Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord” (King, “ I’ve Been ,” 222 –223). And so I’m happy tonight I’m not worried about anything I’m not fearing any man. In a prophetic finale to his speech, King revealed that he was not afraid to die: “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life-longevity has its place. He exclaimed that he would have missed the emergence of the student sit-ins in 1960, the Freedom Rides in 1961, the Albany Movement in 1962, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, and the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965. As King concluded his speech, he began to reminiscence about his near fatal stabbing in September 1958. Surveying great times in history, including Egypt, the Roman Empire, the Renaissance, and the Civil War, King said he would “be happy” if God allowed him “to live just a few years in the second half of the twentieth century” (King, “ I’ve Been ,” 209).Īs King recalled the events in Birmingham in 1963, he painted a bleak picture of the times, yet said this was the best time in which to live. “Something is happening in our world” (King, “ I’ve Been ,” 207).
“Something is happening in Memphis,” King said. After Abernathy introduced King, the 39-year-old leader took the podium and began to speak to the audience extemporaneously. When King arrived, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. Abernathy called King at the hotel and convinced him to brave the bad weather and come down to the temple. As Abernathy took the podium he could sense the disappointment of the crowd, which had turned out in the hundreds to hear King speak. He asked Ralph Abernathy to take his place at that night’s scheduled mass meeting at Bishop Charles Mason Temple. Against the advice of his colleagues in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King returned to Memphis on 3 April 1968, seeking to restore nonviolence back to the movement in Memphis.Īfter arriving in Memphis, King was exhausted and had developed a sore throat and a slight fever. James Lawson and King led a march on 28 March, which erupted in violence and was immediately called off. On 18 March, he spoke at a rally before 15,000 people and vowed to return the following week to lead a march. King had come to Memphis two times before to give aid to the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike. Less than 24 hours after these prophetic words, King was assassinated by James Earl Ray. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land” (King, “ I’ve Been,” 222–223). “But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop … I’ve seen the Promised Land.
“We’ve got some difficult days ahead,” Martin Luther King, Jr., told an overflowing crowd in Memphis, Tennessee, on 3 April 1968, where the city’s sanitation workers were striking.
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