History Lessons & Martin Luther King

Some time ago an acquaintance responding to a speech by Martin Luther King remarked "that he wasn't going to take the history of some educated nigger as my history." It seems that this man's history of these United States didn't start with Columbus staggering into the West Indies, but in New England, with white people. He considered the Native Americans to be bit players to help the Europeans get started here, pull off the first Thanksgiving holiday, etc. The fact to him that the French and British continued to run things in the South until there was some turn around due to northern influence did not help him understand the more complex undercurrents well known to Dr. King.

But what really irked him about this astute, Dr. & Minister, was his mixing in of biblical stories and insights, for example the Jericho Road story. He wanted history his way, as many of us do, and his was a long way off from the man of the cloth who also knew not only American history well, but world history too, and could add street language and stories to the mix. Whew. & then there might be references to Greek & Roman philosophers, history and civilizations, New & Old Testaments, imagine?

Well, I've long since parted ways from this man, and I wish him well with his possible history lessons since. Mine have been simply unbelievable, and I am hard pressed to know what lessons may still be in store at 79 years old. The Internet/Google/Wikipedia are huge resources to check up on things, to get another "slant" on the so-called realities of the past. And then there are the un-believable array of resources seemingly coming from every direction. History overload.

Dr. King's life and accomplishments have passed into history, of course; and now with a national holiday devoted to him, and everything from essay contests to new research on his life and times the expansion of knowledge seems to invite both admirers and detractors with endless studies just around the life and accomplishments of this powerful man alone. How can one feel competent in a field of any kind today, especially in history?