Dr. King Reflections by Rick Gillespie- Mobley
Go Back To The Mountaintop
Deuteronomy 34:1-12 Ephesians 6:10-18
Martin Luther King Jr. was first and foremost a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many of the images in his messages came from being grounded in the word of God. He used a lot of the prophets imagery for justice, for mercy, and for righteousness. The imagery he used of having a dream, can be traced to Joseph in the bible having a dream of what the future was going to be like.
In his final public address we find Dr. King saying “And I’ve looked over ---, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. --- I may not get there with you. -----But I want you to know tonight, (Yes) that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. ----- And so I’m happy tonight; I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. “
The imagery of the promised land and the mountain top come directly out of the Old Testament in Deuteronomy. God had promised to bring His people out of slavery in Egypt and to lead them to a new promised land where they would find freedom and justice, and a place to call their own.
Moses was God’s appointed leader for the people to make it to the promise land. However Moses stumbled in his leadership and God told him that he would not be able to enter the promised land. When Moses asked God for another chance, God told him, you may go up the mountain and see the promise land, but you will not be able to enter into it. Moses did in fact go up the mountain, and he saw from a distance what God had is store for the people.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had that same experience as Moses in a spiritual sense in that he saw a promised land from where he was standing. It was not just for Black People but for all people, yet knowing in his heart that he would not get to physically enter that land. .
We live in a world today in which all of our young adults 42 and under were not alive to see the world of which Dr. King began his ministry. They do not understand the official government endorsement of the Jim Crow Laws of where you could sit on a bus, which water fountain you could drink from, or not being able to pull into a hotel. Professional athletes couldn’t eat with the team. They do not know the burden of segregation, nor the unity that once existed in the Black community and the role of the Black Church in society.
Many do not understand what the big fuss was that Dr. King and other civil rights leaders seemed to be complaining about. Some youth ask if Dr. King was a real person. They do not understand the doctrines of last hired and first fired. They don’t understand that just because you have the money does not mean you can live in the neighborhood. You could be as good as Lebron James and get cut.
Some young men crazy enough to believe that if they had been around, they would have given southern sheriffs and policemen a piece of their minds if they had felt dished or disrespected.. They have no concept that in return they would have had their brains splattered against a jail wall with no one ever coming to justice for the crime and their families never knowing what happened to them.
I was born in 1956 in the heart of Ga in a little town called Dublin. It was a large agricultural place with plenty of farmlands owned by whites but worked by Negroes. Most of you never heard of Dublin, but that I discovered was intentional. The US Air Force had wanted to build a base in Dublin, but the local politicians fought against it. The base was eventually built in the city of Warner Robbins.
You may have heard of Warner Robbins AFB. It turns out, had the AFB had been built in Dublin, it would have taken too many Negroes out of the white farmer’s fields and presented them with a chance at real decent jobs. The local powers would rather keep Negroes poor and in check, than do what was best for the local area economy.
I grew up where the bathrooms were labeled men, women, and colored. I passed white and colored fountains. I remember not being able to go inside the local Dairy Queen. If business was slow, they would let you go to the side window. I remember when we got new school books, that already had kid’s names written in them. Only later did I discover those names, were the white kids who had used our new books for a few years before we got them.
I remember having to go through the backside of the Greyhound bus station, and not being able to use the more comfortable seats in the white section.
It seemed the one thing we did get that was good was sitting in the balcony at the movie theaters. The whites were down on the floor and we were upstairs. We could never go down to sit, but we paid the same amount. I remember the white city pool that they filled in and turned into a tennis court rather than let blacks swim in it with whites when segregation ended.
I remember there were plenty of school buses in Dublin, but only two of them were assigned to the Negro Schools. After you reached seventh grade, you had to pay a dime to catch the school bus. I remember a dime was a lot of money back then and it was not easy having one every day. Most of us had to walk as the school bus passed by. I remember the white sections of town had paved streets, but many of our streets would be plowed every so often to make them smooth and hard with the rich Ga red clay dirt.
I also remember there were four classes in my grade. There was the A, the B, the C and the D Group. Each class had about 25 students in them. Which means there were 50 black boys in my class in elementary and junior high school, but when it came time to graduate in the new integrated high school only 5 black males graduated.
I recall one of my first episodes with the law at age 12. It was the same year in which Dr. King was assassinated. I had gone to Woolworth’s to buy a gift. I had my money in my hand as I left the store. It was a $5 dollar bill. I went to another five and ten cent store and made a purchase with that $5 bill. On my way home, I was stopped by a police car in front of the white Methodist church. I was placed in the back seat of the car terrified. The officers kept asking me what I had done wrong that day. I was careful to say Yes sir and no sir to their questioning. I told them I had not done anything wrong.
They took me back to Woolworth’s and this little white lady came out saying, “yes that’s the one.” That’s the negra who took the money out of the cash register. I confessed my innocence and told them I had done no such thing. She insisted that there were five one dollar bills in the cash register and that I had taken them.
I told the officers they could take me to the other store, and I could prove I had given the cashier a $5 bill. They said they knew I was lying, and they’d take me to the store to prove it. When they took me to the store, the clerk admitted I had given her a $5 bill, but she added the words, “I don’t know where he got the money from.”
The police then took me to a jail cell and had me strip naked to make sure I was not hiding any more money on me. They even had me spread eagle and bend over. They then let me go, and told me they would be coming to visit my house later that day. I went home and told my brother what had happened.
My father was listening through the wall. He came into the room and asked if I was telling the truth. I said yes. He was bold enough to challenge the police on this. I didn’t realize how bold of a step that was for him at that time. It turns out after a little more searching into the facts, the five missing dollars were still in the cash register at Woolworth’s. The lady saw a black kid with money in a store and immediately thought I was a thief.
Dr. King didn’t know of my story, but he did know the story of countless thousands whose lives were being twisted, abused and destroyed through racism and segregation. He knew how our society was bent on making us feel inferior and as though we were less than human. His desire for an integrated society was rooted in that if we could just see the potential we all have, we would see that we are equal and are all capable of doing great things and even greater things together.
The only problem with the dream that Dr. King had in 1963 is that people do not want to be equal. People want to have an upper hand or an edge over others so that they can maintain some type of advantage. We are not basically good as human beings. Oppression, greed and the thirst for power do not know color boundaries. That’s why Jesus came to die for all people, that they might have life.
Here we are 45 years removed from the dream and what have we achieved. Do we really believe all men are created equal when if you’re poor and you rob a bank of $2000 you can get 15 to 20 years, but if you’re rich and rob a bank of 20 million, you can get one to 3 years and possibly even probation with a $100,000 fine. I might be willing to go to jail for 3 years if I could keep the $20 million.
What about the nation in which we are judged not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character. What do you think of if you see a three young black males walking the streets with sagging pants? Do you see a potential doctor, lawyer and teacher, or three thugs on their way to jail? Did you even inquire about the content of their character. You are going to be judged by what you wear so think like a professional. Those stupid pictures you put on MYSpace.com and facebook may keep you from the college you want to go to.
In the 60’s and 70’s we called each other sisters and brothers, and the clenched fist meant we were somehow in this thing together. I remember seeing Negroe after Negroe at protest marches with a sign saying “I Am A Man.” “I Am A Man”. “I Am A Man” They were subject to ridicule, harassment and possible beating for displaying those signs in public. A black man was called a boy, it didn’t matter how many degrees he had behind his name. We knew it was a put down. I can remember my fifty year old uncle having to say yes sir and no sir to his white boss’s 15 year old son. We insisted that we were men and we demanded to be recognized as such.
Even today, words slip into meaning that put down whole groups of people. When certain things happen, we say oh that’s so ghetto. I live in the so called ghetto, with two masters degrees and a dr. of ministry. My wife and I each earn over a $1000 a week and we don’t sell drugs to do it. I wish somebody would say, I’m just so ghetto so that others who live in the ghetto with us would do the same thing that we have done.
There are four choices you will have to make everyday to determine what your future is going to be like. You have to decide what kind of attitude you are going to have. You’ve got to decide what you’re going to do with the education that is being offered to you. You’ve got to decide what friends you are going to hang around. You’ve got to decide what you’re going to do about sex.
Some of you are going to give up great careers, just to have sex with somebody that is not going to care a thing about you two years from now. Love yourself enough to want the very best for your life. We can decide to try to live in the promised land the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr wanted us to enter. Don’t let his life or his death be in vain for you.
It is time for us to go back up on the mountaintop and do a reality check for where we are headed. Remember this, God created you, God gifted you, and God has a plan and a purpose for you. You need to get to know God, and discover what an awesome life you can by making good choices.
In the sixties when we were in the heat of segregation, my mother started to become very bitter toward whites. She had a severe toothache that was extremely painful. She went to the dentist office to get help. The lady told her, “you can’t come to this window, you have to go around to the side.” My mother looked at her, and walked out of the office in pain. Her value as a person, meant more to her, than getting help for the pain she felt.
She tried to get us to share her dislike of whites and to lean toward the more radical part of the black power movement. But I couldn’t go there. Part of my life was spent in a small community in upstate New York. Out of 17,000 people less than a 100 of us were black. There was a white kid in the sixth grade who had failed a couple of times. He hated black kids and let us know about it, His name was Bob Ackerly. Each time we saw Bob Ackerly, we ran from him in fear.
One day at Washington Street school when I was in 5th grade, my two white friends Donny Sheridan and Tim Fitzpatrick came and said, “Rick the 5th graders or going to play against the 6th graders in a football game. Do you want to play.” I said sure. When we went around the building for the game, there stood Bob Ackerly with his football in hand. I was the only black boy in fifth grade and the only black kid on the playground that day.
Bob Ackerly took one look at me and said loud enough for all to hear “Ain’t no nigga gonna touch my football.” I felt about two inches tall in complete humiliation. I turned to walk away. Then I heard some words that changed my destiny for life.
Two 10 year old kids, Donny Sheridan and Terry Fitzpatrick , said, “if he can’t touch your ball, we can’t touch it either.” They put their arms on my shoulder and we walked away together. I knew from that point on, that despite all the racism I had seen and had known about, there were some white people who had a different heart. Years later, I found Christ in a church where 99% of the members were white. What if Donny and Terry had not of spoken up, would I have ended up in the Black Muslim religion?
When you are willing to stand for Jesus Christ and come alongside of another person in their moment of crisis, you don’t know what a difference you will be making in their lives. Stand up for the person whom others ridicule, or make fun of, or laugh at, or looks different, or speaks with an accent. God loves that person just as much as God loves you.
Today you are students. Make a difference. One day you will be managers, supervisors, and presidents of corporations. Make up your mind that you will do the right thing for the cause of Christ when you make decisions that affect people’s lives.
We may have an African American president, but that did not change the hearts of many people and racism is still here today. God is calling you to do your part in making the kingdom of God what it ought to be for all people.
Don’t wait until you’re somebody to make a difference. You are where you are right now, because God wants to use you to have an impact. Two 10 year old white boys made all the difference in my life. I challenge you to go out and do the same in your battle against prejudice of all kinds. Never forget that Jesus died for us all and that all of us need Jesus.
