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Today I will take a deep dive into the life/legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther, King, Jr., including footage & stills, on the 90th anniversary of his birth. Along the lines of this piece I wrote, but more granular, & multi-platform: salon.com/2013/01/21/8_t…
Mike King enrolled @ Morehouse College when he was 15. There, his mates dubbed him "Tweedie", because of his manner of dressing. He played frosh football.
King's dad wanted him to marry a woman from a prominent Atlanta fam, classical singer Mattiwilda Dobbs. He actually fell in love w/ a German cafeteria staffer @ Crozier Theological Seminary. Classmates talked him out of that relationship. He argued strongly for ardor.
King had lived in the North before. He worked a couple summers as a teen, picking cotton in Connecticut. It was his first real brush with public racial integration.
When King attended BU, he lived on Mass Ave. in the nightclub section. His dad encouraged him to look up the young Reverend Michael Haynes. Haynes is drummer Roy Haynes' little brother. Daddy King knew Twelfth Street Baptist pastor Rev. William H. Hester. Haynes was asst. pastor
King befriended a small cohort of Bostonians, mostly young ministers. Sometimes he preached @ their churches. So every adult in Roxbury knew who he was. At this time, Minister Malcolm was preaching @ Temple # 11.
Mary Powell, a grad student @ The New England Conservatory Of Music, was married to a friend of Morehouse President Dr. Bennie Mays. She also knew Rev. King, Sr. & his children. At Boston U, MLK Jr asked Powell if she knew any Southern "girls".
Most of the Negro women who attended the N.E. Conservatory, cribbed @ 558 Mass Ave. My grandmother was the super there. Mrs. Powell asked MLK, Jr. to call Coretta Scott. Scott was an Antioch classmate of Carol & Rod Serling. She was an activist.
Coretta grew up in Marion, Alabama, the hometown of the Reverend Ralph David Abernathy. She knew Ralph before Martin did
Coretta Scott was a training concert vocalist. Doc came on a little strong on their first couple dates. He even came on pretty fast the first time he called the dorm. Rapping about Napoleon & Waterloo. CORETTA: "You haven't even met me"
'course, third date, he's made up his mind this is who he wishes to marry. As you know, she didn't want to be heavily romantically involved w/ a minister. She wanted to perform her craft. And be an activist. He low key proposed though. Topic came up. Daddy King was no Corie fan
...early on. Fam not prominent enough to him. You know, Dr. King got married in Boston. Doc was lefthanded. Smoked cigarattes. Was very funny. Shot a decent stick of pool. All Black Baptist preachers can carry a tune. I'd have killed to have heard him sing in the sanctuary.
Dr. King and his buddy Reverend Mike Haynes: 
When JFK was murdered, Doc told Coretta "That is how I am going to go". He flew to DC when mourners lined the city's streets for miles to view the president lying in state. King was disappointed people did not recognize him in public.
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on President Kennedy's death (and his own mortality):
Dr. King was inspired (at the risk of Movement alliances, funding, & dialogue w/ Pres. Johnson) to speak out against the U.S. military involvement in Viet Nam, when The Champ refused to enter the draft.
For seven months in 1966, Dr. King lived in Chitown, in The Community, @ 1550 S. Hamlin Ave. He & his aides were disappointed the city fixed the apartment up a bit before his fam moved in.
Doc said one difference in living in Lawndale, was that his children became more irritable in the smaller space:
The Chitown Period:
Doc in Lawndale:
The Gage Park open housing march in Chicago:
April 4, 1968:
4/4/68, @ABC version:
Dr. King on "Meet The Press":
On "The Merv Griffin Show". He was 38:
It was Ella Baker who suggested King found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She also proposed college kids form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
