Historical Tidbits
by DONN BROOKS
And so, we take a holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. King sped up a process that was well under way. He did not do it alone. What he did was take the fight to places like Birmingham and Selma, places where there was literally no hope for the black community. He brought a measure of justice to places like Greenwood and Carrollton, Mississippi.
There were other heroes. At the funeral of General George Patton, somebody saw to it that Master Sergeant George Meeks was a pallbearer for the general and that he would be the one to present the flag to Mrs. Patton. Sergeant Meeks was the general’s orderly. Pee Wee Reese treated Jack Robinson like a human being in front of a seething baseball audience and Jack started the ball rolling toward allowing the black race to showcase their talents. Let’s not forget Harry Truman, the president who ordered the integration of the armed forces.
And don’t overlook Republican contributions of Chief Justice Earl Warren and his court in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and President Eisenhower for raising up on his hind legs and forcing the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
But Dr. King not only sped up the process through getting arrested, he sped it up through his million-man march on Washington, D.C. His “I have a Dream” speech may be the most inspirational of my lifetime.
Others played important roles. Lester Maddux, the notorious governor of Georgia, insisted on putting black people on draft boards because “we drafted them.” George Wallace, later in his life, renounced his racist political exhortations. These actions, late though they came, made it easier for the black people on down the line because white racists found racist proposals slightly less palatable to the body politic. Too little, too late? Sure, but it all counts.
Racism is still a problem. But it is a manageable problem where progress is being made. We go entire high school ball games without any notice of the fact that some officials are black. I cannot recall any mention of race at a high school game in 40 years. That is progress. I was at the infamous Andersonville Prison in Georgia and saw a black lady and a white lady, working there, sharing lunch with each other, seated side by side, laughing about something. Mark it progress.
Don’t suffer me to forget that it was Dr. King who smoked out J.Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the FBI. Hoover was a detriment to the nation, but he got credit for representing all that was right and holy. He represented King as everything bad, sicced his agents on him, and ultimately did everything he could do to discredit him. Does anybody recall a holiday named for Hoover? I rest my case.
Dr. King stood on lots of shoulders. It is too bad we cannot properly recognize the roles of all of them.
