As [Ralph] Abernathy tells it\u201d\u201cand I believe he is right\u201d\u201che and King were first of all Christians, then Southerners, and then blacks living under an oppressive segregationist regime<\/b>. King of course came from the black bourgeoisie of Atlanta in which his father, \u201cDaddy King,\u201d\u009d 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
\u201cYears later,\u201d\u009d 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\u009d 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. \u201d\u02dcThis is not my first visit,\u2019 I said. \u201d\u02dcI was born in Alabama\u201d\u201cin Marengo County.\u2019 \u201d\u02dcGood,\u2019 said Governor Wallace, \u201d\u02dcthen 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\u009d Abernathy concludes, \u201cIt was a time for reconciliations.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n