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King, Martin Luther (1929-1968)
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Apr 11 p. 1, 12
Birth date: 1929 Jan 15
text of obituary:
Memorial Services at Colleges
A NUMBER of Mennonite representatives were among the many thousands who attended the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta, Ga. on Tuesday.
According to information received by the Review early this week, those attending included Edgar Stoesz, Akron, Pa., representing Mennonite Central Committee; Dr. Guy F. Hershberger, Goshen, Ind., of the (Old) Mennonite Church, and Rev. Esko Loewen, North Newton, Kan. of the General Conference Mennonite Church. Also attending were Vincent Harding, a Mennonite on the faculty of Spelman College in Atlanta, and a carload of seminary students from Elkhart, Ind.
The (Old) Mennonite and General Conference Peace and Social Concerns committees were holding a joint meeting in New York at the time of the assassination and acted to have both conferences represented at the funeral.
AN MCC Voluntary Service unit has been located in Atlanta since 1960, and over the years many of its members have attended the Ebenezer Baptist Church where Dr. King shared the ministry with his father. Mennonite volunteers have assisted in the summer Bible school program at the Ebenezer church. Vincent Harding served for several years as leader of the Atlanta unit.
Numerous Mennonites heart Dr. King when he lectured at Bethel and Goshen colleges in 1960.
On Friday, April 5, memorial services for the slain Negro leader were held at Bethel and Hesston colleges (see page 12). At Goshen College, Friday classes were suspended and a special Sunday service was held in the church chapel. Reports from other schools were incomplete at press time.
THIRTY-SEVEN students and three faculty members from Bethel College drove to Memphis, Tenn. to participate in the Monday civil rights march there.
William Snyder, MCC executive secretary, commented: "Although MCC was not an integral part of Dr. King's organization, we feel he represented Christian values in meeting the problems of racial tension that are besetting the country."
The General Conference Mennonite Church sent a letter of sympathy to Mrs. King and family; the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; the National Association for Advancement of Colored People, and to a number of congregations with predominantly Negro memberships.
THE LETTER reads, in part: "In this moment of tragic sorrow, we pray God's forgiveness for our apathy and indifference to circumstances which caused Dr. King's death. We ask for conviction and courage to accept our greater role as people dedicated to freedom and justice for all."
The Mennonite Brethren Board of Missions and Services recently authorized two programs in the field of race relations. One calls for intensifying its Christian Service program in the inner cities of Omaha and Detroit. In the other, Mennonite Brethren homes across the U. S. and Canada will soon receive invitations to host children of all races 10 to 14 years of age during local vacation Bible school programs.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Apr 11 p. 1, 3
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World Joins in Mourning for King
President Johnson declared a two-day period of public mourning, and religious and political leaders all around the world joined in expressing grief at the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was cut down by a sniper's bullet April 4 at Memphis, Tenn.
Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, as well as dignitaries from a number of foreign countries, attended funeral services Tuesday morning at Ebenezer Baptist church, Atlanta, Ga., where King and his father Martin Luther King Sr., were co-pastors.
An estimated 150,000 persons took part in the mile and a half funeral march from the church to the campus of Morehouse College, where a public service was held in the afternoon. King's casket rested rested on a crude farm wagon drawn by two mules.
Johnson issued an appeal that every citizen "reject the blind violence that has struck Dr. King who lived by non-violence."
The 39-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner and head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, preached non-violence as the only way of solving the nation's race crisis but was himself the victim of violence. He had come to Memphis to lead mass demonstrations in the 55-day-old garbage workers strike.
King died within a half hour after being hit in the neck by a bullet as he stood on the balcony of a Memphis motel. The sniper, a white man, shot from a house across the street, apparently with a telescopic rifle such as was used by the assassin of the late President John F. Kennedy. As of early this week, the killer had not yet been apprehended.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Apr 11 p. 8
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. . .
• Several hundred persons attended a community memorial service for Dr. Martin Luther King last Sunday afternoon at the First Unite Presbyterian Church. The service was sponsored by the Newton Human Relations Fellowship, and the president, Rev. Ralph W. Milligan, presided and read several excerpts from Dr. King's writings. Several ethnic and denominational groups were represented among those taking part.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Apr 11 p. 12
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Bethel College
Memorial Services for Civil Rights Leader
North Newton. — Special services honoring Dr. Martin Luther King were held during a morning convocation April 5 at Bethel College. Another service, sponsored by the Peace Club, was held in the evening in the Bethel College Mennonite Church.
Selected readings and sayings of Dr. King and musical selections by Willie Price were included in the evening service.
Three Students (Bobbie Bland, Tampa, Fla.; Henry Jones, Chicago; and Willie Price, Bassfield, Miss.) and D. J. Lloyd Spaulding participated in the special convocation and spoke in tribute to Dr. King.
"He was supremely a pastor, a shepherd of the flock in the context of the southern Negro community," Dr. Spaulding said. "We have come here this morning to meditate on the taking of a life, on the giving of a life, upon the consequences of complete commitment.
Dr. Dwight Platt, sponsor of the Peace Club at Bethel College made the following statement:
"He was a leader concerned for the good of all men and I hope that we in America can now rise above our prejudices to honor his memory by achieving the society of freedom and brotherhood about which he dreamed."
The president of Bethel College, Dr. Orville L. Voth, had this to say.
"The Bethel College community joins those in our country who pray for guidance and who rededicate themselves to the teachings of Jesus Christ as the hope for brotherhood in our world, principles which also controlled the life of Dr. King.."
. . .
Hesston College
Slain Negro Leader Given Tribute
Hesston, Kan. — In memory and honor of Dr. Martin Luther King a memorial service was conducted in Hesston College chapel the morning following the assassination of the civil rights leader.
Dr. Milo Kauffman, president emeritus, spoke and led the students and faculty in a period of silent intercessory prayer for Dr. King's family and friends, and for men of bitterness and hate.
"The tragedy in Memphis, Tenn. on April 4, 1968 as well as the death of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in November, 1963, point to a sick and sinful people," said Dr. Kauffman. "It is no secret that Dr. King, a prophet of love, freedom, and justice was unpopular and hated by some. Yet one quality which characterized King's life was his great love for people — his own people — even his enemy."
The former president also termed Dr. King an apostle of nonviolence and possibly the greatest peacemaker of our time. Through his program of non-violence he taught that love is greater than hate.
"Putting the cause for which he worked above himself; his great faith in God and hope for the future are still other qualities descriptive of the Nobel Peace Prize-winner's life," asserted Dr. Kauffman.
The service was closed with a prayer for penitence and for the American people.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Apr 18 p. 1, 2
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Thousands Join in March
(Esko Loewen, dean of students at Bethel College, represented the General Conference Mennonite Church at the service for Dr. Martin Luther King in Atlanta, Ga. on April 9.)
WHEN WE HEARD that Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot at a motel in Memphis, we were just beginning a joint meeting of the Peace and Scoial Concerns Committees of the (Old) Mennonite Conference and General Conference at the Grand Central YMCA in New York. Ironically, the same committees were in session some four years ago when the news of John F. Kennedy's assassination came over the P. A. system.
With everyone else, a host of thoughts and questions came to mind. What would this mean, how would the American community react, what would Negro America's response be, why must good people die as has so often occurred, why is there forever in American life an undercurrent of suspicion, fear, hatred which is the seedbed for assassins? After news of Dr. King's death came, a deeply sobered group of us spent time in prayer.
ONLY WITH his death had recognition come to Dr. King's unswerving dedication to a radical nonviolent stand for change and for justice for the downtrodden and the poor. He became known when he sought the welfare of a seamstress who was fined because she refused to sit in the back of a bus. He died when he sought to gain some benefits for garbage collectors. His funeral bier appropriately was a wagon drawn by mules, the poor farmer's source of power.
THE EVENTS since that fateful Thursday have been full. Riots and looting fill the news — and this response of frustration in the ghettos of our cities screams for serious attention. The Kerner report on riots in the cities places the burden directly on the white communities with racist attitudes which need changing — and a show of compassion on the part of whites which also is lacking. (The Review is planning a special issue on "The Church and the Urban Crisis" to be published in the latter part of May. — Ed.)
But, black America in a much larger way responded to the death of Martin Luther King with great grief and restraint. If ever a people has an on-going list of martyrs, it is Negro America. We speak much about the Anabaptist martyrs and take great pride in calling them our own. But, here is a people who has a very contemporary list. In a matter of a few brief years there have been Emmet Till, the four girls in the Birmingham Church, Medger Evers, Wharlest Jackson, the three Civil Rights workers one of whom was a Negro (if you are white, the way to court death is to identify with the cause of the Negro), and now Martin Luther King, Jr.
I ATTENDED the Palm Sunday services at the Woodlawn Mennonite Church in Chicago which was in the form of a memorial for the fallen leader. His picture stood in front of the church. There were many whose grief was expressed quietly with tears. It was an hour of sharing. Most evident was a commitment to and joy in this man's unswerving dedication to nonviolent justice.
He took an unpopular stand against our Vietnam involvement and its violence. But this was consistent with his call for justice by nonviolent means among the poor of our cities or anywhere in the world. He said he was tired of violence — if he were the last person devoted to nonviolent means, he would remain steadfast in that course. Now, with his death, we see how consistent and unswerving he was — and the eloquence of his consistent stand.
THE ACHE and hurt of his death was evident in the Woodlawn Church and the ghetto. I spent Monday visiting high schools in the ghetto. Signs and pictures and black bunting; tributes; cars — almost all of them — burning their headlights . . . all this bespoke his influence and the esteem in which he was held. True, the Black Power movement, the Blackstone Rangers and Disciples do not espouse nonviolence; but they, too, could do none other than respect Dr. King.
I went to Atlanta on a chartered flight arranged by a Negro travel agency. Three of us on the plane were white. The rest were middle-class clergy and other Negroes. One gentleman I sat beside spoke with such a southern brogue that I could hardly understand him. A very graceful and charming lady on the return flight said she had walked the four and a half miles on the march from the Ebenezer Baptist Church to Morehouse College. She said her feet hurt, but every step was worth it because she recalled how many times King had marched.
WHEN WE got to the church at 8:00 a.m., already a huge throng filled the street around it. All night people had gone by the casket as Dr. King lay in state. The crowd was patient but curious and not very cooperative with orders.
The crowd became so huge, the march to Morehouse was begun even before the family service was held. A vast throng marched toward the capitol as if on a pilgrimage of the medieval or Biblical type. We sang "We Shall Overcome" in full voice. Workers building a skyscraper quit work and stood on numerous levels watching, as did others in offices, on roofs, and along the streets. The mood of the throng became earnest.
I MET a Church of God in Christ pastor, C. C. Turner of Wayfield, Ill. We marched most of the distance together. He said he could have seen it all on TV and he would have seen much more than he would being in the march; but you feel it when you are a part of it. And this was true. We were very much a part of it as we lost ourselves in this huge throng.
We felt perhaps a bit of the same spirit of the triumphal entry celebrated on Palm Sunday, or the other pilgrimages which have been so much a part of the church's religious life. And, by being identified with the throng of those who dearly loved Martin Luther King possibly we might push a bit farther toward a non-violent world of brotherhood which was his dream.
AS WE STOOD on the Morehouse College lawn an elderly gentleman, formerly from Seneca, South Carolina, standing beside me began a conversation. He had been a teacher, then retired and set up a business. Now his business earnings go to the church, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the NAACP. This man said, "If we can't live together here, we can't live together any place."
He spoke in so prophetic a way. We sing "In Christ There is no East or West" and we are forever building barriers that exclude people who are different. Strange how exclusive we are about our particular understanding of the gospel which we declare is universal — for all men!
I WENT TO ATLANTA to express in a small way the care and concern the Mennonite Church has for the cause for which King stood and for the plight of the Negro. Mennonites should have a feel for such concern. Even in Russia they showed a concern for the Russian Jew persecuted in the ghetto of Russian cities a hundred years ago. They set up a village, a farm village, in which a Mennonite family and Jewish family were placed alternately side by side. It was hoped Jewish families might learn Mennonite farming techniques in this way, and that Jewish farm villages might be established.
Such identification is urgently needed once again — not that we as Mennonites have so much to give, but that there may be compassion, openmindedness, willingness to learn, but most of all compassion. And by this means the Christ who was compassion might live again in His church today.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Apr 18 p. 2
text of obituary:
Letter to Mrs. King
Following is the text of a letter sent to Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. and family on behalf of the General Conference Mennonite Church:
"Martin Luther King, Jr., was and will remain God's prophetic voice to the people of this time. His words and deeds, directed to abolish systems to which men are captives, are powerful evidences of his commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord, his belief in the brotherhood of all persons, and his trust in nonviolence as the means of social change. Faith, hope, and love gave form and structure to the responsible concern which burned in his heart.
"In this moment of tragic sorrow, we pray God's forgiveness for our apathy and indifference to circumstances which caused Dr. King's death. We ask for conviction and courage to accept our greater role as people dedicated to freedom and justice for all.
"For Mrs. King and her children and all for whom Dr. King was a friend, counselor, and prophet, we pray that there remain comfort of God's grace, awareness of God's love, and confidence in the triumph of God's justice and truth." — The General Conference Mennonite Church, by Orlando A. Waltner, Executive Secretary.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Apr 18 p. 2
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Dutch Pay Tribute to Dr. King
Rotterdam, The Netherlands. — Dutch Mennonite Peace Group in cooperation with other member organizations of the Dutch chapter of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation sent a telegram of sympathy to the American FOR, of which the late Dr. Martin Luther King was a member. The telegram was also directed to Mrs. King and family, and to the American people.
It expressed great sympathy for the loss of a prominent American who was a "true disciple of Jesus Christ," and said: "May all people realize that righteousness and peace can only be attained when everybody performs a service of reconciliation and love, which is directed to the perpetrators of injustice and discrimination as well as to those who suffer from the consequences of these acts."
The Dutch FOR requested its members to display the Dutch flag at half mast on the day of Dr. King's funeral.
Dr. King was well known in Holland and among the Mennonites. Amsterdam's Free University granted him an honorary doctorate in social science on Oct. 20, 1965.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Apr 18 p. 3
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Bluffton, Ohio. — About 100 Bluffton church people of several denominations attended "A Vigil of Concern and Repentance" in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King on Sunday afternoon, April 7.
The outdoor service was held at the entrance of the United Presbyterian Church at the invitation of the pastor, Rev. Tom M. Castlen. A sign at the street curb said, "We meet to bear witness to our faith, to pray for forgiveness, and to seek renewal in our times."
Speaking from the steps of the church Dr. Robert S. Kreider, president of Bluffton College, said that in the same way that the Bluffton community responded with a great outpouring of compassion following the Palm Sunday tornado of 1965, the death of Dr. King can be a time of repentance, rebirth and rededication in the country's racial strife.
"This is not a time to accuse, but a time to forgive" he said. "This is not a time to despair, but a time, to work, to plan, to build. This is not a time to reach for a weapon, but a time to offer an outstretched hand."
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Apr 18 p. 3
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Observance at Goshen
Goshen, Ind. — More than 300 persons took part in a silent march in tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King here Monday evening, April 8, followed by a community memorial service in the First Presbyterian Church.
Some 200 persons began the march at the Goshen College campus, and others joined in as the marchers proceeded along the west side of Main Street to the Goshen business district. Many in the procession were college students, but it also included children being pushed in baby carriages and older people. Many Goshen residents watched from porches and parked cars along the way. There were no incidents.
In the business district, by prearrangement, city police officers halted traffic at intersections so that the march could proceed without interruption.
At the county courthouse the marchers paused. Stretching out in a line several deep for two blocks, they faced eastward for a period of silence.
The group then walked east two blocks to the First Presbyterian Church for the memorial service, sponsored by the Goshen Churches Associated in Mission, the Goshen Ministerial Assn., St. John's Roman Catholic Church and Goshen College.
The service included a call to worship by Rev. David J. Jamieson, singing of a hymn, the invocation by Rev. James Cis, the Litany for Our Country led by Mayor Ralph B. Shenk, and several spirituals sung by the Goshen High School Choir directed by G. Merrill Swartley.
The sermon was given by Dr. C. Norman Kraus, professor of Bible at Goshen College. Pointing out that King's nonviolent approach was widely misunderstood, and that most Americans never bothered to read his writings or listen to his speeches, he said, "I would like to square the record. It is high time and extremely necessary that we begin to try to understand what this man stood for. . . I fear that it is already too late. . . but in God's name and as God's people let's try to understand what he stood for and what he was doing.
"Unfortunately and wrongly the white religious community has too long equated nonviolence with passive acceptance of the status quo. . . . But I tell you that where there is oppression, fear, injustice, discrimination, enforced poverty there is violence no matter how well it is covered over by the facade of respectability. . . It was not Martin Luther King who created violence. He merely maneuvered it into the open where we would see it in all its ugliness."
Referring in closing to Goshen's 100-year-history as a closed segregated community, he said, "I propose that as a memorial to Martin Luther King we find a way to put Goshen publicly on record that we are an open city, and that we welcome men and women of any race, of any religious creed, of any nationality to settle and work among us as men and women of good will to build a better Goshen.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Apr 18 p. 4
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Bishop Gives Tribute
(The following tribute to the life and work of Dr.. Martin Luther King was given by Paul G. Landis at the opening of a communion service in the Mellinger congregation near Lancaster, Pa. on April 7. Landis formerly served as Voluntary and I-W Services Director for the Lancaster Conference. He is a bishop of the Mellinger District, and Secretary of Lancaster Conference.)
DURING this past week another shot was fired that was heard around the world. today his been called by our President as a day of mourning and prayer.
The tragic death of Dr. Martin Luther King could mark a turning point in our nation and society. There has probably been no other private citizen and minister who has been so loved and at the same time so hated; so quoted and so misquoted; so understanding yet so misunderstood; so dedicated to nonviolence yet meeting such violence.
Having had the opportunity to meet and discuss personally with Dr. King such matters as Christian faith and the way of love, and having heard him speak on several occasions, I am convinced that his Christian spirit and faith have been played down and distorted by the public press and those who would associate him with subversive movements.
HIS APPROACH to solving problems of peace, prejudice, discrimination, and social sins against a deprived people was always based on nonviolence and the way of love.
I heard him tell his people, "Never allow anyone, white or black, to drag you so low as to make you hate him. . . . We will overcome the hate and prejudice of the white man with love."
The next day the newspapers reported, "King says, 'We will overcome the white man.'" Five years ago I heard Louis Lomax say to a white audience, "You didn't listen when Martin Luther King said, 'We love you and want to pray and worship with you.' But you will listen when the Negro says, 'We hate you.'"
I THANK GOD for one who attempted to direct the floodtide of deep hurt, hate, and revenge into positive, nonviolent efforts to make our society aware of the seriousness of its sins. Whether or not we agreed with Dr. King, let us at this time of great danger, violence and murder, commit ourselves as nonresistant followers of Jesus Christ to the following:
• To confess in repentance our own attitudes of white supremacy and racial prejudice.
• To acknowledge the privileges that are ours because of race and descent.
• To thank God than an alternative to violence and murder has been taught to millions in our nation at this tense time.
• TO SEEK to understand the causes of the sufferings of suppressed people who are caught in the struggle for survival.
• To search for ways to give of ourselves and our resources to bring the Gospel to a dying world.
• To pray that this total tragedy may, by the overruling power of God, turn our nation back from a disastrous course to an acknowledgment of the lordship of Jesus Christ and bring healing to our world that is broken by war, violence and sin.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Apr 25 p. 3
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MEMORIAL MARCH — More than 300 persons, including students and faculty members of Goshen College and residents of the Goshen community, took part in a silent memorial march for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday evening, April 8. Shown here leading the marchers through the Goshen business district are Dan Shaffer (left), president of the Goshen College Community Government, and Rev. C. Norman Kraus, professor of Bible at the college.
At the courthouse square, the group halted and face eastward in silent tribute to Dr. King. They then proceeded two blocks to the First United Presbyterian Church for a memorial service, at which Dr. Kraus was the main speaker. (Courtesy the Goshen news.)
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Jun 13 p. 3
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Another ironic coincidence last week was the capture of the long-sought-for suspect in the assassination of Dr. martin Luther King, Jr.
Arrested in London was James Earl Ray, who had been identified by the FBI as the Missouri prison escapee charged with the shooting of the noted civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner at Memphis, Tenn. on April 4.
Ray, carrying a fully loaded pistol, offered no resistance as he was seized before he could re-board a plane bound from Lisbon, Portugal, to Brussels, Belgium. He had apparently spent several weeks in Europe after coming to London from Toronto, Canada.
Mrs. Coretta King was informed of the arrest of her husband's alleged slayer as she was attending the New York funeral of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1969 Mar 13 p. 3
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. . .
Assassins of Noted Leader Admit Guilt
The perpetrators of two world-shocking assassinations last year have openly admitted their guilt — one for the purpose of escaping execution and the other with a blunt request for the death penalty. At Memphis, Tenn., James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to murdering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and was promptly sentenced to 99 years imprisonment. King's widow said she approved the life sentence, since capital punishment was contrary to the moral and religious convictions of her husband.
In Los Angeles, Shirhan [sic Sirhan] B. Sirhan told the court that he was the one who shot Sen. Robert f. Kennedy and wanted to be put in the gas chamber. He said his mind had gone blank at the time of the shooting, but that "the next thing I remember, I was being choked." His anger against Kennedy was a passing fit but his hatred of Jews and Zionists is deep and permanent, he declared.