South Bend, April 7, 1968
The Assassination in Memphis
The brutal assassination of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee, set off a wave of outrage in all parts of the population. A profound sorrow and sadness has taken hold of the entire country. On this Sunday of prayer and day of national mourning faces have turned more serious – more serious because of the shock and a sense of shame at what happened as well as an uneasy feeling about the future. Nonviolence, which King preached, appears losing ground. In the blind uproar of recent days, the inner cities of Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, and in a number of other places were set ablaze and looted. For a time it seemed as if civil war had broken out. With the intervention of the National Guard quiet and order have temporarily been restored.
The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., is a national tragedy that opens new wounds in the tense relationship between White and Black. With Martin Luther King the black minority in America has received its martyr.
[The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-68) was a Baptist minister and the President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King fought for the Civil Rights Movement as an advocate of nonviolence; he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. In 1983, January 15, the birthday of Martin Luther King, was declared a national holiday in America.]
April 8 - 18, 1968
The Easter Journey to Georgia
[For some time, a journey to Georgia had been planned to visit friends in Atlanta and to give a guest lecture at the University of Georgia in Athens.]
To travel with the family to Atlanta, immediately after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., seemed to be a risky undertaking. However, the agreed upon date for a guest lecture at the University of Georgia in Athens left no other choice. Driving by car through Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee to Georgia, we traveled over a distance of 800 miles. Although a certain tense situation could be felt, the South remained distinctly quiet. The National Guard had not been mobilized, and there were no road blocks on highways or other signs of an emergency. The South is not a region inclined to social unrest. Riots are usually of a local nature and the work of fanatics or individuals running amok. When we arrived on Good Friday in Chattanooga, Tennessee, an obviously berserk individual had run into the city hall and shot the deputy mayor. A curfew was issued for the city. But there were no disturbances during the night. In our hotel we were well taken care of and safe as passing travelers. Anyway, in those critical days the South was more composed and calmer, to a certain extent less involved than the outside world, especially the news media in Europe, had made to believe. There is one thing one should not lose sight of: The South is an agrarian region with a conservative, persevering way of life. In this regard, little will change for a long time to come. The social separation of the two races is deep-rooted in this way of life. Although considerable progress has already been made in a big city like Atlanta, where Whites and Blacks fill up their shopping carts in a super market next to each other unconcerned, where they sit side by side in a restaurant and use undisturbed the same public transportation, a deep social chasm between them still exists.
The American South should not be seen and judged on the race issue alone. The South is very hospitable, a gracious way of living with an aristocratic elegance that otherwise is rarely met with elsewhere in the United States. On the one hand, Atlanta represents the wealth and splendor of the Old South, and on the other, it has developed into a modern metropolis. At this time of the year, a blooming forest of azaleas surrounds the Governor’s Mansion with palace-like estates in its midst, while in the center of the city a new skyline is rising similar to Rockefeller Center.
Memorial plaques of the Civil War are spread all over the South. Large stretches of the region show signs of decay. Unparalleled poverty can be seen on neglected farms and along the coal mining areas of the Appalachian Mountains. Here, the expression “poverty pocket” has real meaning. Future politicians will have to deal with this problem.
Addendum
[The reception at the University of Georgia in Athens, which lies about 70 miles east of Atlanta, was thanks to Professor Montgomery’s arrangement, most cordial and friendly. Professor Paschal Reeves introduced me to the English Department. Since the summer of 1964, when I had met Professor Reeves for the first time at the Houghton Library, we were corresponding across the Atlantic and working closely together on Thomas Wolfe. Following the lecture, Professor and Mrs. Reeves gave a reception for me and my wife, which we shall never forget. It proved again that personal contacts among colleagues in the academic world are one of the best ways to overcome geographical distances and differences between America and Europe.]