Montgomery was home for a while to a young
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.  Dexter Avenue
Baptist church provided him this home as a
parsonage during his tenure there.  A placque
on the lower right of the photo shows where
the home was bombed during the bus boycott.
27 year old Martin Luther King, Jr.
 made a name for himself in
Montgomery.  Church leader was
the highest position of authority
a black person could then achieve.
Coretta Scott King, who had married
a preacher, found herself in the middle
of historic social change. 
King holding a press conference.  “Nonviolence
is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without
wounding, and ennobles the man who wields it.
It is a sword that heals.”
King was arrested during the bus boycott,
handcuffed, fingerprinted, mugshot and
jailed – for driving a car 30 miles per
hour in a 25 mph zone.
King was the recipient of numerous death threats.
His youngest daughter, Yolanda, was born in
Montgomery, and King feared for her safety.
King’s kitchen, circa 1955, has been restored exactly as
 it was when he had his defining moment.  The phone rang
 at 1am – “Nigger, we’re tired of your mess.  If you aren’t
 out of this town in 3 days, we’re going to blow up your house
and blow your brains out.”  Shaken, King stared into his coffee
 and prayed out loud for courage.  He explained,
“I could hear an inner voice say to me, Martin Luther,
 stand up for truth.  Stand up for justice.
Stand up for righteousness.”  The fears ceased, but not the threats.
  The bomb landed 3 days later.

 

           

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