When you hear the name Martin Luther King Jr., four words immediately come to most people's mind, "I have a dream." But there is more to that story...
Being passionate about discovering the reality of things that interest me, and to honor the late great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on his day, I will dive into the essence of Dr. King's fundamental victory for all black people. Being aware that his name is will be resounding into our ears of our youths as well; I took this opportunity to enlighten our youths and the people who might not know of some details.
The following facts are horrific but liberating: Behind this great story of the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. King's goal of Freedom from oppression of our black brothers and sisters, were brave, bold and resilient people. They were the people who suffered the agony for the freedom most of our black brothers and sisters get to enjoy today around the world.
For approximately 200 years of being enslaved by the white people' back then, the world of our black brothers and sisters were filled with terror and pain, where the white people would occasionally snatched black people at random, usually strong black men and hanged them alive by their necks.
Not being satisfied with seeing jerky suspended bodies dangling in the air, they would aimlessly beat black people, who were afraid to fight back because of their fear of suffering worst punishment. The endless fear of violence fueled the white people's strategy of oppression for those 200 years. It made life depressing, miserable and terrifying for our black brothers and sisters. Our people were brought before courts and tried for fabricated crimes; With customary rehearsed participation of white women, our strong black brothers were accuse of assault; which could be anything from rape to not taking off one's hat in the presence of white people, to reckless eyeballing.
With the help of many other civil rights leaders, Dr. King helped to stop the above-mentioned inhumane behavior of the white people. Together they thought practices of nonviolent resistance; which entailed instructing our black brothers and sisters to do the things that they are most afraid of, which were things like going into the city and requesting to vote, even when they know that the white people would say no and will mark their faces and record their names for future punishment. Dr. King and his help instructed our brothers to go into the local restaurants and sit at the counters and order food...all the things that would have gotten our black brothers and sisters into trouble.
Dr. King and his other civil rights leaders convincingly told our black brothers and sisters that if they did it all together, they could make a change. As a result, they did just what they were told, and the white people took advantage of it and made our brothers and sisters experience the worst of the worst, collectively.
Dr. King and his colleagues continued to coached our black bothers and sisters how to take a beating from the police and withstand the attacks of the police dogs, even how to resist the fire hoses, and how to crouch, cover their heads with their arms and take the beating of the white people.
However, being astonishingly resilient, and true to Dr. King and his colleagues, our brothers and sisters, after been beaten, had dogs attacked them, had fire hoses sprayed on them, and been thrown in jail, began singing freedom songs from their jail cells.
Eventually the white people came to the realization that they were losing the battle of terrorizing black people after receiving reports of similar instances of jubilant singing from the jail cells of different towns and states, and the cruelty started to subside.
This was the harsh reality of realizing that taking a severe beating, and surviving made their fears mostly illusive which set them free. That is what happened leading up to all the profound speeches and marches led by Dr. King and his colleagues.
So the essence of Dr. King's fundamental victory should be known as "Ending the fear of living as a black person." It is because of that cause, it spiraled across the world at large and that is one of the main reason we celebrate Dr. martin Luther King Jr. day.
The message of this story for St. Maarten is that if we can confront our worst fears and live through it, we can and will achieve the kind of freedom we all are seeking.
Alias: Romeo Bravo