Nikki Giovanni and Martin Luther King Jr.

Nikki Giovanni's first published volumes of poetry grew out of her response to the assassinations of such figures as Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, and Robert Kennedy, and the pressing need she saw to raise awareness of the plight and the rights of black people. But she has more to say about Martin Luther King, Jr. than can fit into just one poem. In her book of essays, Racism 101, Giovanni discusses more about King.

“Martin Luther King, Jr., being the youngest, most articulate, and to a large degree most neutral figure in Montgomery, began to speak for the rightful aspirations of not only Montgomery but Black America. Montgomery was not the first boycott, nor the first mass protest. It simply produced the leader who was able to place that small community in Alabama in a world perspective. The rightful aspirations of Montgomery were felt not only in the United States but all over planet earth where Black people were being held down by whites and ultimately where the powerful and rich are holding down the powerless and poor.”

“I first heard Martin Luther King when he gave the commencement address at Knoxville College shortly after the Montgomery boycott. He loved to tell the story of the old woman he saw walking down the street one day. “Sister, you are old,” he said. “You don’t have to walk. Everyone will understand if you take the bus.” The old lady shook her head no: “Son, I ain’t walking for myself,” she replied. “I’m walking for my grandchildren. My feets is tired; but my soul is rested.” She continued her journey home.”

Nikki Giovanni went to Atlanta for the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was assassinated on 4 April 1968.

“Martin Luther King, Jr., is a personification of the sixties. His face, open and unafraid—his words, clear, compassionate, yet uncompromising, led a people—the Americans—into an examination of its soul. Risking his life, and ultimately losing it, King proved that words speak as loudly as action; that this nation and perhaps this world, because of a cancer of racism, was incapable of reaching the Christian idea of love. And by showing the barbarity of that incapability, he moved us all to a clearer understanding that we ultimately all share the same desire to live. King at first was not the American ideal of a hero. He was short; heroes were tall. He was Black; heroes were white. He was articulate; heroes mumbled. He led those without hope; heroes moved alone. Heroes after World War II were existential; King was committed to clear ideas of right and wrong. He led the Montgomery Improvement Association to victory and formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. What was wrong in Alabama was wrong in Georgia and Florida, in Chicago and New York City.”

“King was the most important public man to disavow the war in Vietnam. He was the first public man to speak of the equality of women and youth. He was a Daniel in a den not of lions—for lions are honorable beasts—but wolves. The packs howled for his flesh. They bit at his spirit. There is an old gospel song that says, “I’ve been lied on, cheated, talked about, mistreated, ‘buked, scorned, talked about sure as I’m born; up, down, almost leveled to the ground, [but] long’s I got King Jesus I don’t need anybody else.”  King embodied the gospel songs and lived the Christian life. He was, while from man, clearly not of him. He shaped this age as neither Eisenhower nor Kennedy; John Foster Dulles nor Robert McNamara; Richard Nixon nor Joseph McCarthy could ever hope to. He was not a leader like Hitler, who hated; nor a wheeler-dealer like Franklin Roosevelt, who could care; but he was the man who gave reason once again to why the earth spins on its axis or why the sunbeams play on the noses of little barefoot children. He gave to us all the life-affirming concept of redemptive love.”

Nikki Giovanni was a Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professor at the University of Oregon in 1992. She tells what a student needs to know to do well in a course called Racism 101: "You need to know we live in a racist society, that it is not personal. White people trip me out when they say 'I'm not a racist.' Well, nobody said you were. But institutions function disproportionately, and we have to be aware of that bias."

On January 16, 2000, CNN Anchor Kyra Phillips interviewed Nikki Giovanni on the Sunday Morning News (http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0001/16/sm.06.html). Following are the portions of that interview as they relate to Martin Luther King, Jr.:

PHILLIPS: If MLK was alive today, what do you think he would have to say to the white community and also to the black community?

GIOVANNI: Well, I think that Martin was about the beloved community and I think he would actually draw, though there have been some horrible things, I think he would draw a lot of joy and pleasure from the progress that we've made. When you look at 30 years, look at where we are and yeah, there are things that are wrong, but there are many, many things that are so right.

PHILLIPS: Some say he was a saint, some say let's remember him as a progressive activist. How would you describe him?

GIOVANNI: I like saint. Saint suits me. Yeah, what do you have to do to be a saint? You give your life making people change. I mean he did it. Give him credit... because he actually listened to a black woman. He listened to Rosa Parks when she said no and when Rosa said no, Martin said I can do that, I can handle that. And he stepped up. I think that most people should listen to black women.

PHILLIPS: Would you say MLK’s soul is rested when you look around communities and the world today?

GIOVANNI: I would say that Martin has captured the imagination and the hopes in a way that very few people have. So, yeah, give him credit for that, too.

PHILLIPS: Do you see an MLK figure now, an MLK figure of the year 2000?

GIOVANNI: No. No, because I think that great people, great men and great women come around infrequently. You know, these are unusual people and Martin is an unusual man. You know, the rest of us play football or write a little poetry or a culture team or do what we can. But we have to give credit to the greatness that's been among us and Martin was an exceptional man.

Nikki Giovanni also believes that Rosa Parks was an exceptional woman. Here’s what she says about Parks in Racism 101:

“Rosa Parks was not just a little old lady with tired feet. She was a moving force in the Montgomery NAACP; she was an active club woman. She was also not the only person arrested for protesting bus discrimination. She was, however, the person known in the community for her work as well as for her temperament—she was known to be both dedicated and committed. She was a reasonable woman. If Mrs. Parks was arrested, the Black community, from the doctor to the desperate, from the most honored to the least secure, from the professional to the pimp, understood not that something was deeply wrong—the Black community from 1619 to 1993 understands something as being wrong—but that some resolution must be sought.”

In 2002, Giovanni contributed to a Smithsonian special exhibition, In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Following is her poem, In The Spirit of Martin:

   This is a sacred poem…blood has been shed to consecrate it…
wash your hands…remove your shoes…bow your head
…I…I…I Have a Dream

   That was a magical time…Hi Ho Silver Away…
Oh Cisco/Oh Pancho…Here I Come To Save The Day…
I want the World to see what they did to my boy…
   No No No I’m not going to move…If we are Wrong…
then the Constitution of the United States is Wrong
…Montgomery…Birmingham…Selma…Four little Girls…
  Constant Threats…Constant Harassment…Constant Fear…
        SCLC…Ralph and Martin…Father Knows Best…
Leave It To Beaver…ED SULLIVAN…How Long…Not Long

But what…Mr. Thoreau said to Mr. Emerson…are you doing out?

       This is a Letter from Birmingham City Jail…
This is a eulogy for Albany…This is a water hose for Anniston…
   This is a Thank You to Diane Nash…
        This is a flag for James Farmer…
      This is a HowCanIMakeItWithoutYou to Ella Baker…
This is for the red clay of Georgia that yielded black men of courage…
          black men of vision…black men of hope…
      bent over cotton…or sweet potatoes…or pool tables and
 baseball diamonds…playing for a chance to live free and
   breathe easy and have enough money to take care of
the folks they love…This is Why We Can’t Wait      

          That swirling Mississippi wind…the Alabama pine…
that Tennessee dust defiling the clothes the women washed…
    thosehotwinds…the lemonade couldn’t cool…
 that let the women know…we too must overcome…
     this is for Fannie Lou Hamer…Jo Ann Robinson…
  Septima Clark…Daisy Bates…All the women who said
Baby Baby Baby I know you didn’t mean to lose your job…
        I know you didn’t mean to hit me…
 I know the Lord is going to make a way…
           I know I’m Leaning On The Everlasting Arms           

           How much pressure…does the Earth exert on carbon…
to make a diamond…How long does the soil push against the flesh…
      molding… molding…molding the moan that becomes a cry that
bursts forth crystalline…unbreakable…priceless…incomparable Martin…
    I Made My Vow To The Lord That I Never Would Turn Back…
How much pressure do the sins of the world press
 against the heart of a man who becomes the voice of his people…
       He should have had a tattoo, you know…Freedom Now…
 or something like that…should have braided his hair…
    carried his pool cue in a mahogany case…
wafted that wonderful laugh over a plate of skillet fried chicken…
         drop biscuits…dandelion greens on the side           

This is a sacred poem…open your arms…turn your palms up…
      feel the Spirit of Greatness…and be redeemed

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