This post is one of a series this week in anticipation of the 4th April 2008, the 40th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jnr.On the night of April 4, as Martin Luther King Jnr was leaving his motel to go out for dinner, a shot sounded in the air. King fell to the balcony floor, the victim of an assassin’s bullet. He died later that night in hospital.
When you visit the Lorraine Motel now, there is a wreath on the door of King’s room and a plaque with Martin Luther King’s name, his dates (1929 to 1968) and the verse from the first book of the Bible that was the text used by Ralph Abernathy at King’s funeral.
The verse of Scripture is from the Joseph story:
“Here comes the dreamer. Let us kill him.”
The truth from the Bible and the truth preached by King is that you can kill the dreamer but you cannot kill God’s dream!
Source: James M. Washington, ed. I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World/ Martin Luther King, 202-203.
Dr. Geoff Pound
Image: King and colleagues on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.