3. Coming Up

1	There was born in Atlanta, a  pastor's son
	on January 15th in 1929; one
	raised up by a father who could not stand
	the bigotry and segregation he saw in the land.

2	He was a fighter and his son became
	one who hated injustice the same.
	They called him Michael Lewis until he was grown,
	when he took his father's name as his own.

3	One day as young Martin rode in the car,
	Reverend King accidentally drove too far
	through a stop sign and a policeman
	told him to pull his car over, and 
	
4	then he said to the Reverend, "All right, boy,
	let me see you license." "This is a boy,"
	Revered King responded, pointing to his son,
	"I am a man, and until you call me one,

5	I will not listen to you." And, surprised,
	the policeman wrote the ticket and left more wise.
	But this was the way young Martin was raised,
	and it would show in his adult days.

6	As a child, segregation he came to know
	and saw the violence which would grow
	out of it -- he saw the Klan ride at night
	to deal with anyone who might try to fight.

7	In school, young King was brilliantly keen.
	He skipped two grades, and when he was fifteen
	he entered Morehouse College. He wasn't sure then
	what he wanted to be when his studies would end.

8	He did know he wanted to help, in some way,
	his people, but he did feel in those days
	that religion was out of touch with the needs
	and problems of his people. For a time, indeed,

9	he thought that he would study the law.
	But in two of his teachers at Morehouse, he saw
	ministers who showed him that religion could be concerned
	about things like segregation and poverty. He learned

10	thus, that it was a minister he wanted to be.
	He became his father's assistant, and then he
	graduated from Morehouse when he was nineteen.
	Perhaps he would do something about the world he had seen.

11	But young Martin wanted to study even more
	and he entered a Pennsylvania school for
	religious training where there were only
	six black members of the student body.

12	Martin's mother had always told him that he
	was as good as anyone, and so it was he
	worked hard to prove it -- he excelled greatly,
	winning his doctorate with honors -- cum laude.

13	All this while, he pondered just how he might
	contribute to his people in their great fight
	to throw off the shackles and oppression weighlay.
	Young Martin was beginning to see a way.

4. Finding a Way

1	In college, Martin had read an essay
	by one eccentric named Thoreau in which he did say
	that a man had the right to disobey any law
	that was evil or unjust or against moral law.

2	Henry David Thoreau at one time did not pay
	his taxes as a protest against the way
	the country permitted slavery and had waged
	the war against Mexico -- his soul was enraged.

3	For this transgression, he was put in jail.
	When friends came to visit him, Henry would tell
	them to their queries as to why he was there,
	"What are you doing out of jail?" he'd answer.

4	King read about Marx and his revolution,
	but rejected his world without God, and in sum,
	rejected the idea he expressed about man,
	without free will, an animal -- Marx did not understand.

5	But in his quest, he one day heard a speech
	by the great leader of India, Gandhi, which reached
	deep in his soul -- for Gandhi had won
	freedom for his country from England without guns.

6	From the start he told his people not to resort
	to violence, but to resist them by all sorts
	of peaceful means. They would march or strike
	or boycott or sit-down in order to fight.

7	Like Thoreau, he believed that men should gladly go
	to jail when they break unjust laws, and so
	he said, "Fill the jails." Violence would bring
	only more hate and violence issuing.

8	Gandhi told his people to meet body force
	with soul force. And he told them, in course,
	to meet hate with love. And India gained,
	with his help, freedom. Could King do the same?

9	He would reject Gandhi's bias against machines,
	but wasn't his nonviolence just what Jesus means
	when he tells his people to turn the other cheek
	if someone strikes you? That's not being weak.

10	No, King would say, it would take even more
	courage to do that than to hit back -- he was sure.
	This idea of nonviolence would permeate his life.
	When he graduated, he made Coretta Scott his wife.

11	Then he became minister of a church in Montgomery
	in Alabama, the job he had wanted to see.
	King's life now was busy and full, but his goal
	was to do much more than care for members' souls.

12	He wanted his church to help the young go to school
	and register black people to vote. King said his rule
	of religion was to care about heaven and earth;
	both souls and slums -- about a man's worth.

13	His congregation liked his ideas and ways
	and put them in action, and grew day by day.
	Meanwhile, he studied for another degree;
	very soon, Dr. King is what he would be.


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