January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968
Celebrating A Birth: Remembering A Life
As it is written,
For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ~~ Romans 8:36-39 (KJV)
Direct link to the poem commemorating
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:
"Remembering a Life" by Nordette Adams
If you use the poem, please give the poet credit for authorship.
"They said to one another, 'Behold, here cometh the dreamer Let us slay him, And we shall see
what will become of his dreams" --Genesis 37: 19-20 ...Inscription on the plaque
at Lorraine Hotel, Memphis, TN, site of King's assassination. (The plaque is pictured above.)
Dr. King's Alma Mater, Morehouse University of Atlanta, GA,
Inherits Civil Rights Leader's Papers Collection
Click this link for story now.
"I just want to do God's will, and he's allowed me to go up to the mountain and I've looked over and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. So I'm happy tonight! I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of The Lord."
Martin Luther King Jr., words spoken the night before his assasination.
If you click the next link, you can hear Dr. King speak the words above: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s voice clip.
Listen to and read Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech here: American Rhetoric.
Recommended Links
MLKday.gov, information about the Day of Service The Civil Rights Museum in Memphis Dr. King Led An End to a Reign of Terror, by HamdenRice at the Daily Kos King's Last March, American Radio Works Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Peace Prize Recipient 1964 The President's Daily Diary: July 02, 1964 The President's Daily Diary: April 5, 1968 "The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Archive," Time Magazine Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site NY State Links for Dr. King NPR: The Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (audio) The American Experience: Eyes on the Prize, PBS The American Experience: Freedom Riders, PBS The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project @ Stanford University National Archives Digital Classroom Powerful Days: The Civil Rights Photography of Charles Moore U.S. Department of Justice King Report (assassination investigation) Everystudent.com, editorial on The Dream "Legacy of a Leader" (Scholastic Books Slide Show) On the Media: Dr. Martin Luther King and the Public Imagination Thank you Ms. Casey of Omaha Public Schools. Ms. Casey sent the creator of this website, Nordette Adams, an email warning me about a site that was previously listed here. I am not giving out the name of that deceptive site because I don't want children googling for it. The site previously listed in this spot was not a genuine Martin Luther King site. It was a fake webpage front for a white supremacist group. Instead of simply deleting the site, I decided to use its spot to warn visitors about such fake Martin Luther King sites and to also let visitors see that we still have very good reasons to teach and promote the principles Dr. King spoke of in his famous "I Have A Dream" speech. As long as people exist who promote hate, then we who want a better world for our children must promote tolerance and respect for all peoples. I understand that some of these "white supremacist/white pride" sites promote themselves as being no different from sites that promote "black pride." Their assertion is simply not true. Having pride in one's ethnic heritage is not the same as promoting one's "race" as supreme or superior to all other races and flies in the face of one of the key ideals upon which we continue to build the United States of America, "...that all men (humans) are created equal." Please visit The Declaration of Independence at The National Archives.Books and DVDs about Martin Luther King, Jr. 
Visit the website of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
on the Washington Mall
Do you know how Martin Luther King, Jr., is related to
the Fair Housing Act of 1968?
"Coretta Scott King: Quiet Strength"
(April 27, 1927-January 31, 2006)
More work by the author of the poem "Remembering A Life"
can be found by visiting
www.writingjunkie.net
The song playing on this page is "Let the River Run" by Carly Simon.
Coincidentally, Carly used to be married to James Taylor whose song
"Shed a Little Light" plays second. The third and
final song is "People Get Ready" by Curtis Mayfield.
This page was updated January 24, 2014
Thank you for your visit.
Door-yard Bloom’d
Walt WhitmanWalt Whitman Leaves of Grass. 1900.
(1819–1892).
8
O western orb, sailing the heaven!
Now I know what you must have meant, as a month since we walk’d,
As we walk’d up and down in the dark blue so mystic,
As we walk’d in silence the transparent shadowy night,
As I saw you had something to tell, as you bent to me night after night,
As you droop’d from the sky low down, as if to my side, (while the other stars all look’d on;)
As we wander’d together the solemn night, (for something, I know not what, kept me from sleep;)
As the night advanced, and I saw on the rim of the west, ere you went, how full you were of woe;
As I stood on the rising ground in the breeze, in the cold transparent night,
As I watch’d where you pass’d and was lost in the netherward black of the night,
As my soul, in its trouble, dissatisfied, sank, as where you, sad orb,
Concluded, dropt in the night, and was gone.
9
Sing on, there in the swamp!
O singer bashful and tender! I hear your notes—I hear your call;
I hear—I come presently—I understand you;
But a moment I linger—for the lustrous star has detain’d me;
The star, my departing comrade, holds and detains me.
...
12
Lo! body and soul! this land!
Mighty Manhattan, with spires, and the sparkling and hurrying tides, and the ships;
The varied and ample land—the South and the North in the light—Ohio’s shores, and flashing Missouri,
And ever the far-spreading prairies, cover’d with grass and corn.
Lo! the most excellent sun, so calm and haughty;
The violet and purple morn, with just-felt breezes;
The gentle, soft-born, measureless light;
The miracle, spreading, bathing all—the fulfill’d noon;
The coming eve, delicious—the welcome night, and the stars,
Over my cities shining all, enveloping man and land.
13
Sing on! sing on, you gray-brown bird!
Sing from the swamps, the recesses—pour your chant from the bushes;
Limitless out of the dusk, out of the cedars and pines.
Sing on, dearest brother—warble your reedy song;
Loud human song, with voice of uttermost woe.
O liquid, and free, and tender!
O wild and loose to my soul! O wondrous singer!
You only I hear......yet the star holds me, (but will soon depart;)
Yet the lilac, with mastering odor, holds me.
14
Now while I sat in the day, and look’d forth,
In the close of the day, with its light, and the fields of spring, and the farmer preparing his crops,
In the large unconscious scenery of my land, with its lakes and forests,
In the heavenly aerial beauty, (after the perturb’d winds, and the storms;)
Under the arching heavens of the afternoon swift passing, and the voices of children and women,
The many-moving sea-tides,—and I saw the ships how they sail’d,
And the summer approaching with richness, and the fields all busy with labor,
And the infinite separate houses, how they all went on, each with its meals and minutia of daily usages;
And the streets, how their throbbings throbb’d, and the cities pent—lo! then and there,
Falling upon them all, and among them all, enveloping me with the rest,
Appear’d the cloud, appear’d the long black trail;
And I knew Death, its thought, and the sacred knowledge of death.
15
Then with the knowledge of death as walking one side of me,
And the thought of death close-walking the other side of me,
And I in the middle, as with companions, and as holding the hands of companions,
I fled forth to the hiding receiving night, that talks not,
Down to the shores of the water, the path by the swamp in the dimness,
To the solemn shadowy cedars, and ghostly pines so still.
And the singer so shy to the rest receiv’d me;
The gray-brown bird I know, receiv’d us comrades three;
And he sang what seem’d the carol of death, and a verse for him I love.
From deep secluded recesses,
From the fragrant cedars, and the ghostly pines so still,
Came the carol of the bird.
And the charm of the carol rapt me,
As I held, as if by their hands, my comrades in the night;
And the voice of my spirit tallied the song of the bird.
from Nordette Adams
Another Poem for Martin Luther King Day, Simple with Rhyme
"Coretta Scott King: Quiet Strength", a poem
MLK Weekend Podcast 2006
"The Bridge and the Monument: A Tale of Two Legacies" (an article)
By Aberjhani
"Celebrating the Drum Major for Justice and Peace"
By Nordette Adams
"Remembering A Life" Read at King Celebration
"Behind the Color Blind," a poem
"Hurricanes of Roosting Birds"
a poem for New Orleans after Katrina
A special thank you and blessing to commenters.
Recommended Reading for Black History Month:
"Harlem (Dream Deferred)" by Langston Hughes
"Downloading Dad: Searching for Black History"
"Black History Month: Living American History through My Family Tree"
"How Parents and Teachers Should Teach Children About Slavery"
"Association for the Study of African-American Life and History"
Remembering the Remarkable
Rosa Parks
Advocates for Justice and Equality: The Southern Poverty Law Center
