IF you are a history enthusiast, don’t read this piece.
Surely, you may feel disappointed.
The Education Department is scrambling to locate a school in Thiruvananthapuram which was visited by the legendary American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr in 1959. Reason: The government is planning to organise a face-to-face between King’s eldest son Martin Luther King III and school children at the same school on February 24.
King III is visiting the capital city during a Kerala tour from February 21 to 24 to mark the golden jubilee of his father’s visit.
There are no historical records either with the department or any school about Martin Luther King’s 1959 visit to a school here, Education Minister M.A. Baby told reporters on Tuesday. There is a probability that the school may have been closed down during the past 50 years after being found uneconomic, he added.
The amusing thing is, King mentions his visit to a school in Thiruvananthapuram in his autobiography. He recalls how he was introduced by the school principal as ‘’a fellow untouchable.’’
Martin Luther King Jr was only 30 during his visit 50 years ago. At that time, the Communist ministry led by E.M.S. Namboothiripad was in power in Kerala. And when his father was visiting Kerala, King III was just two.
With the Education Department failing to identify the school, the face-to-face will be organised at another school on February 24. Most probably the venue will be the St Mary’s School, Pattom. The Education Department is evaluating the facilities at the school. Selected students from various schools in the city will attend the programme.
Apart from King III, Martin Luther King Jr’s colleague John Levis, at present a member of the US Congress, and jazz musician Herbie Hancock will be part of the delegation touring the State.
The State Government will accord a public reception to Martin Luther King III at 6.30 p.m. on February 23 at VJT Hall. Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan will host a dinner in his honour on February 24 night at Mascot Hotel.
“I AM AN UNTOUCHABLE”
I remember when Mrs. King and I were in India, we journeyed down one afternoon to the southernmost part of India, the state of Kerala, the city of Trivandrum. That afternoon I was to speak in one of the schools, what we would call high schools in our country, and it was a school attended by and large by students who were the children of former untouchables ....
The principal introduced me and then as he came to the conclusion of his introduction, he says, “Young people, I would like to present to you a fellow untouchable from the United States of America.” And for a moment I was a bit shocked and peeved that I would be referred to as an untouchable ....
I started thinking about the fact: twenty million of my brothers and sisters were still smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in an affluent society. I started thinking about the fact: these twenty million brothers and sisters were still by and large housed in rat-infested, unendurable slums in the big cities of our nation, still attending inadequate schools faced with improper recreational facilities. And I said to myself, “Yes, I am an untouchable, and every Negro in the United States of America is an untouchable.”
(From sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church, July 4, 1965)
trivandrum@epmltd.com
