On reading “The Words of MLK Jr.” by Mrs. Coretta Scott King
An open letter to Dr. King and his many followers: may they grow ever stronger!
The bullet that struck you hit us, too. It entered our necks just the way it entered yours . . . silly to say as much, ain’t it?
We ain’t dead and you is, so why say it at all? Because you was our man, our conscience, our soul . . . we breathed and lived and died with you . . . we is still here and you’re not, I know that . . . but what I’m remembering, what I’m here to tell you, is this: that bullet couldn’t kill us all, you see . . .
that bullet couldn’t stop Rosa Parks from sitting down on that bus in Montgomery . . . that bullet couldn’t stop the thousands of words you gave us in your books and said in your speeches . . .
that bullet can’t kill an idea, can’t undo the words, can’t undo the actions of a million brave men and women marching and singing and praying for equal rights. Ain’t no power on earth can undo what we all done did!
We know you had to make the supreme sacrifice and we all feel right sorrowful about that . . . but we ain’t cowards and we ain’t stopping!
We is still marching on, we is still on the road you showed us, we is still learning how to live with courage and love . . . like them two Italian anarchists said, that last moment belongs to us, that final agony is our triumph! We ain’t defeated! “It takes more than guns to kill a man.” Ain’t that a song, too?
We done heard them words in the ballad of Joe Hill so many times that we done forgot how true it is! Your words was a part of you and then they became a part of us and ain’t one of them words dying or sick . . .
We ain’t gonna let them words die, that’s why! They brought light to this ol’ world and we be damn fools to let the only light we’ve seen in a long time go out and leave ourselves a-strugglin’ to swim in a sea of darkness and despair! Uh-uh!
We ain’t never gonna let that happen! We is still here Dr. King and we is not dead! And as long as we still lives, your words ain’t never gonna die neither!! We’s in this together and ain’t none of us cowards!!
