Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is seen here with Rev. Jesse Jackson, left, just prior to his final public appearance to address striking Memphis sanitation workers on April 4, 1968. King was assassinated later that day outside his motel room. (AP Photo/Charles Kelly)
When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed 50 years ago, Tucson was a bit quieter than some cities, where protests grew violent. But there were still a few issues.
The violence was surely born from anger and frustration, but most demonstrations were peaceful with people pledging to protest non-violently, as King would want.
These articles were published in 1968 with the language of the day. We are more enlightened today, but still have much room for improvement.
From the Arizona Daily Star, Friday, April 5, 1968:
Local Rites Planned
Murder Stuns City Leaders
The senseless slaying of civil rights leader Martin Luther King left Tucson stunned last night.
As news of the Memphis assassination spread, Tucsonans expressed their shock and horror.
“What can I say,” said a shaken Robert L. Horn, president of the Tucson chapter of the NAACP. “I think what there is to be said should be said by the white populace. There is nothing for us as Negroes to say.”
Horn continued, “Here is a man who has dedicated his whole life to nonviolence, a man who never raised a hand in anger. When such a man is shot down, what is to become of us? It’s too horrible to think about.”
He said he would have to wait until funeral arrangements for Dr. King are made before planning any action for the Tucson NAACP.
The Rev. Paul D. Sholin, chairman of the Tucson Commission on Human Relations expressed the commission’s “shock and profound grief.”
“As the group officially designated to be concerned with civil rights in our city,” the Rev. Sholin said, “we will miss his leadership desperately. He personified the only way we can ultimately deal with our national problems. He would not compromise with evil nor would he resort to violence. He did everything in his power to arouse the American conscience toward constructive democratic change.”
The Rev. Sholin added, “although the human symbol is dead, the American dream of which he spoke so eloquently and for which he worked and died, must become a reality as all Americans dedicate themselves to fill this void and follow this dream.”
University of Arizona students and faculty will start a silent vigil at 10:30 a.m. today in front of the Student Union Building in memory of the Nobel Peace Prize winner.
“I’ve heard they’ll stand anywhere from 30 minutes to two days,” said Stephen Z. Malkin, a liberal arts union who was elected president of the student body Wednesday.
Memorial services for Dr. King will be held at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, 210 E. Lester St., at 7:30 p.m. tonight. A revival scheduled last night also was turned into a memorial service.
Researchers checked the archives and the Star told of times King visited Tucson and Phoenix.
Also from the Star April 5, 1968:
Standing Ovation in 1962
King Visited Tucson Twice
The Rev. Martin Luther King, killed yesterday by a Memphis assassin, was no stranger to Arizona audiences. The nation’s foremost civil rights leader has appeared twice in Tucson and twice in Phoenix since 1959.
Not all of the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s memories of Arizona are filled with sunny skies and waving palms. In September 1959, Dr. King recounted a personal experience with discrimination to a Sunday Evening Forum audience at the University or Arizona.
He said he and some companions had stopped to spend the night at a Phoenix motel. “Even though the vacancy signed were up,” the Negro leader said, “we were informed that they had just rented the last room.”
“At one place,” he continued, “we watched and saw some white people check in. We had to sleep in our car all night. The next morning we went into a restaurant to get breakfast. They told us they didn’t serve Negroes. They were very apologetic about it, but we couldn’t get breakfast!”
King was to have made another forum appearance in March 1959, but had to cancel because he was recuperating from a stab wound inflicted by a Negro woman in New York City.
The Negro minister also spoke before the Sunday Evening Forum in March 1962, when he used the occasion to announce he would submit to President John F. Kennedy a second emancipation proclamation aimed at abolishing discrimination in housing, education and employment.
The Tucson audience gave King a standing ovation after he hammered hard for 55 minutes on the thesis that integration was progressing, had a long way to go but would triumph eventually.
Sr. King returned to Arizona in May 1964, to speak at a Spiritual Crusade rally in Phoenix. He returned to Phoenix a month later and sharply criticized the campaign of Arizona favorite-son Barry Goldwater for the GOP presidential nomination. He said then that a Goldwater victory would be a setback to civil rights.
“We would not have the kind of executive support we would need to solve our civil rights problems if he is nominated and elected,” King said. “There will be virtually no Negroes who will vote for him.”
