For
Whom the Bell Tolls” is a poem by John Donne, part of which reads, “No man is
an island, entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, a part of the
main “… Each man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.”
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was fond of Donne’s poem and cited it often
in his speeches and sermons. He believed strongly that, because of our innate
connectedness, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” He
surrounded himself with people like himself: people of integrity, bravery,
drive, and determination.King was not an island, and he required much from his friends — the men with whom he worked, prayed and went to jail. So, why take a look at the people with whom King kept company?
Ralph Abernathy was pastor of the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He and King organized a protest against bus segregation in 1955 after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. They also helped form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights organization that adopted the motto, “Not one hair of one head of one person should be harmed.” In the next few years, Abernathy was arrested 19 times. His autobiography, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, was published in 1989. He died on April 17, 1990.
In 1955 Andrew Young accepted a pastorate at Bethany Congregational Church in Thomasville, Georgia. Like King, he studied Mohandas Gandhi’s concept of nonviolent resistance as a tactic for social change. Also like King, he faced numerous death threats for encouraging Black people to stand up for their constitutional and civil rights. In 1972, he became Georgia’s first African-American congressman since Reconstruction. In 1976, President Jimmy Carter appointed him ambassador to the United Nations. Young wrote several books, including, A Way Out of No Way: The Spiritual Memoirs of Andrew Young and An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America.
Clarence Jones was King’s legal adviser and speechwriter. It was Jones who
delivered the famed “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” to the clergy in Birmingham
in 1963, gaining national attention for the civil rights movement. Jones said
of his friend Martin, “Except for Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation
Proclamation of 1863, Martin Luther King Jr., in 12 years and four months from
1956 to 1968, did more to achieve political, economic and social justice in
America than any other event or person in the previous 400 years. His writings
include, Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech that Transformed a
Nation, and What Would Martin Say?Because on January 15th we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. and because February is Black History Month, it is altogether appropriate to learn about the people who struggled and sacrificed side by side with Dr. King. We, too, are influenced by the people with whom we choose to associate, and certainly our children are influenced by their friends. Therefore, we can ask ourselves: Are we surrounding ourselves with people determined to advance equality, peace, and justice? Are our children?
