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Memories of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Who is Dr. Martin Luther King? His birthday is celebrated every year on January 15th for his courage and sacrifice, and his dreams for a united humanity. One of the many celebrations of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday was held at the Charles R. Wood Theatre in Glens Falls, NY, hosted by Matt Funiciello, owner of Rock Hill Bakehouse. The purpose of the celebration was to focus on Dr. King’s life in his latter years, and his speech, “Beyond Vietnam”. Funiciello said “On April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave this famous speech in Riverside, NY, when he passionately spoke against the Vietnam war.

Albany City Common Councilwoman Sarah Curry-Cobb, Ward 4

It was exactly one year after King’s speech, April 4th, 1968, when King was assassinated.” As King put it, “Silence is betrayal.” Dr. King’s speech was about the atrocities of Vietnam, particularly that so many black were fighting for America (and their own freedom), yet were given no respect for their sacrifice to ‘their country’. Many people like Mr. Funiciello are helping to bring more attention to this—“a speech not found in print” nor brought up in mainstream media, and “is ignored in schools, left out of American history,” said Funiciello..

It was a wonderful opportunity to get to meet someone who actually worked with Dr. King—Ms. Sarah Curry-Cobb. Locally, we have the benefit of Ms. Curry-Cobb’s service. She is Chief of Staff for NY State Assemblywoman Aurelia Greene, and in addition is Albany City Councilwoman. Like King, Curry-Cobb holds a deeply committed belief that people should simply respect one another regardless of any reason. Her life long contention is that we are one, as a people. Her recollection of those years with King include segregation, lynchings, witnessing beatings, her parents not having the right to vote, and segregation in the schools. According to Curry-Cobb, most of the people involved in the Civil Rights Movement were initially blacks around the early to mid 1960’s, and it was later when whites from the North and West joined the ranks. “The people in the movement had great respect for King,” However, when asked of King’s relationship with Robert F. Kennedy, “No one wanted to give him the time of day.”

Ms. Curry-Cobb describes Dr. King as “fantastic… a very, very sensitive man who could care less about the glamour.” He was concerned about the plight of people—blacks and whites. So many people made the movement possible, and many like Lena Horne, Bill Cosby, and Dick Gregory have contributed so much of themselves into the Civil Rights Movement to this day. And she remembers Rosa Parks, too. Smiling, she described Parks as “feisty, always raring to go. When she got it in her head to do it, we did it!”

When asked if she ever feared reprisal from the white man, she said, “we all feared for our lives but we did it because we believed in what we were doing.” She recalls how simple their plight really was. “Just wanting to be recognized as a people, citizens of this country, and not slaves. We were not created in the image of an animal. We were citizens, too.”

A lot of whites lost their lives, too, she said. When asked if she resents whites, she confidently and calmly stated, “I was not taught to hate. I was taught was to demand respect.”

What would Dr. King think of today’s America? Curry-Cobb said, “Martin would have been very disappointed with some things, very hurt. He would not like seeing how young blacks are using drugs, and would compare it to the same hopeless despair that the movement was working against.”

Ms. Sarah Curry-Cobb does remember King’s latter days when he was speaking out against Vietnam. She said there was a time she and other blacks from the movement were to speak with a judge about their concerns. To their dismay, these southern judges would not hear their case because some whites from the North were supporting their cause.

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