Today we honor Martin Luther King, Jr., an activist in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Last week there was a documentary entitled 1964 and King was part of that Summer of Love. Unfortunately, the 1960s was also a time of hate, with the death of prominent African Americans, including MLK, as well as President Kennedy and his brother Bobby. It was a bloody decade I will long remember.
The other day I saw Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, based on his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, and while Mandela was imprisoned for violent actions and King was more like Gandhi, preaching non-violence, in the end Mandela worked for peace. On the Internet, I found this quote and this picture on the day that Mandela was released after 27 years in prison.
‘Free at last,’ Mandela said, quoting Martin Luther King, Jr. | August 20, 2013 at 1:15 PM
In this Sunday, Feb. 11, 1990 file photo, Nelson Mandela and wife Winnie, walk hand-in hand-with their raised clenched fists upon Mandela’s release from Victor Verster prison, near Cape Town South Africa. Mandela never met with Martin Luther King Jr, but the two fought for the same issues at the same time on two different continents. Mandela said in a 1964 speech that he was prepared to die to see his dream of a society where blacks and whites were equal become reality. King was killed by an assassin’s bullet while working for that same dream. (AP Photo/Greg English, File) Source: http://thegrio.com/2013/08/20/free-at-last-mandela-said-quoting-martin-luther-king-jr/)
Note: Mandela died on December 5th, 2013, just about when the movie of his life was released (November 29, 2013, only days before his death. (He was born in 1918).
I think that today is a good day to think about these two men and how they both worked hard in their own way for the same goal: full equality for all by peaceful means! Amen
