Exactly 50 years ago on this day of 4th April, 1968 Dr. Martin Luther king Jr, the American leader and minority civil rights crusader was shot dead as he stepped into the balcony of his Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
And little more than 50 years back on a Southern summer day of June 1963, not far from where I live, then Governor of Alabama George Wallace tried to block two black students from integrating into the University of Alabama. Only a month before in May he famously proclaimed - "Segregation then, Segregation now and Segregation forever".
George Wallace died unsung, not many remember him. But Martin Luther King the young African American carved his niche in world history. The Civil Rights movement picked the gauntlet since George Wallace's fallacy, gaining further steam. Can't stop admiring the man's charisma and leadership. It's said that those who teach leadership at Harvard's Business School often allude "Leaders are born, can rarely ever be made".
Dr. King was a born leader. His protests peaked followed by his iconic speech "I have a Dream, when a man will be judged not by the color of his skin, but by content of his character." Clips of his speech on YouTube still raises goose bumps. He went on further - "I have a dream, when on the Red Hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and former slave owners will be able to seat down together in tables of brotherhood". I am sure those who will be reading this feel their body hair charged and nerves shrugged off, such is the power in that speech.
The rest we know is history. Martin Luther King never saw his dream come true during his life time, as his life was cut short on that early Spring day exactly 50 years back. But a few decades down the road, his dream was realized. Not that racism has completely vanished from American soil, but it has come a long way since then, reinforced by Barack Obama getting elected the first African-American President followed by another term - something unimaginable not so long ago.
Newton's 3rd Law says - "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction". Same is applicable to human emotions. Every violent action would naturally follow with an equal or more violent reaction, often leading to a continuous, never ending cycle of revenge.
But Dr. King took a cue from India's Mahatma Gandhi (both incidentally were fell by Assassin's bullets) and decided to fight violence in an exactly opposite manner, something different and out of box called "Non-violence". The visuals of peacefully protesting unarmed Blacks being browbeaten, often bitten by police dogs brought into the American living rooms by live TV had its own impact, accentuated the Civil Rights Act.
America is known to think out of box, to cradle, nurture and rewards talent. It has been blessed by able leaderships, at crucial junctures in history. George Washington gathered a bunch of rag tag peasants to defeat the powerful British Army (incidentally America is the only country in history to have ever defeated the mighty British. General Cornwallis who led the English in the battle and later came to India as Lord Cornwallis was prudent enough to beat the retreat against the wishes of his ego soaked advisors who weren't so used to defeats, hurt by the ignominy of the reverses they suffered. But as a pragmatic leader upon seeing the tide turning against them he decided to relinquish the New Land as America was alluded to then).
Post independence, Abraham Lincoln kept the United States united after fighting a bloody Civil War. From Roosevelt who rescued America from the great recession to thrive in World War II, to the charismatic Kennedy who inspired NASA to launch man to moon and the dream continued along with the Dream of Dr. King.
My tribute to MLK - though you died tragically young at the age of 39, you vindicated that age is just a number. A short, productive life of services to mankind is far better than a long mundane, uneventful one. You are the source of inspiration to many beyond the boundaries of the land you were born. History will remember you as a harbinger of cataclysmic changes in a world beyond borders.
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