{"id":142716,"date":"2026-01-19T17:32:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T22:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=142716"},"modified":"2026-01-20T06:35:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T11:35:54","slug":"1st-things-richard-john-neuhaus-remembering-and-misremembering-martin-luther-king-jr-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=142716","title":{"rendered":"(1st Things) Richard John Neuhaus: Remembering, and Misremembering, Martin Luther King Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As Abernathy tells it\u2014and I believe he is right\u2014he and King were first of all Christians, then Southerners, and then blacks living under an oppressive segregationist regime<\/strong>. King of course came from the black bourgeoisie of Atlanta in which his father, \u201cDaddy King,\u201d had succeeded in establishing himself as a king. Abernathy came from much more modest circumstances, but he was proud of his heritage and, as he writes, wanted nothing more than that whites would address his father as Mr. Abernathy. He and Martin loved the South, and envisioned its coming into its own once the sin of segregation had been expunged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYears later,\u201d Abernathy writes that, \u201cafter the civil rights movement had peaked and I had taken over [after Martin\u2019s death] as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,\u201d he met with Governor George Wallace. \u201cGovernor Wallace, by then restricted to a wheel chair after having been paralyzed by a would-be assassin\u2019s bullet, shook hands with me and welcomed me to the State of Alabama. I smiled, realizing that he had forgotten all about Montgomery and Birmingham, and particularly Selma. \u2018This is not my first visit,\u2019 I said. \u2018I was born in Alabama\u2014in Marengo County.\u2019 \u2018Good,\u2019 said Governor Wallace, \u2018then welcome back.\u2019 I really believe he meant it. In his later years he had become one of the greatest friends the blacks had ever had in Montgomery. Where once he had stood in the doorway and barred federal marshals from entering, he now made certain that our people were first in line for jobs, new schools, and other benefits of state government.\u201d Abernathy concludes, \u201cIt was a time for reconciliations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read it all<\/a> (my emphasis).<\/p>

It\u2019s a tragedy that 60 years later most American students can\u2019t even understand MLK or why his writing and speaking were so powerful.

He brought the entire weight of the Western, Christian, classical tradition to make his case. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail King casually\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/vrtdMlgEzU<\/a><\/p>— Jeremy Wayne Tate (@JeremyTate41) January 19, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote>