The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr., is affectionately known as “Daddy King.” I have known and loved Daddy King since I first met him in Ebenezer Church when I came to Atlanta to work with his son, Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1961. I have heard Daddy King preach in that church many times in the years since then, and I have also been present on numerous occasions when he was listening to his son (who was also his copastor) preach from the Ebenezer pulpit. When Martin was preaching, Daddy King would often interject, “Make it plain, son! Make it plain!”
Daddy King’s sense of urgency that things be made plain is at the heart of this book. Here he makes plain what it was like to grow up in the South in those early days and to fight for justice for himself and for other blacks who wanted to be “free at last.” The son of a poor sharecropper in Georgia, Daddy King worked and prayed to get an education and make his mark on the history of his native land.
As a leading Baptist minister and a civic leader, Daddy King has helped to shape the destiny of Atlanta, of Georgia, of the South, and of the nation. His voice has been heard in pulpits and other public platforms across the land, exhorting his fellow Americans to strive fearlessly and tirelessly for freedom and justice. His ministry laid a firm foundation from which his son could build the civil rights movement of the Sixties.
Martin Luther King, Jr., grew up hearing his father preach against the injustices of a segregated society. The dynamic cadences of black Baptist oratory were in his blood. Speaking out against injustice was a way of life in Martin’s family. He took it for granted that you didn’t let people push you around. He and other Southerners had been hearing these ideas from his father and grandfather, the Reverend A. D. Williams, for many years. When Martin began his own ministry as a very young man with a doctorate in philosophy from Boston University, he might have been regarded with considerable skepticism by black Baptist pastors. Too much education was often threatening to a clergy that had been denied similar opportunity. But he was the son of the Reverend M. L. King, Sr., and this fact bred confidence that he would speak with truth and moreover would be ready to practice what he preached.
Daddy King practiced what he preached. He saw education and economic security as absolute necessities for survival in this world and he preached it as though his law included twelve commandments which black people need to obey for these times: “Thou shalt get thy children to college,” and “Thou shalt own thy own home.”
It was Daddy King’s deep belief in the value of education which set Martin’s educational course through Morehouse College, Crozer Seminary, and a Boston University Ph.D. Home ownership was also especially important to the son of a sharecropper. In addition to verbal encouragement, Daddy King also used his influence to assist members of his congregation in the practical aspects of getting together the required amount of money to enter the ranks of homeowners.
Not only members of his congregation but other citizens with problems were always coming to Daddy King for assistance. Whether it was finding a job, or temporary housing. Sometimes it was trouble with school authorities, the police, or lending institutions. It could have been insulting behavior in a store or refusal of treatment at a hospital. People turned to Daddy King for help because they knew that he cared, that he was fearless, and that he would take action. In these confrontations with white power structures, Daddy King would typically start at the top. “I don’t want to waste time,” he would say. “I need to see the top man. Who’s in charge around here?”
Martin Luther King, Jr., grew up seeing his father constantly on the battlefront, standing up for his rights and those of others, and making it plain that he was a child of God who believed in human dignity for himself and for all of God’s children. Daddy King’s every act of bravery helped to strengthen Martin’s own determination to fight fearlessly for freedom and justice.
In these pages you will find evidence of another lifelong theme of this child of a segregated society. “Don’t hate,” was the message he constantly gave to his congregation and to the members of his family. In spite of all the indignities Daddy King suffered as a child and as a young man, and in spite of all the suffering he endured as the head of a family cut down by the death of both sons and the mother of his children (only his daughter Christine remains), he has refused to let himself be dragged down to hatred. “I love everybody,” he often says. “Nobody is going to make me hate.”
I was present when he gathered his grandchildren together just after the funeral of his beloved wife, whom we called “Mama King” and whom he called “Bunch.” Mama King had been shot down by a psychopath in Ebenezer Church as she was playing “The Lord’s Prayer” on the organ. Daddy King had already lost Martin to an assassin’s bullet and Alfred Daniel, called A.D., in a drowning accident. Losing his life companion after these other tragedies might have broken a lesser man. But not Daddy King.
Some of his grandchildren were asking, “Why? Why did God let this happen?” In their grief they were trying to make sense out of this latest blow to their family. They called their grandmother “Big Mama.” Through the tears the questions came forth. “Why did God let that crazy man kill Big Mama? Why do all these terrible things happen to our family? Why?”
These were hard questions, but Daddy King did not waver in his faith. He let his grandchildren express their bitterness and cry their tears. His counsel to them, however, was clear and unequivocal.
“I know it’s hard to understand, but we have to give thanks for what we have left. God wants us to love one another and not hate.”
His grandchildren were asking the questions that Job asked, and Daddy King was answering them with the faith of the prophets.
After nearly three hours of family dialogue, during which everyone had a chance to air his or her feelings—Martin and Coretta’s four children, A.D. and Naomi’s five, and Christine and Isaac Farris’s two—Daddy King led everybody in prayer. At the end, he said to them, “Now get out of here, and remember: Don’t ever stoop so low that you let anybody make you hate.”
Martin Luther King, Jr., was the son of this giant of a man. People will understand Martin better after reading this book about his father. They are hewn from the same mighty oak. Martin grew up in the church, and his whole life was an expression of his sense of ministry—reaching out to the poor and the oppressed, the children of God who needed someone to help them get over into the promised land.
The life of Martin Luther King, Sr., is more than a model which helps to explain the life and ministry of Martin Luther King, Jr. Daddy King’s life is a source of inspiration for all of us who join hands in brotherhood, who value integrity, commitment, and courage, and who, like Daddy King, believe that God meant for all of his children to love one another. The task for each of us is to “Make it plain!”
—THE HONORABLE ANDREW J. YOUNG,
Former Ambassador of the U.S. to the United Nations;
President, Young Ideas, Inc.