The Mountaintop

I saw a very interesting episode of The Jeffersons tonight. The episode takes place in the recent past and shows what happens to the main characters -- George, Louise (Weezie) and Lionel -- on the day preceeding and the day of the assasination of the Rev'd. Dr. Martin Luther King. The episode ends with the family listening to a rebroadcast of the last speech Dr. King gave, commonly called the "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech.

On the day before he was shot, Dr. King gave a speech in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers. At the end of his speech, Dr. King said the following:

And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.

Dr. King was shot the next day by James Earl Ray. (Note that Mr. Ray recanted his confession late just before dying of liver failure while in the custody of the State of Tennessee.) It seems, in the above concluding remarks to his speech, that Dr. King was prophesying his own death.

In his speech, Dr. King posits himself as Moses in the land of Moab. In Deuteronomy, the time of Moses's death is described thus:

And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, all Naph'tali, the land of E'phraim and Manas'seh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zo'ar. And the LORD said to him, "This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, `I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there." So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab.

Dr. King helped to lead his people out of bondage, just like Moses. He said that he had seen the Promised Land, just as God showed Moses the Promised Land. Like Moses, Dr. King could not live to enter into the Promised Land he had been shown. Sadly, even had he lived to see his 77th birthday, Dr. King would still not have been able to enter into the Promised Land he envisioned, a land where people of color are afforded the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as are caucasians.

The dream has been deferred so long. I pray that it will not be, ultimately, denied.