The only time I remember running into being treated like I imagine Dr. King was all of his life, and I am not sure the town, but the time frame was in the 40's, my Mother and Father and I were on a vacation or a trip of some kind, we had stopped at a hotel, and they wouldn't let my Dad register because they thought he looked Jewish. Now he was Irish on all sides, but he had black hair and a black mustache, and that was enough for them to say "NO."
I still remember that feeling when we were told we could not stay there, and I was pretty young at the time, but the incident has never left me, and that feeling of, well I can't explain it, being lost, no, you can't stay here, it was a strange feeling, and one that he had experienced all of his life, one he felt every day.
If you have lived that way all of your life, what quality did he possess, that made him realize that "this is not right." Others had to feel that way, why was he the one to finally speak out? He recognized injustice and spoke against it, and spoke the loudest. It cost him his life, that is why he is honored on this day.
I was in Reno, Nevada, at the Primmadonna, the morning we "opened the doors" to blacks. Prior to that morning they were not allowed in the clubs. A white woman came in and played 21, then her husband came in to joiin her, he was black, "situation." Ernie made phone calls, and I imagine phone lines were buzzing all over the state, then Ernie called and said, "Open the doors."
I got my first demerits at The Citadel, for calling a black woman, "Mam," that was in 1950.
Times have changed, and Dr. King was one of the leaders who brought the change about.
