Several of you who read our earlier Blogs already know that for seven and a half years, from 1961 until April 4th, 1968, we served as a political advisor, personal lawyer, and draft speech writer for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr; commencing when we were 29 and Dr. King was 31 years of age.
Most may not, however, know that for the past 11 years we have been, in addition to our teaching at the University of San Francisco, a Scholar Writer in Residence in Palo Alto, CA where we reside.
It was recently brought to our attention that Stanford University has reserved an exclusive night at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC on November 4, 2017. The invitation indicates that this “private event offers exclusive access to museum galleries, where you will have a unique opportunity good to her collection of more than 36,000 artifacts highlighting the contributions of African-Americans through the centuries”
The invitation only event is being sponsored by the “Washington DC Stanford Association”, “Stanford Black Alumni Association, Washington DC,” “Entrepreneurial ship Group of Washington DC” and “The Black Alumni Association of Stanford”.
“In 2016-17, Stanford is a $5.9 billion enterprise. This figure represents the university’s consolidated budget for operations, a compilation of all annual operating and restricted budgets that support teaching, scholarship and research, including the budgets of all schools and administrative areas and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory” (Stanford website).
It’s current endowment fund is about $24-25 Billion dollars.
In juxtaposition to the lavishly funded event scheduled for Nov 4, 2018, since about 1985, Stanford has maintained a “King’s Papers Project”, aka, The Martin Luther King Jr Research and Education Institute on its campus.
The Institute, in comparison to most other buildings on its campus, can only be charitably described as a “Quonset Hut”— the form and symbol of Stanford’s public acknowledgement of “the importance” to it of America’s pre-eminent Apostle of Love, Non-Violence, and Commitment to The Pursuit of Excellence.
Shame on Stanford University, its Board of Trustees, and Stanford affiliated sponsors of the lavish three-hour event scheduled at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Wash, DC.
Have they ever encouraged ANY of their members and affiliates to visit and support the Martin Luther King, Jr Research and Education Institute, in The Cypress Building, 466 Via Ortega Avenue on the Stanford Campus?
How many of the members of those Stanford affiliated organizations have ever themselves visited the King Institute at Stanford?
Martin Luther King Jr ended racial Apartheid in America.
There is also an added special historical irony about the November 4th, 2018, date scheduled event at the Smithsonian. On this same date in November 1864 Confederate Army Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the Klu Klux Klan, subjected the Union Supply Depot in Johnsonville, TN to a devastating destruction of millions of dollars of it war material
A century late on this same date, in 1956, Dr. King as a newly minted Ph. D minister, at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, in Montgomery, AL read a fictional letter to his congregation from the Apostle Paul. His sermon was based on Paul 5, Letter to the Romans, in which King calls to the attention of his church the gap between the nation scientific progress and its ethical and spiritual development. Deploring “exploitative capitalism, spiritual arrogance, racial segregation, and self-righteous egotism,” he offers the remedy of Christian love.
“Only through achieving this love,” King wrote, “can you expect to matriculate into the university of eternal life”.
And, or course, who can forget that on this same date in 2008, that Ill. Senator, Barack Obama became the first African-American to become elected present for United States.
At Stanford University's Memorial Auditorium, on April 14th, 1967, at Dr. King spoke about "two Americas": one "beautiful" and the "other America," an "arena of blasted hopes and dreams."
He explained that "we are seeking to make America one nation" and discussed African American civil rights; segregation; slavery; civil rights bills; the need for "genuine equality"; housing; education; employment; his experiences in Chicago; social and racial inequality; the persistence of "white backlash" against the constitutional rights of minorities; non-violence; "massive action programs"; social stagnation; the Vietnam War; sharing of political power and legislating for social justice.
He concluded by stating that: "I still have faith in the future. I still believe these problems can be solved ... I refuse to despair ... our destiny is tied up in the destiny of America."
The Director and founder of the King Institute at Stanford is Dr. Clayborne Carson, a tenured professor of African American History. He is Stanford’s on campus keeper of the conscience and “Dream” of Dr. King.
The Stanford University affiliated sponsors of the special event on November 4th, 2108, at the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture in Wash. D.C. still have an opportunity to redeem their souls by an appropriate public acknowledgment of their gratitude to Dr. King.
They can do this in the form of an immediate invitation to Dr. Carson to pay special tribute to him and his life’s work on behalf of the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr at Stanford University.
If not now, when?