top of page
Martin Luther King. Become the Inspiration
Sezione 1
Sezione 2
Desire for retribution
MONTGOMERY, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. 1954
PLAY ME
We got married in 1953 in Marion, in her hometown. We were very much in love.
In college I studied with Edgar S. Brightman and L. Harold,
and at that time we lived on Massachusetts Avenue. I was happy with Coretta, we had different origins, but we were united by fundamental values about family and life. Her family came from a modest background;
her father was a carpenter and the whole family was repeatedly harassed by some racist sects. She had the same desire as me to do something concrete for her people, to fight this silence that was suffocating the black community. We went to live in Montgomery, Alabama,
where the problem of racism and intolerance towards black people was particularly acute. I served at a Baptist church on Dexter Avenue. I was enthusiastic. I accepted the position, with a salary of $4,200 a year. We were determined to fight; we no longer wanted to be judged inferior, but as citizens like everyone else,
certain that we deserved it. On 24 January 1954 I delivered my test sermon, entitled The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life. I joined the local chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and became Vice President of the Alabama Council on Human Relations. I went on to earn a doctorate in philosophy in 1955.
Sezione 3
Go back to this place
3
Desire for retribution
MONTGOMERY, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. 1954
Go on to the next place
MONTGOMERY, Downtown. 1955
Violating segregation laws
bottom of page