January marks the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. Dr. King, known the world over as a civil rights icon, who advocated non-violent protest, had a special relationship with the city of New Orleans.
In a recent interview with the New Orleans Healing Center, Charlie Johnson, special curator for the New Orleans African American Museum’s 14th annual exhibition celebrating Dr. King’s legacy observed that Dr. King would come to the city to meet with ministers and leaders here, people like Reverend A.L. Davis, and others. It was here that he was asked to assume leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Mr. Johnson went on to explain that the history of New Orleans made it different than a lot of other cities in the U.S. at the time. “There was always a climate of militancy in New Orleans,” he said. “Groups of individuals, particularly a lot of the free people of color, fought against injustice because they weren’t about to accept being treated as less than equal.”
Dr. Nikki Brown, a history professor at the University of New Orleans, spoke to the other side of that equation. “There was certainly an element in the hierarchy in New Orleans at that time that resisted any change to race relations and felt that African Americans were being treated well.” Dr. King fought against that power structure all through his civil rights career but Dr. Brown points out that it’s important to consider Dr. King, not as a static icon but rather as someone who evolved during the course of the Civil Rights Movement itself. “In the early 60s, Dr. King faced pressure from other elements of the Movement that were skeptical about his non-violence principles,” Dr. Brown explained. “And ultimately he was just as influenced by his opponents as he was by the people who supported him.”
The New Orleans Healing Center commemorates Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this weekend with a series of videos documenting his life that will be shown at Café Istanbul starting at 2:00pm, Saturday, January 14, prior to the Saints vs. 49ers game.