MLK

Today is the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday. Schools are closed, as are government offices. It is, and should be, a day to reflect on his remarkable life. I am thankful that my parents taught me not to see color...nor race....nor to judge people on this basis. I vividly remember coming home from school in 1971 and saying the "N" word in front of my mother....I had met a young man at school who was black. She looked at me and shook her head. "We don't use that word. That's a bad word." I asked "why?" Other kids at school called him that. She said again..."It's a bad word. Don't ever say that word again." Well, I said it again to see what happened. I was immediately grounded and sent to my room.
That is a small sample of the grace and love that my parents tried to instill in me. The color of a person's skin does not matter....period. They both came from and grew up in the segregated world of America with parents who did not believe in equality of the races. But somehow they emerged from that upbringing with a different view, and by the time I came along they were ready to teach me not to be a racist. I am thankful for many things in my life...and that moment I just told you about is one of the most important to me. This was three years after MLK Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. My parents shared the words of MLK with me...his message of equality and fairness. His dream. Those words still echo in my mind.
My son Jack went to Memphis with his girlfriend Kylie last summer....her grandmother lives there. When they came back, he could not stop talking about their visit to the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel. He brought back a poster that he had framed and I could tell that what he experienced there had a profound affect on him. I must go there too.
I tried to teach my children the same thing my parents taught me about race. They don't see color when it comes to people. They just see people.
John Coltrane is one of my favorite jazz musicians of all time. He was deeply moved by Dr. King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, and later that year wrote a song called Alabama to eulogize the 4 children killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham by the KKK. This is a musical interpretation of Dr. King's eulogy...a very powerful and evocative response to hatred.

In 1966, Coltrane recorded a song called Reverend King that appeared on his 1968 album Cosmic Music. Here is a great interpretation of it with a photo montage of Dr. King.

Lastly, here is some additional background about both from Joseph Ross:
https://josephross.net/?p=2380