{"id":82128,"date":"2020-01-20T09:55:04","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T16:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=82128"},"modified":"2020-01-20T10:30:47","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T17:30:47","slug":"martin-luther-king-i-may-not-get-there-with-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/01\/martin-luther-king-i-may-not-get-there-with-you.html","title":{"rendered":"Martin Luther King: “I may not get there with you.”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MLK<\/a>
This statue of Martin Luther King, Jr., appears on the facade of Westminster Abbey in London, in a space dedicated to martyrs.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is no better way to think of Martin Luther King today than to listen to his own incomparable voice, which, if you choose, you can do here:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c5 of Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s most memorable speeches\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

His speech at the Lincoln Memorial on the Washington Mall, commonly called \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d because of its rhythmic repetition of that line, is generally reckoned his greatest. \u00a0I had not realized, though, that that line was ad libbed<\/em>, thanks to a prompt from the great Mahalia Jackson<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing about Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s greatness everyone keeps missing\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The article above pays tribute to Dr. King for his capacity and willingness to listen, which is a valuable but relatively uncommon leadership ability. \u00a0Please note especially, though, the brief but remarkable anecdote about his listening to God<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure that I would call it the greatest more-or-less political speech in American history \u2014 Lincoln\u2019s remarks at Gettysburg, for example, still astonish me as a miracle of concise eloquence \u2014 but it certainly ranks among<\/em> the very greatest:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIndiana AG Curtis Hill: On Dr. King\u2019s birthday be inspired by the greatest speech in US history\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

See also \u201cMartin Luther King and I:\u00a0Reflections on a holiday that might be better celebrated in late August.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The \u201cI Have a Dream Speech\u201d is, to say the very least of it, a marvelous piece of rhetoric. \u00a0But I\u2019m also impressed by the uncanny prescience, at least from our subsequent perspective, of Dr. King\u2019s final speech, given on 3 April 1968, the night before his assassination, in Memphis, Tennessee:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I don\u2019t know what will happen now. We\u2019ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn\u2019t matter with me now, because I\u2019ve been to the mountaintop. \u00a0And I don\u2019t mind. \u00a0Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. \u00a0Longevity has its place. \u00a0But I\u2019m not concerned about that now. \u00a0I just want to do God\u2019s will. \u00a0And he\u2019s allowed me to go up to the mountain. \u00a0And I\u2019ve looked over, and I\u2019ve seen the Promised Land. \u00a0I may not get there with you. \u00a0But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. \u00a0So I\u2019m happy tonight. \u00a0I\u2019m not worried about anything. \u00a0I\u2019m not fearing any man. \u00a0\u2018Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.\u2019\u201d \u00a0(My transcription from the video excerpt of the speech given at the first link above.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m very old. \u00a0I was fully awake and alive in 1968. \u00a0Some of you were, as well. \u00a0Many of you were not. \u00a0In either case, perhaps you will profit from hearing Senator Robert F. Kennedy\u2019s announcement of Dr. King\u2019s assassination in Indianapolis, at what had been planned as a campaign rally:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRobert F Kennedy Announcing The Death Of Martin Luther King \u2013 A Great Speech\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sixty-three days later \u2014 less than five years after the assassination of his brother, President John F. Kennedy \u2014 Senator Kennedy himself was shot to death in Los Angeles, after having just won the California Democratic presidential primary.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was a difficult, discouraging, troubling period in American history.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 There is no better way to think of Martin Luther King today than to listen to his own incomparable voice, which, if you choose, you can do here: \u00a0 \u201c5 of Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s most memorable speeches\u201d \u00a0 His speech at the Lincoln Memorial on the Washington Mall, commonly called \u201cI Have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1809,7248,7893,2905,3133,788,55,2532,7890,7887],"class_list":["post-82128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-daniel","tag-eloquence","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-martin-luther-king","tag-mormon","tag-mormonism","tag-peterson","tag-rhetoric","tag-speeches"],"yoast_head":"\nMartin Luther King: "I may not get there with you."<\/title>\n<meta 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