Daddy King by Martin Luther King Sr

Author:Martin Luther King Sr. [King, Martin Luther]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8070-9778-6
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 1980-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

In 1914, a new site for Ebenezer was found, and the present church building was completed shortly thereafter. The new red brick structure on Auburn Avenue was a fine and solid one, made to last, and located only a few blocks from Atlanta’s main black business district. Down the street, Negro commerce had blossomed. A man named Hemon Perry had set the tone long ago, forming the Standard Life Insurance Company back in 1913. With this as a base, he tried to build an empire in the service industries: dry cleaning, construction, drugstores, mortgage-loan companies, and land-development operations.

Hemon overextended himself, and his capital eventually dried up; by 1924, it was all downhill for him. But he had established a kind of legend along the avenue, which came to be known as “Sweet Auburn.” Other adventurous businessmen came after him, and a few, learning from his errors, were able to sustain their enterprises. By 1948, Atlanta Life Insurance, started back in 1905 by a one time barber named Alonzo F. Herndon, had assets close to $20 million. Banks opened, run by Negroes, and run very well. C. A. Scott first put out the Atlanta Daily World from his headquarters on Auburn.

All seemed well. . . .

At home, our children were growing up around us like three impatient weeds, each one curving in a different direction. Christine, quiet and extremely polite, was often teased by her more rambunctious younger brothers. Alfred Daniel, A.D. to all of us and to his friends, could get a little rough at times and let his toughness build a reputation throughout our neighborhood. Martin Luther, Jr., was always a little sensitive in his responses to even the most casual matters, and he was always one to negotiate a dispute instead of losing his temper. Well, nearly always. One summer afternoon when three youngsters were playing around the house, A.D. was antagonizing his sister to the point where she was close to tears. It was all fun to him, but as Bunch and I sat out in the back yard we heard a yelp, and went inside to discover that the great little negotiator, M.L., had conked his battling brother over the head with a telephone, leaving him dazed and wobbly on his feet. Fortunately, we were all able to laugh—eventually—over this reversal of styles.

I’d begun thinking about the future of my youngsters, and in the rush to help them grow up a little faster than they wanted to—especially the boys—I began easing them toward a special attention to the ministry.

A.D. just backed away from this. He was a child who was determined from his earliest days not to be what his father was. At times he got so dramatic about it that we had a few run-ins over the matter, even while he was still very young.

For his part, M.L. said very little about preaching as his life’s work, and—unreasonably, I guess—that made me believe through his earliest years that he would evolve more naturally than A.D. to a place in the pastorate of Ebenezer.

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