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 4. The media and the message In the grim days following Dr. King’s death, Rev. Ralph Abernathy was full of grief and full of insecurity about trying to fill a martyr’s shoes. One New York Times reporter observed, “The Rev. Ralph David Abernathy did not look like a leader at that moment. Numb from lack of sleep, jowls unshaven, he spoke haltingly as some staff members gathered around to help while others drifted off to their private griefs.” Abernathy’s first public words in the immediate aftermath of the assassination did nothing to pierce the veil of uncertainty that had settled over the remnants of the black freedom struggle. In a voice husky with emotion, he began, “The assassination of martin Luther King, Jr. has placed upon my shoulders the task . . .” Abernathy stopped and looked wordlessly at the circle of King advisers around him. The sadness in the room was so thick it was almost suffocating. He continued, “No, make that ‘the awesome task.’ The awesome task of directing the organization he established, which has given—what do we say here—‘hope’?” Abernathy paused again, searching the faces of those gathered around him. But all he saw were eyes puffy from weeping and lines of grief and pain creasing the skin around closed mouths. He went on, “So much hope to the black people—to the oppressed people of this nation. Even after fifteen years of sharing the struggle with Dr. King, I tremble as I move forward to accept this responsibility . No man can fill Dr. King’s shoes.”1 Those closest to both King and Abernathy are quick to point out that Abernathy was forever haunted by the shadow of the martyred martin Luther King Jr. A short time after the assassination, Abernathy’s discomfort at living in King’s shadow caused him to declare defiantly, “Don’t ever get it in your mind it was martin Luther King’s dream only. It was Ralph David Abernathy’s dream too. So no need of asking me to be martin Luther King. . . . I’ve been Ralph David Abernathy for 42 years and each time I look in the mirror in the morning, I look better and bet- 0 Yes We Did? ter.”2 Despite his bluster, Abernathy was clearly insecure about the endless comparisons between his leadership style and that of the martyred King. Andrew Young reports that privately Abernathy would sometimes plead with him, “Why don’t you write beautiful speeches for me like you wrote for martin?” Young’s reply was always the same: “Ralph, you know better than anybody else that I never wrote a single speech for martin Luther King.”3 Abernathy would then go out to face the black community , the media, and the inevitable comparisons yet again. In the wake of King’s assassination, riots broke out: hellish fires consumed large portions of many black neighborhoods, and snarls of rage became fixed on the faces of black inner-city dwellers all over the country. These black people were not singing “We Shall Overcome.” Instead, they were making demands. In his 1968 book Look Out Whitey! Black Power ’s Gon’ Get Your Mama! SNCC field secretary Julius Lester expressed his fear that African Americans were facing a grim and uncertain future: “The old order passes away. Like the black riderless horse, boots turned the wrong way in the stirrups, following the coffin down the boulevard, it passes away. But there are no crowds to watch as it passes. There are no crowds to mourn and weep. No eulogies to read and no eternal flame is lit over the grave.” Lester’s description is reminiscent of the funeral procession following the death of President John F. Kennedy just five years earlier. Lester was convinced that whether anyone acknowledged it or not, the change following King’s death was just as important as the political change that accompanied President Kennedy’s death. Americans may not have been ready for it, but, according to Lester, “The new order is coming, child. The old is passing away.”4 The black expressions of anger and grief were soon met with white calls for the restoration of law and order. Julius Lester observed, “If the press had ever screamed as loudly for an end to segregation and discrimination as it screamed for law and order, segregation and discrimination would be a vague memory today.” The young activist continued: “‘Law and order must prevail’ has become the cliché of...

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