This past weekend, the Crunk Feminist Collective tweeted out a link to an article on the African American Intellectual History Society website. The piece highlights another rarely discussed sacrifice that the King family made for the betterment of society. In the essay entitled, “Dr. Martin Luther King’s Mother is Slain” and Lessons from Gendered History, Ashley Farmer writes about how on June 30, 1974 – six years after Dr. King was assassinated – a then-23-year-old Marcus Wayne Chenault opened fire inside of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. His initial target was Martin Luther King, Sr., but he decided to shoot 69-year old Alberta Williams King, the mother of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She would die sitting behind the same organ pipes that she played for years, in the same church where her husband, father and assassinated son all pastored. Mrs. King’s assassination would become a little known footnote in history. And as Farmer has pointed out, the lack of reverence for her individual contributions to social justice became clear at the time of her death, when newspapers reporting the murder only referred to her as “MLK mother.” While she was indeed the mother of Dr. King, Farmer astutely notes that she was also a woman who contributed greatly to her children’s views on race and racism . As Farmer put it, If we had not recorded her history in such a male-centered format, perhaps we would know more about the complexities of her politics or if she was, in fact, a “typical” black woman.
Farmer also writes about the importance of remembering Mrs. King:
I do not focus on Alberta Williams King to diminish the life or importance of Dr. King, but rather to engage in a celebration of the richness and complexity of his life. In order to avoid over simplifying Dr. King and his political message, it is important that we think about the many men and women who shaped his thinking and activism. It is equally important not to truncate his political legacy with his engagement in civil rights. While many are now acknowledging the broad range of Dr. Martin Luther King’s politics; little is known about the women who shaped his life and lived in the shadow of his legacy. We have even less information about women like his mother Alberta Williams King, his wife Coretta Scott King, and his daughters Bernice and Yolanda King. This is certainly because of the important role King played in the Civil Rights Movement. But it also reveals the gender bias inherent in how we remember and record history.
I would definitely suggest checking out this essay in full if you want to get a sense of how we tend to devalue the contributions of women in social justice work specifically. In my opinion, the essay also reinforces all the reasons why we need to find ways to celebrate the contributions made by these women, in particular, through a holiday.
I have always been partial to Harriet Tubman receiving such an honor. It is true that in 1990, President George H.W. Bush made a proclamation declaring March 10 Harriet Tubman Day. And in 2013, President Barack Obama would issue another proclamation, giving the go-ahead to establish a national monument in Dorchester County, Maryland, honoring both Tubman and the Underground Railroad in general. But to this day, there has yet to be a major push to get Tubman a national holiday, which would result in a day off for remembrance of all that she has done for us. In my opinion, that really sucks, and not just because I want a day off. Tubman first escaped from slavery in 1849 and risked her life many times by going back into slave territories in the South to free other Blacks (and also by working to establish the women’s suffrage movement). She is just as relevant to our country’s historical narratives, particularly the ones about liberty and freedom, as George Washington’s famous boat ride across the Potomac. In fact, it really is quite telling that out of the 11 federal holidays observed in the United States, none of them observe the direct contributions of women to society. Hell, outside of Mother’s Day and Women’s History Month (which are not federally recognized holidays), there just aren’t very many public and state holidays, or momentums and commemorations in general, which seek to canonize women on the same level as we do our male heroes and leaders. In fact, the closest we’ve come to seeing such a federal holiday is Susan B. Anthony Day. That commemoration, which is observed on February 15 (Anthony’s birthday), was first established in 1976 by legislators in Wisconsin as a state holiday. It is also “celebrated” in California, New York and Florida. In 2011, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-New York) introduced the “Susan B. Anthony Birthday Act” to Congress in hopes of getting the state holiday federally recognized. However, that bill failed to pass, and all the campaigning to see Susan B. Anthony Day established nationally has since fallen by the wayside. And by the wayside is pretty much how we tend to treat the contributions of women in society. It’s no wonder that many Americans tend to prefer male leaders over female heads. Our culture tells us that the only legacies worth honoring are God, men, and the things men conquer.
Just as we sit all day and meditate on the speeches made by men, we should be able to do the same sort of reflection over Tubman’s own words and work. Doing so not only allows us to celebrate her as an accomplished woman, but also reinforces the importance of the values and ideas that she championed.
