his wife and baby daughter --*****, we are tired of you and your mess
now. And if you aren't out of this town in three days, we're going to
blow your brains out and blow up your house.-- As Martin Luther King
recalled it later:
I got to the point that I couldn't take it any longer. I was weak.
Something said to me, you can't call on Daddy now, he's up in Atlanta a
hundred and seventy-five miles away. You can't even call on Mama now.
You've got to call on the something in that person that your Daddy used
to tell you about, that power that can make a way out of no way.
And I discovered, then, that religion had become something real to me
and I had to know God for myself. And I bowed down over that cup of
coffee. I will never forget it. I prayed a prayer and I prayed out loud
that night. I said, --Lord, I'm down here trying to do what's right. I
think I'm right. I think the cause that we represent is right. But,
Lord, I must confess that I'm weak now. I'm faltering. I'm losing my
courage. And I can't let the people see me like this, because if they
see me weak and losing my courage, they will begin to get weak.--
And it seemed, at that moment, that I could hear an inner voice saying
to me, --Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for
justice. Stand up for truth. And, lo, I will be with you, even unto the
end of the world.-- I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on.
He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone.
No, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.
The King house was bombed several nights later, as King addressed the
congregation at Ralph Abernathy's First Baptist Church. In his own
words, King --accepted the word of the bombing calmly. My relig
.
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