Day 4 Experiences

0 Commentsby   |  05.19.11  |  Announcements

In addition to meeting James Zwerg, Day 4 in Montgomery was packed full of other powerful experiences.

Before meeting James we started the day at the Greyhound bus station where the attacks occurred against James and the other Nashville Freedom Riders.

Greyhound Bus Station where the Nashville Freedom Riders were attacked

ACU Freedom Riders at the Greyhound Bus Station

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Freedom Rides, the Montgomery Historical Society is turning the bus station into a museum. The museum opens tomorrow, but the Society was kind enough to let us in a bit early. The museum was about 90% ready, which allowed some ACU Freedom Riders the chance to help get the actual Freedom Rider museum ready!

After our time at the bus station we went over to the Embassy Suites to meet and visit with James Zwerg.

After our visit with James we went to the Dexter Avenue Church, the church Martin Luther King, Jr. preached at during the Montgomery bus boycott. Dexter was King’s first church.

ACU Freedom Riders in Dexter Avenue Church

After touring the church we visited the Dexter Parsonage, the home of the King family during their time in Montgomery.

ACU Freedom Riders going into the King's home

A highlight of visiting the parsonage is the King’s kitchen.

The whirlwind of events surrounding the boycott had largely caught King unawares. When he went to Dexter King was mainly looking for a quiet place to finish his dissertation and, perhaps, move into a life as a college professor after a stint in the ministry. King was an intellectual, and he wanted to lead a quiet academically-oriented life.

But then Rosa Parks happened and he found himself, as the newcomer in Montgomery (all the other pastors had too much water under the bridge with each other), elected President of the Montgomery Improvement Association. By accident, fate, or providence King found himself at the center of the advent of the Civil Rights movement.

But then the death threats started coming. Threats on his life and his family’s. Slowly the fear began to overwhelm this academically inclined 26 year old. He really hadn’t signed up for this.

Around midnight on January 27, 1956 the parsonage phone rang. King answered it and heard a low voice say: “Nigger, we’re tired of your mess. And if you aren’t out of this town in three days, we’re going to blow up your house and blow your brains out.”

Shaken, King tried to go to back to sleep. His wife and 10 week old baby girl, Yolanda, were asleep nearby. But King couldn’t rest.

So he got up and went to the kitchen where he made himself some coffee. Something in the voice on the phone scared him. This call wasn’t a mere threat, it was serious. And King was rightly worried about his baby girl getting killed. Or getting killed himself and leaving her fatherless.

As the coffee brewed and the fears pressed in King sat at his kitchen table and prayed:

“Lord, I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.”

And in that moment, sitting at his kitchen table, King had the most profound experience of his religious life. In the middle of that dark kitchen, alone and scared, King heard an “inner voice” speak to him:

“Martin Luther, stand up for truth. Stand up for justice. Stand up for righteousness. God will be at your side forever.”

And with that assurance, King’s fears lifted. His courage returned. And in that moment he firmly committed his life to the path of Civil Rights, even as his house was indeed bombed three days later. No matter, God had called him and he had answered.

Our final stop of the day was the Rosa Parks museum. The museum is run by Troy University and is built on the location where, on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat, the event that made her the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.”

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