Fifty-Two Years After His Assassination, the King Center Offers Emotional Support During Pandemic

This weekend marks 52 years since an assassin’s bullet stole the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as he stood on the balcony of The Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He was in Memphis to add his voice to the chorus of Black sanitation workers pushing for better wages and working conditions.

“We’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end,” Dr. King said on April 3, 1968 which was the night before he was assassinated. “Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We’ve got to see it through.”

This year’s anniversary of that painfully dark day will not be recognized with an event at the King Center. Because of the coronavirus, the Center is closed like so many businesses and institutions, and employees are working from home. Yet, true to the legacy of its namesake, efforts to help others continue.

In a video titled “Managing Fear and Anxiety” posted on the Center’s website, Bernice King, youngest daughter of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King, acknowledged the dramatic change the world is experiencing and the uncertainty it has spawned.

“My Father was a prophetic leader,” King said. “He made global impact. He faced fear in the Movement that he led over and over again.”

Beloved Community Talks

The video is part of the King Center series, “Beloved Community Talks: Building the Beloved Community in a Time of Crisis”, and addresses many of the emotional challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic: victims infected with the disease, those who have lost a loved one, parents working from home and teaching children who are also home, and families burdened with financial worries connected to coronavirus job loss.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Gloria Morrow and international motivational speaker, Sam Collier, joined the conversation and offered advice.

“I’m so happy that you normalized those feelings because all of us have been hit by what’s going on,” Morrow, who is also an author, said when King admitted having moments of fear despite her faith. “So, the person that walks around saying, ‘Oh, it doesn’t bother me, I’m strong in the Lord and that’s all right.’ No. Everybody has been hit.”

Morrow mentioned she has been placed on furlough from her job for two weeks or more without pay during the outbreak and underscored the need to admit the anxiety permeating many lives.

“It’s out of that normal fear and anxiety like you needed to have when you were taking that test so you would study,” she explained. “So, now we need to have a little bit of that…so, it helps us push forward.”

However, King, Morrow and Collier cautioned against “languishing” in the anxiety and pointed out the difference between “healthy” behaviors and those considered alarming.

Morrow said, “Now, if it becomes overburdening, where now I’m really paralyzed, I don’t want to leave my room, I’m not eating, I’m not sleeping, I’m probably self-medicating…doing things that are harmful to myself. I’m going to the supermarket buying up everything I can buy, even though I know that it’s going to be restocked, the market will be restocked, and I can go back. But, I’m operating now out of that paranoia and fear, then that’s when we’ve gone on the other side of this.”

Steely Determination & Faith

For years, Dr. King and the men and women who dreamt of and fought against injustice stared down racist government officials and the gatekeepers of discrimination. Without question, they lived with anxiety as their homes were bombed, and they spent nights in jails. Uncertainty characteristic of this pandemic dogged their days during the Civil Rights Movement. And, yet Dr. King and others stayed the course.

On the last night of his life, Dr. King told the crowd at Mason Temple, “We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you…[But], I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

A master class in grace under pressure. Not just that night but so many before. Now, in an unprecedented time in our lifetimes, the King Center offers an encouraging light.