Statement made by Ronald Reagan when he signed legislation designating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday

 "America is a more democratic nation, a more just nation, a more peaceful nation because Martin Luther King, Jr., became her preeminent nonviolent commander." - President Ronald Reagan, 11/2/83

 

Remarks on Signing the Bill Making the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a National Holiday

November 2, 1983


The President. Mrs. King, members of the King family, distinguished Members of the Congress, ladies and gentlemen, honored guests, I'm very pleased to welcome you to the White House, the home that belongs to all of us, the American people.

When I was thinking of the contributions to our country of the man that we're honoring today, a passage attributed to the American poet John Greenleaf Whittier comes to mind. "Each crisis brings its word and deed." In America, in the fifties and sixties, one of the important crises we faced was racial discrimination. The man whose words and deeds in that crisis stirred our nation to the very depths of its soul was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King was born in 1929 in an America where, because of the color of their skin, nearly 1 in 10 lived lives that were separate and unequal. Most black Americans were taught in segregated schools. Across the country, too many could find only poor jobs, toiling for low wages. They were refused entry into hotels and restaurants, made to use separate facilities. In a nation that proclaimed liberty and justice for all, too many black Americans were living with neither.

 

In one city, a rule required all blacks to sit in the rear of public buses. But in 1955, when a brave woman named Rosa Parks was told to move to the back of the bus, she said, "No." A young minister in a local Baptist church, Martin Luther King, then organized a boycott of the bus company—a boycott that stunned the country. Within 6 months the courts had ruled the segregation of public transportation unconstitutional.

Dr. King had awakened something strong and true, a sense that true justice must be colorblind, and that among white and black Americans, as he put it, "Their destiny is tied up with our destiny, and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom; we cannot walk alone."

In the years after the bus boycott, Dr. King made equality of rights his life's work. Across the country, he organized boycotts, rallies, and marches. Often he was beaten, imprisoned, but he never stopped teaching nonviolence. "Work with the faith", he told his followers, "that unearned suffering is redemptive." In 1964 Dr. King became the youngest man in history to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dr. King's work brought him to this city often. And in one sweltering August day in 1963, he addressed a quarter of a million people at the Lincoln Memorial. If American history grows from two centuries to twenty, his words that day will never be forgotten. "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood."

In 1968 Martin Luther King was gunned down by a brutal assassin, his life cut short at the age of 39. But those 39 short years had changed America forever. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had guaranteed all Americans equal use of public accommodations, equal access to programs financed by Federal funds, and the right to compete for employment on the sole basis of individual merit. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 had made certain that from then on black Americans would get to vote. But most important, there was not just a change of law; there was a change of heart. The conscience of America had been touched. Across the land, people had begun to treat each other not as blacks and whites, but as fellow Americans.

And since Dr. King's death, his father, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr., and his wife, Coretta King, have eloquently and forcefully carried on his work. Also his family have joined in that cause.

Now our nation has decided to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by setting aside a day each year to remember him and the just cause he stood for. We've made historic strides since Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus. As a democratic people, we can take pride in the knowledge that we Americans recognized a grave injustice and took action to correct it. And we should remember that in far too many countries, people like Dr. King never have the opportunity to speak out at all.

But traces of bigotry still mar America. So, each year on Martin Luther King Day, let us not only recall Dr. King, but rededicate ourselves to the Commandments he believed in and sought to live every day: Thou shall love thy God with all thy heart, and thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. And I just have to believe that all of us—if all of us, young and old, Republicans and Democrats, do all we can to live up to those Commandments, then we will see the day when Dr. King's dream comes true, and in his words, "All of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, '... land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.'"

Thank you, God bless you, and I will sign it.

Mrs. King. Thank you, Mr. President, Vice President Bush, Majority Leader Baker and the distinguished congressional and senatorial delegations, and other representatives who've gathered here, and friends.

All right-thinking people, all right-thinking Americans are joined in spirit with us this day as the highest recognition which this nation gives is bestowed upon Martin Luther King, Jr., one who also was the recipient of the highest recognition which the world bestows, the Nobel Peace Prize.

In his own life's example, he symbolized what was right about America, what was noblest and best, what human beings have pursued since the beginning of history. He loved unconditionally. He was in constant pursuit of truth, and when he discovered it, he embraced it. His nonviolent campaigns brought about redemption, reconciliation, and justice. He taught us that only peaceful means can bring about peaceful ends, that our goal was to create the love community.

America is a more democratic nation, a more just nation, a more peaceful nation because Martin Luther King, Jr., became her preeminent nonviolent commander.

Martin Luther King, Jr., and his spirit live within all of us. Thank God for the blessing of his life and his leadership and his commitment. What manner of man was this? May we make ourselves worthy to carry on his dream and create the love community. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:06 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White House.

As enacted, H.R. 3706 is Public Law 98-144, approved November 2.



Sources:

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=40708

https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/13/archives-president-reagan-designates-martin-luther-king-jr-day-federal-holiday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oEt0P-056s

Remembering Non-violent moments in a time of turmoil: Brothers to the Rescue, the March for Humanity, and a call for truth and justice.

Remembering a non-violent ripple.

Coretta Scott King and Jose Basulto of Brothers to the Rescue

On April 9, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia on the fiftieth anniversary of the funeral procession for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I took part in the March For Humanity. Over the previous week numerous events were held to mark the 50 years since a sniper's bullet took his life. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., like Mohandas Gandhi before him twenty years earlier, was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis Tennessee at 6:01pm.

We are in the midst of a moment of great turmoil with a pandemic, mass protests for racial justice, and riots organized by radicals with other objectives, some are Marxist Leninists, others Maoists,  others are Neo-Nazis, Klu Klux Klan and a long etcetera,   

These have also been years of great political polarization, and the danger arises of not looking at the person we disagree with as a fellow human being.

This was why the March for Humanity was and remains important.  It is also why activists of all political stripes working for the common good need to hang on to non-violence, respect for the rule of law, and where a law is unjust then challenge it with civil disobedience as a last resort, and when possible democratic norms and procedures. 

This is not passivity but creative resistance that, unlike violence, preserves our humanity, and it leaves unlikely but positive ripples always.

In the struggle against dictatorship in Cuba it was the internal opposition that first took up nonviolence as a method to resist injustice without becoming unjust. It was the nonviolent opposition that confronted a regime rooted in hatred without hating but were followed by other organizations, including one that engaged with The King Center.

Brothers to the Rescue (Hermanos al Rescate) is a grassroots movement founded in May 1991 in response to the death of a fifteen year old named Gregorio Pérez Ricardo who had died fleeing Cuba on a raft only to die of exposure and dehydration. The movement was funded by the community through donations in order to carry out a nonviolent constructive program saving the lives of Cuban rafters before they died of dehydration or starvation on the high seas in normal rafts.

Brothers to the Rescue actively collaborated with both The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia and Gene Sharp of the Albert Einstein Institution. They conducted nonviolent trainings in South Florida and invited members of the Cuban Exile community. I took part in those trainings, and they made a great impact on me.

The non-violent group conducted more than  2,400 aerial search missions.  These resulted in the rescue of more than 4,200 men, women and children ranging in age from a five day old infant to a man 79 years of age.

Sadly, Brothers to the Rescue was dealt a terrible blow on February 24, 1996 when two of its planes were blow to bits in the Florida Straits by Cuban MiGs while searching for rafters killing four humanitarians.

Glamour and glitz versus the cold hard reality.

A spy network sent by Havana had gathered information on the organization that contributed to the killings of Armando Alejandre, Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales.

Now a film production seeks to twist this history in the service of Cuban communist propaganda, and the spouse of Jose Basulto, Rita Basulto, is asking for help over Facebook and the request is reproduced below. Brothers to the Rescue in Spanish is Hermanos al Rescate (HAR) and this is the acronym she uses for the organization in the message below.

 "Dear FB family and friends,

Since the movie The Wasp Network started showing on Netflix, we have received numerous calls and comments. The movie is a propaganda vehicle for the Cuban government, full of lies and misrepresentations. Among the lies, my husband Jose Basulto never introduced Roque to Mas Canosa who wasn’t even present at the party for the wedding as shown in the movie. Roque never flew as a pilot for HAR. Rene Gonzalez was separated from HAR by Basulto after it was reported to him that someone had seen Rene (who was flying with another organization) lying face down by agents of DEA.

The movie wants to portray HAR as a terrorist group when nothing is further from the truth since it was promoting and organizing seminars about bringing changes in Cuba thru Non-Violence.

It is disrespectful to, not only to HAR, but to the entire exile community, the pilots of 19 different nationalities who flew with Hermanos (and who were volunteers-never paid- like the movie says), to the observers who flew many missions, to the members of the press who flew with HAR (never charged).

The Cuban government and its allies have been very good at promoting its lies for years. WE, need to promote our TRUTH.

Please sign the petition from Change.org requesting the removal of the movie from Netflix and share it with others. https://www.change.org/p/netflix-brasil-queremos-que-netflix-elimine-de-su-cartelera-la-pel%C3%ADcula-la-red-avispa-por-da%C3%B1os-y-perj

 Please share this information with others to set the record straight, and to sign the petition. Let us also remember the humanity of our adversaries while we pursue truth and justice.

#MarchForHumanity: A Reflection on MLK and Cuban dissidents

Marching for Humanity and to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolent legacy

Marching to Atlanta's state capital from Ebeneezer Baptist Church on April 9th

I took part in the March For Humanity on April 9, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia on the fiftieth anniversary of the funeral procession for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Over the past week numerous events have been held to mark the 50 years since a sniper's bullet took his life. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., like Mohandas Gandhi before him twenty years earlier, was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis Tennessee at 6:01pm.


 
Dr. King's example inspired the dissident movements in Poland, Cuba and elsewhere in the 1970s, 1980s and today. On April 4, 2018 outside of the Lorraine Hotel, author Taylor Branch reported on how a former Polish Ambassador speaking there told the crowd how MLK's movement inspired the Polish Solidarity movement.

Former Polish Ambassador tells #MLK50 in Memphis that MLK's movement inspired the Solidarity campaign that ended the Cold War without violence. pic.twitter.com/5i80Cpuc7z

— Taylor Branch (@taylorbranch) April 4, 2018

Cubans, despite efforts of Cuban communists to distort the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr with an official center in Havana, have learned of his true legacy and the type of nonviolent action he advocated. In a speech he gave in St. Augustine in 1964 Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. described both the kind of love referred to in the Sermon on the Mount and the impracticability of violence:

"Its difficult advice and in some quarters it isn't too popular to say it...Let us recognize that violence is not the answer. I must say to you tonight that violence is impractical...We have another method that is much more powerful and much more effective than the weapon of violence...Hate isn't our weapon either...I am not talking now about a weak love it would be nonsense for an oppressed people to love their oppressor in an affectionate sense I'm not talking about that too many people confuse the meaning of love when they go to criticizing the love ethic. ...I am talking about a love that is so strong that it becomes a demanding love. A love that is so strong that it organizes itself into a mass movement and says somehow I am my brothers keeper and he is so wrong that I am willing to suffer and die to get him right and to see that he is on the wrong road."

Former Cuban prisoner of conscience Roberto de Miranda in a 2015 interview spoke of how human rights defenders in Cuba teach young people about Martin Luther King Jr. and Lech Walesa today.

"We have been inspired by many figures who have carried out struggles through civil disobedience, especially people who have fought for human rights, like Dr. Martin Luther King (Jr.). In our libraries, we teach young people how his struggle was carried out, as well as teaching them about (Lech) Walesa and many others who struggled in Eastern Europe and who are great examples for the Cuban people and the dissidents."

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas was one of the founders of the Christian Liberation Movement in Cuba that came into existence on September 8, 1988, and had it become a national movement despite all the obstacles presented by the dictatorship. Oswaldo Payá explained the methods of this movement in December of 2002 while receiving the European Union's Sakharov Prize that echo the values of both Gandhi and King:

We have not chosen the path of peace as a tactic, but because it is inseparable from the goal for which our people are striving. Experience teaches us that violence begets more violence and that when political change is brought about by such means, new forms of oppression and injustice arise. It is our wish that violence and force should never be used as ways of overcoming crises or toppling unjust governments. This time we shall bring about change by means of this civic movement which is already opening a new chapter in Cuba’s history, in which dialogue, democratic involvement, and solidarity will prevail. In such a way we shall foster genuine peace.

This is not a coincidence. Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas's widow, Ofelia Acevedo, in 2014 spoke of King's nonviolent legacy and how it inspired her and her husband to also dream and work for Cubans to enjoy a better tomorrow. Following the brief interview she pulled out a copy of the 1990 Christmas Message of the Christian Liberation movement written by Oswaldo Payá where he put on paper his dream:

"The rifles will be buried face down, the words of hatred will vanish in the heart without reaching the lips, we'll go out into the street and all of us will see in the other a brother, let us look to the future with the peace of he that knows that he forgave and he that has been forgiven. Let there be no blood to clean or dead to bury, the shadow of fear and of catastrophe will give way to the reconciliatory light, and Cuba will be reborn in every heart, in a miracle of love made by God and us."

Sadly, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero, a youth leader from his movement who had been a seminarian were martyred on July 22, 2012 for advocating nonviolent change in Cuba. Oswaldo had managed to obtain more than 25,000 signatures in a Stalinist dictatorship demanding a vote to change the system and recognize the rights and dignity of Cubans. Like Martin Luther King Jr. he was killed but his ideas and example live on to inspire others.

In the struggle against dictatorship in Cuba it was the internal opposition that first took up nonviolence as a method to resist injustice without becoming unjust. It was the nonviolent opposition that confronted a regime rooted in hatred without hating but were followed by other organizations, including one that engaged with The King Center. 

 Coretta Scott King and Jose Basulto of Brothers to the Rescue

Brothers to the Rescue is a grassroots movement founded in May 1991 in response to the death of a fifteen year old named Gregorio Pérez Ricardo who had died fleeing Cuba on a raft only to die of exposure and dehydration. The movement was funded by the community through donations in order to carry out a nonviolent constructive program saving the lives of Cuban rafters before they died of dehydration or starvation on the high seas in small rafts. Brothers to the Rescue actively collaborated with both The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia and Gene Sharp of the Albert Einstein Institution. Brothers to the Rescue conducted more than  2,400 aerial search missions.  These resulted in the rescue of more than 4,200 men, women and children ranging in age from a five day old infant to a man 79 years of age. Sadly, Brothers to the Rescue was dealt a crippling blow on February 24, 1996 when two of its planes were blow to bits in the Florida Straits by Cuban MiGs while searching for rafters killing four humanitarians.

The dream survives in others even when the dreamer has been cut down by the forces of repression and hatred. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. never set foot in Cuba but his example inspired generations of activists who continue to work for a better tomorrow on the island. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 in his famous I have a Dream Speech explained in powerful terms the importance of the now and the dangers of gradualism:

"This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children."

Rev. King  was born 89 years ago on January 15, 1929 and lived a life of service for his fellow man and woman while resisting racism, poverty and war. He sought to make real the beloved community viewing it as an obtainable and realistic goal. At the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia they say that Dr. King was "a 20th century prophet" and "a 21st century architect." 

Both Martin and Oswaldo gave their lives in the cause of justice, dignity and peace becoming martyrs of nonviolence in the same way that Mohandas Gandhi did. Their good works live beyond them and have positive repercussions today and will continue to in the future. Michael Nagler, a long time peace scholar, presents the theorem as follows: Nonviolence sometimes “works” and always works, while by contrast, Violence sometimes “works” and never works.  Nagler offers a more detailed explanation.

The exercise of violence always has a destructive effect on human relationships even when, as sometimes happens, it accomplishes some short-term goal. The exercise of nonviolence, or Satyagraha, always brings people closer. This explains why Gandhi, after fifty years of experimentation in every walk of life, could declare that he “knew of no single case in which it had failed.” Where it seemed to fail he concluded that he or the other satyagrahis had in some way failed to live up to its steep challenge.  Taking the long view, he was able to declare that “There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence. The end of violence is surest defeat.”

Cuban opposition activist Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, who spent over a decade in prison in Cuba for his nonviolent activism and defense of human rights would refer to and quote both Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. On June 1, 2003 from his prison cell in a letter he wrote:

"My inspiration is alive: God and the great teachers of nonviolence, present today now more than ever. As Martin Luther King said: "If a people can find among their ranks a 5% of men willing to voluntarily go to prison for a cause they consider just then there is no obstacle that can stop them."

Six years later into his prison sentence in 2009 Dr. Biscet wrote about spreading the word about nonviolent icons and how some reacted with skepticism. 

 "I remember when I started preaching about Gandhi and Thoreau some said I would walk through the streets of Havana with a loin cloth like Gandhi. When I learned of these words spoken about me in a derogatory manner I just smiled because I knew I would be in these conditions but not in the streets of Havana. Rather in the infinite captivity that I would have through suffering. They had not been mistaken those who had made the joke to humiliate me. Because from the humiliation of a man in loincloth highlights the reflection of human dignity over barbarism."

 The legacy of Dr. King fifty years after his assassination continues to impact not only in the United  States, but around the world, including in Cuba among those seeking a democratic transition and an end to 59 years of totalitarian rule.

#MLK50: From the Mountaintop to the Lorraine Motel

Martin Luther King Jr.'s prophetic and nonviolent message
 

Lorraine Motel on 4/3/68:  Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson, MLK Jr.,  Ralph Abernathy

50 years ago on the evening of April 3, 1968 Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. scaled the heights of American rhetoric dismantling the case for violence and reaffirming nonviolent resistance.

U.S. Marshal serves MLK with restraining order to forbid Memphis march on April 8th.

 The King Center provides the following abstract summary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s I've Been to the Mountaintop speech on April 3, 1968 in their website:

Dr. King gave this address at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee the night before he was assassinated. He called for nonviolent protest and a boycott of Memphis area businesses in support of the Memphis Sanitation Workers strike. Conveying a sense of foreboding, he not only recounted a near-death experience when he was stabbed near the heart, but also spoke of the possibility of his own demise at the hands of those who opposed him.

In this speech Reverend King outlined the purpose of the overall nonviolent struggle in broad terms:

 "And that's all this whole thing is about. We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying -- We are saying that we are God's children. And that we are God's children, we don't have to live like we are forced to live."

Words from the #Mountaintop. #MLK #MLK50Forward pic.twitter.com/CGj8GvWN1e

— The King Center (@TheKingCenter) April 3, 2018

He spoke of the importance of maintaining unity, noting how in Ancient Egypt pharaoh had sought to maintain control over his slaves by having them fight among themselves. King then explained the failings of violence, even a little violence and the specific issues of the campaign for the sanitation workers.

"Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, we've got to keep attention on that. That's always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window-breaking. I read the articles. They very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers are on strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a doctor. They didn't get around to that."

King addressed the resilience and persistence of the Civil Rights movement to resist water cannons and police dogs, and the restraining order to block the march, challenging the authorities to live up to the American traditions of liberty and the rule of law.

"Now about injunctions: We have an injunction and we're going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional injunction. All we say to America is, "Be true to what you said on paper." If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand some of these illegal injunctions. Maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn't committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. And so just as I say, we aren't going to let dogs or water hoses turn us around, we aren't going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on."

By 1968 the Black power movement led by Stokely Carmichael and the Black Panthers were calling for armed insurrection in the streets.  Martin Luther King Jr explained the superior power of nonviolent resistance in concrete terms.

"Now the other thing we'll have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. Now, we are poor people. Individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively -- that means all of us together -- collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and I could name the others, the American Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That's power right there, if we know how to pool it.

We don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles. We don't need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say,    

"God sent us by here, to say to you that you're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you."  

 And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy -- what is the other bread? -- Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on town -- downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right.  

But not only that, we've got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a "bank-in" movement in Memphis. Go by the savings and loan association. I'm not asking you something that we don't do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We are telling you to follow what we are doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies here in the city of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an "insurance-in."

Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here."

The following day they had won in court and the march was on. The civil rights leaders were in good spirits. Reverend King had been suffering from a fever and had been resting throughout the day, but feeling better he got dressed to go out to dinner at 5:30pm.

Less than 24 hours after his historic speech, the 39 year old Baptist Minister and Nobel Laureate was struck down by a sniper's bullet at the Lorraine Motel and by 6:03pm he lay there dying. Andrew Young checked and found a slight pulse. King was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. at St. Joseph Hospital.

Lorraine Motel 4/4/68: Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, MLK Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Hosea Williams,

On April 5, 1968 in Washington, DC Black power militant Stokely Carmichael held a press conference and appealed for violence and called for retaliation for the killing of Reverend King.

"When White America killed Dr. King last night, it declared war on us. There will be no crying there will be no funerals. The rebellions that have been occurring around the cities of this country is just light stuff to what is about to happen. We have to retaliate for the deaths of our leaders. The executions of those deaths won't be in the courtroom but in the streets of the United States of America. Last night we led all of those youngsters up and down the street to close every store in this area. Because Dr. King was shot and they should have closed those doors. Now some of them kicked glass door windows in. We are not stopping them from kicking in the store windows. We are stopping them from coming out on the streets without guns. When they come out on the streets we want them with guns. If they don't have guns we won't let them throw bricks and bottles, but when they get guns we will be out on the street."

Carmichael had already been advocating for armed insurrection on American streets prior to Dr. King's assassination and on February 17, 1968 explicitly made the case for "offing" blacks who did not agree with hm. Following the death of Martin Luther King Jr. Carmichael's threat was made reality. Newsweek reported that "riots broke out in dozens of cities across the United States. The rampage left 39 dead, 21,000 arrested, more than 2,600 injured and was responsible for damages estimated at $65 million."



Meanwhile in Memphis the local government met the demands that had been made by Reverend King and the striking sanitation workers.  The King family held solemn services for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia, attended by thousands including the Vice President of the United States, Hubert Humphrey.

Coretta Scott King requested that King eulogize himself: His last sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church, a recording of his famous 'Drum Major' sermon, given on February 4, 1968, was played at the funeral. The King family went on to found the King Center and continued his nonviolent legacy to the present day. Other activists from King's inner circle continued their civil rights work, while some, like John Lewis, entered political life and continued working to realize Reverend King's beloved community.

 

Rosa Parks, President Donald Trump and the power of nonviolence.

Rosa Parks and the power of a nonviolent moment

Before the 1960 lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. there was Rosa Parks.  On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama sitting in the back of the bus [the area reserved for African Americans during Segregation] the "white" section having been filled to capacity with a white man standing the bus driver told Rosa Parks to stand up and give her seat to him.

She said "no."

Rosa Parks refused and a nonviolent moment that would generate a movement that would tear down legal segregation was mobilized. She was arrested, finger printed, photographed, jailed and fined $14 dollars for refusing to give up her seat.

Rosa Parks and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Her nonviolent action created a nonviolent moment that brought Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. into the movement and mobilized young men such as John Lewis.

Both Rosa Parks and John Lewis would live out full lives dedicated to civil rights and public service. John Lewis is currently a U.S. Congressman. Sadly, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968.

 

Coretta Scott King watches as President Reagan signs MLK Day into law

But his death, in defense of civil rights, decades later in 1983 led Ronald Reagan to declare a public holiday in King's name.  Today, President Trump on the 62nd anniversary of Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat, honored her memory and the good that she has done for the United States.

This is the power of nonviolence and its capacity for good, decades after the initial action.

62 years ago this week, a brave seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama uttered one word that changed history... pic.twitter.com/eOvCBcMIKX

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017

Brothers to the Rescue Martyrs Remembered 20 Years Later: A legacy of Love and Freedom

“There is no greater love than this: that a person would lay down his life for the sake of his friends.” – John 15:13 

 
Four men were killed when the two planes they were flying in were shot down on a Saturday afternoon at 3:21 and 3:27 on February 24, 1996 over international airspace while engaged in a search and rescue flight for Cuban rafters. Their planes were destroyed by air-to-air missiles fired by a Cuban MiG-29 aircraft on the orders of Raul and Fidel Castro. The purpose of this essay is not to analyze how they died but more importantly understand who they were and why they felt it necessary to be on those planes searching the Florida Straits for Cuban rafters despite the dangers.

Who were they?
The four individuals killed represented all aspects of the Cuban diaspora: a child who arrived with his parents from Cuba in 1960, another born in Miami Beach in 1966 and a third born in New Jersey in 1971 the children of Cuban exiles. The fourth was born in Cuba in 1966, raised there and was saved by Brothers to the Rescue when he was 26 years old while fleeing the island on a raft. Two were from Havana, one was from New Jersey and the other from Miami Beach.

The oldest of the four, Armando Alejandre Jr. born in Havana, Cuba on April 16, 1950 who was nine years old when Fidel Castro came to power. He arrived in the United States with the rest of his family at the age of 10. He graduated from high school in Miami enlisted in the military, out of gratitude for the United States providing refuge to Cubans fleeing the Castro regime, serving two tours in Vietnam. Following his military service, he attended Florida International University, which is my alma mater, and following graduation went to work in Metro-Dade Transit Agency in Miami. At the time of his death he was 45 years old leaving behind his wife of 20 years, Marlene and an 18-year-old daughter Marlene Victoria. Armando became a U.S. citizen and was a Cuban-American.

Mario Manuel de la Peña, the youngest of the four was born the township of Weehawken, New Jersey on December 28, 1971 when the Castro regime had already been in power 12 years. He was a son of Cuban exiles. Mario received his degree of Associate in Science in Professional Piloting Technology from Miami-Dade Community College at age 21. In 1996, he was completing his senior year at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. Following the shoot down, Embry Riddle conferred upon Mario the degree of Bachelor of Aeronautics honoris causa. At the time of his death he was just 24 years old and is survived by his parents and brother.

Carlos Costa was born on June 23, 1966, in Miami Beach, FL, to Cuban exiles and attended Monsignor Pace High School. He was a graduate of Embry-Riddle University of Aeronautics, where Carlos obtained a bachelor of science in airway science and was licensed as a commercial, instrument, and private pilot, as well as a flight instructor and multi-engine flight instructor. Carlos worked at Miami International Airport, where he trained employees on aviation rules and enforced Federal Aviation Administration standards. Carlos Costa was 29 years old when the shoot down occurred. Carlos is survived by his parents of Cuban origin, Mirta and Osvaldo Costa, his sister, Mirta Mendez, one niece and two nephews.

Pablo Morales was born in Havana, Cuba, on May 16, 1966 and was the same age as Carlos Costa but with a different life experience. He studied cartography and obtained a degree as a geodesics technician. In August 1992, Pablo fled Cuba on a raft and after three days at sea, was spotted in the ocean by Brothers to the Rescue. This experience motivated him to join the previously mentioned organization. He was a passenger in the aircraft with Carlos Costa when they were shot down. Pablo was survived by his mother Eva Barbas, who passed away in 2013, a sister, and a brother. He was a Cuban citizen at the time of his death with residency in the United States and was just 29 years old.

One month from today, January 24, 2016, friends and families will be observing the 20th anniversary of this terrible crime, an act of state terrorism, in which four humanitarians were murdered trying to save the lives of fleeing rafters. As this essay is being written a group of Cubans sent by the dictatorship gathered outside of the Havana headquarters of the Ladies in White, a human rights movement, in order to harass them and burn a pile of copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A document that today as in 1996 remains a taboo to possess in Cuba.

15-year-old rafter Gregorio Perez Ricardo died of dehydration in 1991

Why where they there?
Mario and Carlos were both volunteer pilots of the nonviolent and humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue. In February of 1991 news accounts of the death by dehydration of 15-year-old Gregorio Perez Ricardo, a rafter fleeing Cuba, as U.S. Coast Guard officials tried to save his life deeply touched several pilots. A 1995 monograph by academics Holly Ackerman and Juan Clark, The Cuban Balseros: Voyage of Uncertainty reported that “as many as 100,000 Cuban rafters may have perished trying to leave Cuba.” There is anecdotal evidence that some of them were victims of the Cuban border patrol who used sand bags and snipers against defenseless rafters.

It was within this context that on May 13, 1991 the previously mentioned group of pilots founded Brothers to the Rescue with the objective of searching for rafters in the Florida Straits, getting them water and food, and rescued. Armando and Pablo were observers who would fly with the pilots and look out for the rafters below. The core group of the organization was made up of 70 pilots, observers and volunteers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, England, France, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, the United States, and Venezuela.

In addition to the humanitarian mission, Brothers to the Rescue in November of 1995 took a two-day course at the Florida Martin Luther King Institute for Nonviolence and marched in the King Day parade in 1996. On February 8, 1996 The Miami Times reported “that this group has come around to the belief that change can be brought about in Cuba in the same way that it was brought about by Dr. King in the United States.” The Miami Times concluded in the editorial “Spreading King’s Message” that “In throwing Dr. King's principle into the volatile mix of Cuban exile politics, Brothers to the Rescue is showing a willingness to be creative. But it is unlikely to accomplish much until there is wider commitment in the exile community and leaders emerge who are willing to do as Dr. King did and stake their lives on their belief.”

Coretta Scott King and Jose Basulto of Brothers to the Rescue

A legacy of freedom
Armando, Mario, Carlos and Pablo risked their lives in the Florida Straits to rescue Cuban rafters and at the same time Brothers to the Rescue challenged the Cuban exile community to abandon a failed violent approach in order to embrace strategic nonviolence following the path laid out by Martin Luther King Jr. The end result was that Brothers to the Rescue saved more than 4,200 men, women, and children ranging from a five-day old infant to a 79 years old man, and the rescue of thousands of others during the refugee crisis of 1994.

Two rafters holding plastic container & letter thrown down by BTTR pilots. (BTTR Archives)

At the same time the organization served as a bridge between a nonviolent civic movement inside of Cuba and an exile community seeking a different approach after the failure of armed resistance in the 1960s and 1970s. These are the reasons why these four risked and lost so much when they were extrajudicially executed on the orders of the Castro brothers on February 24, 1996. They did not die in vain and their martyrdom is remembered inside and outside of Cuba and will continue to be so wherever free Cubans gather.