Carr Clawson:  What is your first recollection of Martin Luther King, Jr.?

 

Watson:  My first recollection of Martin Luther King, Jr. was in 1957.  I was ten years old and had heard about King and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  At that time I knew little about him, but his name was known by several of the older people in my community. They talked about him as a hero. There was no mention of Rosa Parks or any other people involved.

 

Carr Clawson: I’ve read his name was Michael, why did it change?

 

Watson:  When Martin Luther King, Jr. was born, his parents gave him the name Michael. His father’s name was Martin Luther King, Sr. His father later, as the record relates, decided that his son’s name should be changed to Martin Luther King, Jr. The reason was that Martin King, Sr. had read about Martin Luther, the reformer and Protestant leader.  He saw in his own son, Michael, a person who would aspire to greatness and felt because of the name association and identification, it would be a much more recognizable name in years to come — Martin Luther King, Jr. versus Michael Luther King.

 

Carr Clawson: What kind of impact did his father have on his challenging racial issues?

 

Watson: Martin Sr. had always been very active in Atlanta’s civic affairs.  He was an outstanding Baptist minister himself, and had encouraged not only Martin Jr., but Martin’s sisters and brother to challenge racial issues. He was vocal and one of the few Blacks in the South who voted prior to the 1960s; he was a Republican.  He had advised his son to always stand up for what was right and just.

 

Carr Clawson: What was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s message?

 

Watson: King’s message was that Americans should stand up to the creed and to the ideals set forth in the United States Constitution. He preached that all people of African descent in America, had the same rights as any other Americans.

 

I think the other message is that change could come through peaceful nonviolent resistance.  If laws were unjust, citizens were constitutionally bound to change those unjust laws, and the way to do that was to use a tactic of positive nonviolent resistance. King’s mentors were his father, his mother, Rev. Benjamin Mays, Mahatmas Gandhi, and Henry David Thoreau.

 

Carr Clawson: It has been 50 years since King was assassinated. I was nearly three years old.  In fact, I think the stillness of that day is one of my earliest memories. I remember the sadness of the people around me. Where were you the day he was assassinated?

 

Watson: I was a junior at Tougaloo College in Mississippi.  At the time of the day he was shot, I was on the campus. It was April 4, 1968. I was making plans for a trip to West Africa with the Experiment in International Living Programs. Like a lot of people, I was moved to tears because my feelings at that point was if Martin Luther King, Jr., who was a messenger of love and hope, could be shot down, then there was not very much hope for me and my contemporaries.

 

I became pessimistic about harmonious race relations after his assassination. The decade, 1960 through 1970, was an era of assassinations. It was naïve on my part and many other people, to think that Martin Luther King, Jr. would not be assassinated.  After all, Medgar Evers had been assassinated in 1963; three civil rights workers – Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner had been killed in 1964; Malcolm X was killed in 196; and those were the known killings.

 

Carr Clawson: How did King get involved in the boycott?

 

Watson: Martin Luther King, Jr. became involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott rather reluctantly in 1955.  Dr. King was from Atlanta. He attended Morehouse College. He went on to Crosier Seminary College and then he went on to get his Ph.D. at Boston University in systematic theology. When he came back to the Deep South in 1954-55, he and his bride, Coretta Scott King, settled in Montgomery, Alabama. King became the minister of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. At the urging of the Reverend E.D. Nixon, an organizer for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Mrs. Rosa Parks, Dr. King became the head of the Montgomery Bus Boycott Movement. The success of the boycott propelled Dr. King into the national spotlight.

 

Carr Clawson: When does Dr. King speak out of opposition to the Vietnam War?

 

Watson: By 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. had accomplished many objectives in regards to the civil rights. For example, he had been a major force behind the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 and because of these accomplishments; he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965. However, it was not until he began to voice his opposition to the Vietnam War that he truly became a world leader in the minds of many people. When he spoke against the Vietnam War as an unjust and inhumane war, he clearly became a great leader for human rights and not just civil rights.

 

Carr Clawson: When does King begin to lose his followers?

 

Watson: King begins to lose a lot of his followers about 1966 to 1967. In large measures because of the creation of new splinter groups such as the Black Panther Party and the Student for Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).  People began to criticize King for accepting the government’s promise that things would change. They knew that things were changing but too slow; many young people began to pull away. After Carmichael issued the statement about “Black Power,” this was seen as a threat by those who followed King. Major riots in Watts, California; Detroit; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; and Cambridge, Maryland were indications that the movement had outgrown King and therefore, he did not command the loyal followers as had been the case in the early 1960s.

 

Carr Clawson: Do you think his dream came true or ever will?

 

Watson: We are living part of King’s dream, that is, social segregation was eradicated for the most part. For example, hundreds of thousands of Blacks were registered to vote; Blacks can stay in hotels; and Blacks can buy homes in this country if they have the money. However, the gap between the haves and the have-nots is wider than ever.  There is still a great deal of inequality when it comes to hiring, promoting, and entertaining Blacks in corporate America. Residential segregation is still very prominent. A Black person’s character is still less important to many White Americans than his or her skin color. Racism is still alive and well in this country and I believe Dr. King would be disappointed if he could see the little progress we’ve made in the last fifty years.

 

Carr Clawson: Did you ever meet Dr. King, is so where?

 

Watson: I met Dr. King in 1967. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Jackson, Mississippi, and he was at a local establishment like a bar, and they had a pool table. Like a lot of folks who was cramming trying to get in to see this great man, I was right there watching him shoot pool. I never had a chance to shake his hand, but I was a close to him as I am to you, and he could shoot pool. The man could play! When you think about a man like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., you never think of that human side.  You generally describe all these other things that are really above the ordinary person. He was a very nice, down-to-earth man, and you felt like when you talk to him, he was listening.

 

Carr Clawson: I’ve read that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X met in passing one day.  If they had more time to talk, what do you think would have been on their agenda?

 

Watson: I believe that they would both be unhappy with the status of Blacks in America and also throughout the world. I believe that they would direct their energies to improving the conditions of poor people as they attempted to do when they were alive.

 

Carr Clawson: Do you think more should be done to remember his birthday?

 

Watson: I think everybody should do something to honor his legacy.

 

Carr Clawson: Thank you, Mr. Watson, for sharing your time, knowledge, and experiences with In A Different Tongue.

 

Watson: Thank you, Dr. Clawson, it was indeed a pleasure.

 

Mr. Robert C. Watson is an Assistant Professor of History at Hampton University.