On April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee, most likely with the complicity of the Memphis Police Department. So, it’s nice that the city council finally got around to renaming the three city parks named in honor of the Confederacy.
The old names were Confederate Park; Jefferson Davis Park, named for the Confederacy’s president; and Nathan Bedford Forrest Park, named for a Confederate lieutenant general and the Klan’s first grand wizard. The new names are Memphis Park, Mississippi River Park and Health Sciences Park, but the council may change those, too.
Of course, the Ku Klux Klan is upset about this and they decided to have an Easter-weekend rally protesting the name changes. Apparently, they managed to muster about 60 shitheads and were outnumbered by the police.
The night before Dr. King died, he gave one of his greatest speeches at the Mason Temple in Memphis. And it almost didn’t happen. It was pouring rain so badly that people had to pull their cars over to the side of the road. Dr. King didn’t think anyone would show up at the church in that kind of weather and he was feeling ill, so he sent Andrew Young and Ralph Abernathy ahead and told them if there was anyone at the church to call him and he’d come down there.
You can read the transcript of the civil trial that found the Memphis police responsible for MLK Jr’s death here. It’s sad that it’s been 45 years since Dr. King died and the Memphis city council is only now formally recognizing that honoring the Confederacy is insulting and stupid. But at least they’re doing it. And it’s pretty encouraging that the Klan can’t do better than 60 morons and a broken megaphone.
They can take down the statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest that’s across from the Greyhound bus terminal, also.
Ahh, the good ol’ Klan. Like monsters from another age.
prob my fave MLK speech, for the “mountaintop” quotes alone. I think I like it even better than the “dream” speech.
Aldo, I’m always chilled by the seemingly foreshadowing-like (is the right term) nature of the final passage.
I think the Memphis City Council was concerned that they would not be able to change the names of these parks in the future since legislation has been proposed to prohibit the renaming of historical parks and monuments. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/feb/07/state-legislator-says-hes-disappointed-parks-renam/
Who among us, especially with the benefit of hindsight, can watch that speech and not have tears in your eyes. Surely, one of the greatest speeches ever given in human history.
“. . .it’s been 45 years since Dr. King died . . .” OMG, am I really that old. Sigh. King’s speeches were like great music. That was a very sad year.