King’s Followers Reaffirm His Message of Nonviolence

Veterans of the civil rights movement rededicated themselves to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s principles of nonviolence as they gathered Friday to mark the 30th anniversary of his assassination.

“We saw ourselves as the liberation movement, the freedom movement, a justice movement, a movement that wanted to transform America,” said the Rev. James Lawson of Los Angeles, a close King associate, at the opening of a series of memorials and seminars.

Lawson, pastor of Holman United Methodist Church in West Adams, added that, while the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ‘60s achieved many of its goals, much work remains to be done, and King set the example of how to do it.

An evening memorial service was scheduled at Mason Temple, the church where King delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech on the eve of his death. In the speech, which was to be played at the service, King seemed to foretell his death and said he was unafraid to die.

He was killed April 4, 1968, by a rifle shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, which is now a civil rights museum. King was in Memphis to support a strike by sanitation workers. James Earl Ray, an escaped convict, pleaded guilty to the murder and is serving a 99-year sentence.

The Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles, who was with King when he was shot, said one of the event’s primary goals is to teach young people about the civil rights movement and King.

“And I’m also talking about 40-year-old young people,” Kyles said. “People who are 35 were only 5 when Martin died. People who are 40 were only 10.”

The opening session for the pilgrimage was held at Clayborn Temple, a church were the marches for the sanitation strike began and ended.

A march led by King on March 28, 1968, ended violently when a group of rowdy young protesters began breaking windows on Beale Street and police, with clubs and tear gas, chased the marchers back to Clayborn Temple.

That disturbance prompted King to return in April, vowing to lead a peaceful march.

Kyles said people must remember King’s basic message that the way to overcome injustice is through nonviolent protest.

“The civil rights movement was a magnificent thing,” he said. “With all the violence in the land now, we don’t have to have that. Nonviolence worked then and it will work now.”