The words and images of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X — part 3 of 7
The words and images of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X — part 3 of 7
Through Jan. 21, UNMC Today will feature photos and quotations from Martin Luther King Jr. and his political counterpart, Malcolm X. Today’s selections discuss their feelings about violence directed against them and their families.
The weekday feature will lead up to the Jan. 21 presentation of “The Meeting,” a fictional portrayal of an encounter between Dr. King and Malcolm X. Hosted by UNMC and NHS, the play will be from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Lower Storz of NHS Clarkson Hospital (overflow attendance to Wittson Hall Amphitheater). The presentation is free and open to the public.
Malcolm X. Photo from The
Final Speeches of Malcolm X (Pathfinder Press).
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Malcolm X
On Sunday morning about three o’clock, somebody threw some
bombs inside my house. Normally I wouldn’t get excited over
a few bombs, but the ones who threw these not only aimed
them in rooms where there was no one, but even in rooms
where three of my daughters sleep. One daughter six, one
daughter four, and one daughter two. And since I am quite
certain that those who threw the bombs knew my house well
enough to know where everyone was sleeping, I can’y quite
bring my heart to the point where it can in any way be
merciful, or from now on compromising, toward anyone who can
be that low.
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Martin Luther King Jr.
Due to my involvement in the struggle for the freedom of my
people, I have known very few quiet days in the last few
years. I have been imprisoned in Alabama and Georgia jails
twelve times. My home has been bombed twice. A day seldom
passes that my family and I are not the recipients of
threats of death. I have been the victim of a near-fatal
stabbing. So in a real sense I have been battered by the
storms of persecution.
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On Sept. 20, 1958, Dr. King
suffered a nearly fatal stab wound by a deranged woman,
while autographing books in a Harlem department store.The
steel letter opener had penetrated the outer wall of the
aorta. (See arrow) Surgeons later said that if Dr. King was
a “sneeze or cough away from death.” His assailant was later
committed to a institution for the criminally insane. Photo
from “What Manner of Man” (Johnson Publishing
Co.).
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