When the society gropes in the dark, the world gives birth to its great men and women. Martin Luther King was no exception who gave nothing less than his life for the movement dreaming a way out of the long night of captivity of the African Americans. King’s kingdom was the lonely island of poverty where his people languished.
America is a democracy. The democracy often promises a lot and practices a little. Earlier the colonization ended up in marginalization of the poor African Americans. In some sense, American democracy was built brick by brick upon the burial ground of the aborigines.
The long, still unending road to emancipation of Black has more than enough milestones of martyrs from legendary Lincoln to Kennedy to King, and still moving on and on. King, who found his seer in Mahatma Gandhi, believed an armed movement would do harm in a democracy. An hardcore practitioner of non-violence, Gandhiji had even withdrawn his call for the Non-cooperation Movement when a police station attack by the protesters resulted in the loss of some lives. King did the same when the protestors of Memphis march went wrong slipping into the violence. Similarities among them are many, but unforgettable is the way they were put to eternal rest by their own people whom they loved beyond their own life. To the people of America, Dr. King was a ‘stone of hope in the mountain of despair’. His words and deeds travelled in the same wavelength landing straight into the hearts of millions across the world.
Here are my reflections on the reading of ‘Coretta’ by Octavia Vivian, the biography of Coretta Scott King, the wife of Dr.Martin Luther King. The writer is also Coretta’s comrade in her human right movements. In ‘Coretta’, Octavio Vivian brings to light the revolutionary in Coretta, her role in the movement and in the ephemeral life of Dr. King. Coretta has proved herself an avatar of all virtues, walking behind, often along, and sometimes ahead of Dr.King. Without a Coretta, a perfect King was impossible. If marriages are made in heaven, its true King and Coretta were made for each other.
The most difficult situation an activist’s wife faces is when the husband is put in jail; she has to answer the questions of the kids sprouting from their belief that jails are for bad people. Can one tell the kids that living a good life is dangerous and it is the shortcut to prison? What struggle Dr. King had done outside, Corretta had to fight it inside taking her kids in to confidence. Later, after they lost their Dad, once she was under the threat of a possible arrest. When she shared the news with Marty, he cried, “Now I don’t have a mummy or daddy”. Often she had to repeat Kings Words to kids “if a man had nothing that was worthy of dying for, then he was not fit to live”. She too lived the rest of her life, in the eternal and emotional memories of King and for his visions of a better tomorrow. “I would wake up in the morning, have my cry, then go to them(children)”, once she told to people magazine. Writer well portrays the dilemma of a lover, mother and an activist in her lucid style of narration.
The worst in life in a democracy to live under the shadow of death for political reasons and The King family lived that life. Once their home was bombed and it was a miraculous escape for Coretta and her kids. Later, King survived the mortal knife of an insane women thrust into his chest. The life never persuaded Coretta away from her precarious missions. She treated him the man of masses more than her man and father of her four pretty kids. In some sense, the movement molded Coretta’s visions and she held high the societal concerns well above the security of the family, not everyone can do, but some born great. She always hoped for the best and was really prepared for the worst, after entering into the life of Dr.King.
Ms. Vivian unearths the Senator and later President John F Kennedy’s empathy for the King’s movement, and the rest is left for the reader to imagine why the President Kennedy was shot. And later we see the Senator, Robert Kennedy attending the funeral of Dr. King “peeling off his suit coat and to the delight of thousands, marched and sang in the second part of the funeral, a five mile march from Ebenezer to Morehouse, were the third part of the funeral was held.” In just two months, Coretta had to fly to California to comfort Ethel Kennedy; Robet Kennedy shot dead. All who were restless for a cause were put to eternal rest by the same bullet, which was never supposed to happen in a democracy.
When Dr. King was arrested on a Good Friday and not even hearing from him on Easter Sunday Coretta was panic stricken, and soon collapsed not knowing what happened to her dearie. We see the same Coretta metamorphosing to a great women standing near the body of her darling and addressing the land tearless and fearless, commanding the movement in his absence. She had made up her mind for the worst to happen and it did. As the writer put it, she had once said to her friend, “I did not just marry a man, I married a destiny”. Though she had her kids living with the sweet memories of their legendary father who left behind nothing but a legacy of visions, she made all out attempts for materialising Kings’ dreams.
A biography is never treated a sublime work of art, but is when the reader feels missing it would be a loss. So Octavia Vivian has made a remarkable contribution to human rights movements over the globe by bringing Coretta out of the shadows of Dr. King, may be this an oriental opinion, to whom Dr. King was familiar from school days and Coretta not. I have recommended many of my friends that Coretta is a must read biography, especially my female friends who often curse the darkeness and never try to light a candle themselves. The biography with 124 pages has many advantages, fit for a trans-atlantic reading concept in west and one-sit reading habit of east.
She had trenchant reflections on social issues, from gay lesbian issues to US spending of taxpayers money on Arms. Once Coretta told the US audience, “America is more democratic nation, a more just nation, a more peaceful nation because Martin Luther King Jr. became the preeminent non-violent commander”. Let the nation reach further heights and as King dreamt let justice roll down like waters. Let us hope at least King and Coretta’s grandchildren would be judged “not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character”.
