13 February 2009

Secretary Clinton Honors Martin Luther King’s 1959 Trip to India

Cultural delegation will retrace the late civil rights leader’s visit

 
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State Department ceremony (Michael Gross/State Department)
Martin Luther King III, son of the late civil rights leader, meets with Secretary Clinton at the State Department.

By Louise Fenner
Staff Writer

Washington — “This is a very special journey for me personally,” said Martin Luther King III, son of the late American civil rights leader, a few days before embarking for India on the 50th anniversary of his father’s “incredible visit” to that country.

King is part of a cultural delegation sponsored by the U.S. State Department with the cooperation of the government of India. The delegation will retrace the 1959 journey made by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King. Several members of the delegation — including jazz musician Herbie Hancock — were welcomed to the State Department February 12 by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton said King’s trip to India is not only a landmark of the civil rights movement, but also a testament “to the bonds of affection and shared history between our two nations.”

“As we celebrate Black History Month here at home, the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s trip to India is a reminder that the struggle for civil rights and justice has always been and continues to be a global mission; it knows no borders,” she said.

King, who heads up Realizing the Dream, a humanitarian nonprofit foundation, said his parents traveled to India “to immerse themselves in [Mahatma] Gandhi’s nonviolence movement and to identify with and give support to the people of India who were struggling to overcome the evils of poverty and discrimination.”

“The impact Gandhi’s life had on my father was quite profound,” he said. The civil rights movement led by King in the 1950s and 1960s followed the techniques of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience Gandhi used to end British colonial rule and improve the lives of India’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens. The delegation will visit many of the places King saw in 1959. (See “Martin Luther King Inspired by 1959 Journey to India.”)

Also at the State Department event were Indian Ambassador to the United States Ronen Sen and two other members of the delegation traveling to India in mid-February: John Lewis and Spencer Bachus, both members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Lewis, a former leader of the civil rights movement and now a Democratic congressman from Georgia, said King and Gandhi “believed deeply in the power of nonviolent resistance to injustice as a tool for social change.”

Close-up of Herbie Hancock (AP Images)
Musician Herbie Hancock will perform in two special musical events in India.

America was changed forever by their ideas, Lewis said, adding, “I don’t know where I would be if it hadn’t been for the teaching of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.”

Bachus, a Republican congressman from Alabama, acknowledged that Birmingham, the city he comes from, had been a center of racist violence during the struggle for civil rights. “Birmingham is a better place today than it was because of Martin Luther King,” he said. (See “Letter from Birmingham Jail.")

Hancock said he looked forward to two special musical performances in Mumbai and New Delhi and to working with students at the Ravi Shankar Institute for Music and Performing Arts. Students from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in New Orleans will be performing with Hancock in India. Bringing the Americans together with young Indian musicians will “prove again that the language of jazz knows no boundaries,” he said.

The teachings of King and Gandhi “have really encouraged me to lead a life of peace, honesty, and filled with love for my fellow man,” Hancock said. He got a laugh when he added that “their philosophies of cooperation, communication and harmony are also essential elements of every jazz band.”

Clinton recalled hearing Martin Luther King Jr. speak in Chicago when she was a teenager. “I was deeply moved then, as I continue to be, by his timeless call to all of us, his dream for a world that is really worthy of our children. I remain inspired by his undying hope for a better tomorrow,” she said.

Later, in response to a question about the election of Barack Obama, the first African-American U.S. president, Clinton said, “We’re very proud in the United States that our president represents, in great measure, the dream of Dr. King. And certainly, we all have to now continue that work, and I know that the president feels that responsibility acutely.”

“But it’s not just the work of a president or not just the work of diplomats or members of Congress. It is the work of everyone,” the secretary said.

See a transcript of the February 12 event on America.gov. A video is available on the State Department Web site.

More information on Martin Luther King is available on the Realizing the Dream Web site.

See also Free at Last: The U.S. Civil Rights Movement, a new America.gov publication.

Also see Diversity: Black History Month.

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