King family contribution to the civil rights movement over-rated
By Sinclere Lee
CHATTANOOGA (BNW) — All due respect to the King family for their contribution to the civil right struggle, but if a man from Mars came to the planet called Earth and wanted to know about the civil rights movement, he would think that the King family was the movement itself. Not so! Millions of whites and Blacks made the movement happen, and it’s a disservice to the civil rights martyrs to give the Kings all the credit.
People are still paying their respects to Coretta Scott King, the widow of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King, who died earlier this week aged 78.
She is the first African-American and the first woman to lie in honor in the Georgia state Capitol building. Don’t think that that is an honor; it’s a disgrace to the civil rights movement in that Georgia was the worse of the worse when it came to violation of Black civil rights.
Crowds cheered as her casket was borne through Atlanta by horse-drawn carriage and the state flag flew at half-mast. It is sickening to see how we as Blacks are so quick to forgive the South for the mistreatment of our people! We maybe dumb enough to forgive the racist South, but God will never forgive these southern devils.
Mrs. King had carried on her husband's work for racial equality after he was assassinated in 1968. While some may think Martin’s nonviolent methods were the right way, but by any ends/means analysis, the means of the movement did not justify the ends. We are in worse shape, now, than when Martin was murdered.
She fought successfully for a national holiday in memory of him and founded The King Center in Atlanta to preserve his legacy.
Tears and tributes
Thousands of mourners had waited for hours at the Capitol to pay their respects to the civil rights activist.
The racist governor of Georgia greeted the Kings' four children outside the building and escorted the body inside. Yeah, they say we have come a long ways from Jim Crow. I say we have made no progress, because these racist crackers in the south were not suppose to be mistreating us in the first place!
King's four children -- Yolanda, Dexter, Martin Luther King III and Bernice -- spent a few minutes at the open casket before the doors were thrown open to the public. Yolanda King stroked her mother's face, and she and her sister Bernice wiped away tears.
At a short ceremony, Governor Sonny Perdue called King's widow "an inspiration to millions".
Her children spent a few minutes at the casket before the doors were opened to the public.
Police estimated that up to 10,000 people passed by in the first two and-a-half hours of the viewing.
"She's worth it," Atlanta resident Janann Ransom said.
"She stood in line for me, her and her husband, when I couldn't stand in line."
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, the first black woman to lead the city, said she owed her career to King.
"I would not be here without her."
Activist
Mrs. King died in her sleep on Monday night, after experiencing poor health in recent years.
Mrs. King, who met her husband in Boston and married him in 1953, supported him in his civil rights work.
After his death, she raised their children while working to secure his legacy.
In 1969 she founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Centre for Non-violent Social Change in Atlanta.
She saw the establishment of a national holiday to mark her husband's January birthday, from 1986.