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| Tallapoosa Journal March 31, 2008
40 Years Ago
We were riding down West Avenue in Cedartown. Michael "Mallard" Albright
was behind the wheel that night. The early April night was filled with
thunderstorms and a heavy rain pelted the windshield of the '64 Impala. The
wipers on his Chevrolet moved with the beat of the song on WLS, "The Big 89"
out of Chicago. The disc jockey keyed the microphone with a news flash out
of Memphis. Dr. Martin Luther King had been shot and killed outside the
Lorraine Motel. Michael and I looked at each other in disbelief. What had
happened? Why had it happened? Did this mean that the nation would be rocked
by civil unrest or a race war? No one knew the answer. We headed down
Georgia 100 to Tallapoosa with not much conversation going on. We kept
listening to the news updates on the radio. We flipped over to 1510 WLAC out
of Nashville and John R was on but the music had stopped. John R's newsman
was giving out the latest news out of Memphis. The mood got quieter as the
minutes ticked by. I got to my house and my grandmother had the television
on. She too was wondering what was happening to our country.
I remember watching the funeral on television a few days later with Dr.
King's body being carried to his final resting place on Auburn Avenue in
Atlanta in a mule drawn wagon. It showed the humility and simplicity of a
man who preached and practiced nonviolence.
40 years ago seems like yesterday. Dr. King's mother was killed in the mid
1970's while in a worship service in Atlanta by another nut with a gun.
When I lived in Montgomery I used to take out of town guests to Hank
Williams' grave near Patterson Field the home of the Montgomery Rebels a
farm team of the Detroit Tigers. I never went there be it 2 p.m. or 2 a.m.
without someone there with a guitar I guess seeking inspiration from the one
of America's great songwriters. Another must see landmark in Montgomery is
the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where a young preacher from Atlanta was
pastor and was urged by Mr. E. D. Nixon to lead the Montgomery bus boycott
in the mid 1950's. It took a lot of courage and fortitude. It was the
beginning of the biggest social movement in American history. I met Mr.
Nixon 30 years later in the office of Governor George Wallace. Mr. E. D.
Nixon and George Wallace were dear friends. The former pullman porter and
the former bantam weight boxer out of Barbour County, Alabama had lunch
together I was told several times each month.
A few months after the bullet that pierced the evening in Memphis Robert
Francis Kennedy was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles as he
sought the Presidency of the United States.
In 1972 George Wallace was seeking the presidency and was shot by a lunatic
in Laurel, Maryland. His assailant was unsuccessful at killing the Alabama
Governor but the shot put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
George Wallace went on to serve as Alabama's chief executive again and many
of the voters that put him in the governor's mansion on Perry Street in
Montgomery were African-American. George C. Wallace also helped the growth
of Troy State University that now has campuses around the globe. You can get
a degree from Troy on the main campus in Pike County, Alabama or in Germany,
or in Dunwoody. It is a shame that historians will not document George
Wallace's accomplishments in higher education. George Wallace's
administration put a junior college or a technical school within an hour's
drive from any one seeking a degree in the State of Alabama. His leadership
will not remembered for that. It will be remembered unfortunately for the
school house door stand off in 1963 at the University of Alabama. George
Wallace was shot by someone who had perceived social and ideological
differences. The shooter got out of prison last year and is living quietly
in Maryland.
Presidents Ford and Reagan were both shot at by mentally unstable
individuals. I am wondering if we are going to face another round of
American tragedies because of differences in social and political
ideologies. I pray that is not the case.
Our real concerns should focus on the lack of moral leadership in the United
States. Look at the situation with the recent resignation of New York's
Governor because of a scandal. He had served as an attorney general and I
imagine should know the law. I believe he thought he was above the law. This
story gave instant celebrity status to his object of the former governor's
affection. The newly sworn in governor of New York revealed that he too had
several lapses of judgement when it came to keeping his trousers on. The new
first lady of the Empire State confessed that she too had wandered from the
reservation. Recent news reports say the Mayor of Detroit doesn't remember
where his pants are either. A state senator from DeKalb County got caught
with his hand in the cookie jar with a money laundering charge facing him in
court. I'm betting more members under the gold dome will face charges soon.
When does it end? Has our tabloid mentality that has taken over Hollywood
now moved into the corridors of the state houses and city halls in this
nation? Does the concept of shame exist?
A Georgian was one of the greatest orators this nation ever had. His speech
delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial almost 45 years ago was a
masterpiece. I too have a dream, that one day our elected officials
understand the concept of doing the right thing all the time.
Rhubarb Jones is a
Tallapoosa native and is a member of the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame and the
Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in Nashville.
He can be reached at P. O. Box 1001, Tallapoosa, Georgia, 30176 or via email
at
Rhubarbjones@aol.com
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