Today we celebrate the life of an American hero.  One day is not enough.  I suggest you contemplate Dr. King’s life and accomplishments throughout each year at moments that arise spontaneously whenever you are confronted with racism, sexism, or any other “ism” that makes life small and petty.  Think in the Morning congratulates Dr. King with the arresting lyrics and music of Ani Difranco.  We also provide you with the Playboy interview of Dr. King by Alex Haley.  This 1965 interview with Haley was the longest interview he had ever granted to any publication.

 

Hello Birmingham

Ani DiFranco

 

Hold me down

I am floating away

Into the overcast skies

Over my home town

On election day

What is it about Birmingham?

What is it about Buffalo?

Did the hate filled want to build bunkers

In your beautiful red earth

They want to build them in our shiny white snow

And now I’ve drawn closed the curtains

In this little booth

Where the truth has no place to stand

And I am feeling oh so powerless

In this stupid booth

With this useless little lever in my hand

And outside

My city is bracing

For the next killing thing

Standing by the bridge

And praying for the next Doctor Martin Luther King

It was just one shot

Through the kitchen window

Just one or two miles from here

If you fly like a crow

A bullet came to visit a doctor

In his one safe place

A bullet ensuring the right to life

Whizzed past his kid and his wife

And knocked his glasses right off of his face

And the blood poured off the pulpit

Yeah the blood poured down the picket lines

And the hatred was immediate, yeah

And the vengeance was divine

So they went and stuffed God down the barrel of a gun

And after him they stuffed his only son

Hello Birmingham; it’s Buffalo

I heard you had some trouble down there again

Just calling to let to know

That somebody understands

I was once escorted

Through the doors

Of a clinic

By a man

In a bulletproof vest

And no bombs

Went off that day

So I am still here to say

Birmingham

I’m wishing you all of my best

Oh Birmingham

I’m wishing you all of my best

Oh Birmingham

I’m wishing you all of my best

On this election day

 

Songwriters: Ani Difranco

Hello Birmingham lyrics © A Side Music LLC D/B/A Modern Works Music Publishing

 

 

Alex Haley Interviews Martin Luther King, Jr. Former Civil Rights Leader And Activist

(Alex Haley Interviews Martin Luther King, Jr. was originally published in the January 1965 issue of Playboy Magazine. In addition, it was also published within Alex Haley: The Playboy Interviews by Ballantine Books in July 1993.)

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon. This 1965 interview with Haley was the longest interview he had ever granted to any publication.

“Anticipating that Reverend King might have problems reconciling his Baptist faith with the nude photographs in Playboy, I armed Alex with the magazine’s impressive sales figures—more than three million at that time—and he regaled King’s advisors with a demographic breakdown of the readership: college-educated young men and women, ‘the very constituency that was most vital to King’s interests, for anyone with a cause. Think what you will about the girls, but you can’t ignore the audience.’ They were convinced.

“However, King’s schedule made it next to impossible even for a conventional interview, let alone one like Playboy’s that would require many hours of taping. After a succession of frustrating cancellations, and three trips to Atlanta, he still hadn’t met the man, and most interviewers would have given up. But Alex had taken pains to befriend King’s secretary, and finally he threw himself on her mercy. He couldn’t face his editor empty-handed again, he told her, and she sent him to a church barbecue King was attending. ‘Let him see you there, but don’t press,’ she advised. He did as he was told, sitting there with a paper plate of chicken and potato salad until King finally took pity on him and came over to say hello, suggesting that they might talk for a few minutes over in his office.” ~ Murray Fisher—former editor of Playboy.

Read Entire Interview HERE  [Click on blue link to read interview]