a simple and brief service when he died. Instead, his last rites were protracted, elaborate, and fussily confused. The VicePresident of the United States, the chief contenders for presidential nomination, fifty members of the House of Representatives , thirty senators, a regiment of mayors, and at least a platoon of foreign dignitaries, not to mention the legion of distinguished private citizens, attended his funeral. The news reporters described Ebenezer as a humble little church, giving the impression of a rickety simplicity that was pointlessly erroneous. It is not, of course, a cathedral, but by any standards Ebenezer is a fair-sized edifice. And, if Martin's wishes had been followed, it would have been quite adequate for his obsequies. Even if the family and leadership of the SCLC had desired otherwise, the pressure upon them to make the final rites of the deceased a quasi state occasion probably could not have been withstood and certainly would have been misunderstood by much of the public. The nation's capital was still under martial law, and, throughout the land, fire brigades and army troops were attempting with varied success to preserve property and life in the black Gotterdiimmerung following 390 Free at Last Martin's death. When attorney Charles Morgan said of Georgia's governor, Lester Maddox, that his refusal to pay tribute to the martyred civil rights leader spared the ceremony a gesture of flagrant hypocrisy, he had also in mind the politically inspired commiseration of the very same elected officials, federal and state, whose cynicism, foot-dragging, and hypocrisy had fostered, condoned, or finessed the rising oppositIon to Martin's activities during the past three or more years. The service at Ebenezer deserved the crayon of a Daumier. In order to manifest their solidarity with the black community in its wild and explosive grief, in order to mollify the reproaches of civil rights leaders, and in order to repatriate valuable publicity to their constituencies, the nation's mighty endured an excruciating experience. The agony of discomfort, unsuccessfully repressed on the faces of the presidential contenders , is almost delicious. Crushed together in the narrow pews, pinned against the walls, and sweating terribly in the sticky heat of the church, the white politicians and public figures almost earned the credibility they sought that day. But they were made to pay dearly for it, for, thanks to Ralph Abernathy, the service went along interminably. Finally, at 12: 15 P.M., the ordeal ended and the sweltering three-and-ahalf -mile march to Morehouse College began. The cortege did not arrive until slightly after 2:30 P.M. The services at the campus also threatened to surpass the endurance of even the hardiest Baptist fundamentalists. Altogether the ceremony lacked dignity and somehow missed the pitched emotionalism that might have made it nevertheless memorable. The mule cart bearing the remains of the fallen leader was almost capsized by the excitable crowd as it stood before the speakers' platform behind Atlanta University 's administration building. An uneasy competition seemed to reign about the speakers' microphone, a contest invariably won by Ralph. Singers without talent warbled the favorite hymns of the deceased, while the merciless Georgia 392 King sun beat down upon the gathering of fifty thousand. In an unprecedentedly off-handed manner, Martin's successor summoned first Robert Kennedy and then "the other dignitaries" to the platform. It was Martin's day and that of the SCLC. The dignitaries might well have been allowed to remain, exhausted, in their places near the front of the equally exhausted crowd. Even Mahalia failed to spark the assembly. People whispered that she was unwell, recovering from a heart attack. On another day, perhaps, a cooler one, and assuredly at an earlier hour, Dr. Mays' eulogy would have registered with great impact. "We all pray that the assassin will be apprehended," he said: But make no mistake, the American people are in part responsible for Martin Luther King, Jr:5 death. The assassin heard enough condemnation of King and of Negroes to feel that he had public support. He knew that millions hated King. . . . Morehouse College will never be the same because Martin Luther came here; and the nation and the world will be...