MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
FROM "STRENGTH TO LOVE"
But alas! Science cannot now rescue us, for even the scientist is lost
in the terrible midnight of our age.
This midnight in man's external collective life is paralleled by midnight
in his internal individual life.
He who feels that he is not loved feels that he does not count.
A weary world, pleading desperately for peace, has often found the church
morally sanctioning war.
It is to their everlasting shame that white Christians developed a system
of racial segregation within the church, and inflicted so many indignities
upon its Negro worshipers that they had to organize their own churches.
The weary traveler by midnight who asks for bread is really seeking the
dawn. Faith in the dawn arises from the faith that God is good and just.
At the beginning of the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, we set up
a voluntary car pool to get the people to and from their jobs. For eleven
long months our car pool functioned extraordinarily well. Then Mayor Gayle,
introduced a resolution instructing the city's legal department to file
such proceedings as it might deem proper to stop the operation of the
car pool or any transportation system growing out of the bus boycott.
A hearing was set for Tuesday November 13, 1956.
At our regular weekly mass meeting, scheduled the night before the hearing,
I had the responsibility of warning the people that the car pool would
probably be enjoined. I knew they had willingly suffered for nearly twelve
months, but could we now ask them to walk back and forth to their jobs?
And if not, would we be forced to admit that the protest had failed? For
the fist time I almost shrank from appearing before them.
When the evening came, I mustered sufficient courage to tell them the
truth. I tried, however, to conclude on a note of hope. "We have
moved all of these months," I said, "In the daring faith that
God is with us in our struggle. The many experiences of days gone by have
vindicated that faith in a marvelous way. Tonight we must believe that
a way will be made out of no way." Yet I could feel the cold breeze
of pessimism pass over the audience. The night was darker than a thousand
midnight's. The light of hope was about to fade and the lamp of faith
to flicker.
A few hours later, before Judge Carter, the city argued that we were
operating a "private enterprise" without a franchise. Our lawyers
argued brilliantly that the car pool was a voluntary "share-a-ride"
plan provided without profit as a service by Negro churches. It became
obvious that Judge Carter would rule in favor of the city.
At noon, during a brief recess, I noticed an unusual commotion in the
courtroom. Mayor Gayle was called to the back room. Several reporters
moved excitedly in and out of the room. Momentarily a reporter came to
the table where, as chief defendant, I sat with the lawyers. "Here
is the decision that you have been waiting for, " he said. "read
this release."
In anxiety and hope I read these words: "the United States Supreme
Court today unanimously ruled bus segregation unconstitutional in Montgomery,
Alabama." My heart throbbed with an inexpressible joy. The darkest
hour of our struggle had become the first hour of victory.
The dawn will come. Disappointment, sorrow, and despair are born at midnight,
but morning follows.
.
(from the chapter on the foolish rich man)
Nothing in wealth is inherently vicious, and nothing in poverty is inherently
virtuous.
Religion at its best realizes that the soul is crushed as long as the
body is tortured with hunger pangs and harrowed with the need for shelter.
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