The childhood home of Dr. Martin Luther King in Atlanta, Ga.
This past week my sister and I took a trip to Atlanta, Georgia and visited the boyhood church of Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights advocate. We also walked through the Center for Non-violence and Social Change, an organization founded after the assassination of King. Within walking distance was the home place of Martin Luther King, Jr. We walked there and was able to get a feel for the days of his early years.
The front door handle at the childhood home of Dr. Martin Luther King- Atlanta, Ga.
In the area were shotgun houses lining the streets. My mind went to the days of his childhood where he played and probably knew all of the area neighbors while attending a church just down the block from where his father pastored.
One of the church benches where Dr. Martin Luther King’s church listened to sermons about obedience to God and non-violence.
Records indicate he had a happy childhood and a stable family life.
The front door knob at Martin Luther’s King’s childhood home.
On the corner of his street was the local fire station and it can be imagined that he heard those bells ring as the firefighters were called to care for the concerns of that Atlanta area.
Since the law suit of Plessy vs. Ferguson had been on the books since 1896 mandating “separate but equal” status for Black America, he attended school in the neighborhood while living in an era of those of his race flighting for equality as there was separation in restroom areas, bus riding and hotel accommodation. There was even department store limitation. All of the faces in his school were black and the faces of white schools were white- separate but equal. I attended a completely white school in Jacksonville, Florida until in late 1960’s when schools integrated.
In the early 1960’s when I was 6 or 7 years old, we would ride the city bus to downtown Jacksonville and go shopping at Woolworth’s, J. C. Penny’s and Furchgott’s. The highlight of the day for me as a kid was to go to the square candy counter at Woolworth’s and order a bag of my own candy. I say my own candy because each of us were able to order for ourselves by pointing to the candy, getting it weighed and as long as it did not amount to more than 10 cents, we would walk away with a bag of our own preferred sweets.
On that trip, we used the restroom at Woolworth’s and there I remember the “separate but equal” situation in my young life. There were restrooms and water fountains for “Whites and Colored”. Looking back, I remember thinking it to be odd.
The day trip that my sister and I took to Ebenezer Baptist Church, King’s home and the King Center was an informative and interesting. God has fashioned each of us for His kingdom and for His pleasure.
The pulpit where Dr. Martin Luther King spoke, preached and shared ideas about power in non-violence.
God has a work for each of us and in His plan of creating races has a job for all to approach and enact in His will for our lives. May each of us do His will no matter our ethnic situation and may our leaders do God’s will in establishing and carrying out all laws and decisions regarding equality for all people.
Josie
