Column eastwood biography of martin luther

Judson L. Jeffries is professor of African American and African studies at Ohio State University and a regular contributor to The Columbus Dispatch.

Of that which has been written about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., very little has focused on the men behind the man, the men who influenced Dr. King.

King was the product of good mentorship and aside from his father, he could not have asked for a more dynamic triumvirate than Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, president of Morehouse College, theologian Howard Thurman, and Bayard Rustin, a seasoned veteran of the struggle for racial equality having led protests in the s, s, and s, not to mention organizing the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Insight into these men helps us develop a better appreciation for who Dr. King was and how he came to be the leader we celebrate today.

Thurman, 30 years King’s senior, was dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University where King earned his doctorate in philosophical and systematic theology.

Although there is no evidence that King took any classes from Thurman, he never missed the chance to hear Thurman address the student body. He became so enthralled with Thurman that he carried around his book "Jesus and the Disinherited" wherever he went and would crack open the text whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Howard Thurman, Kings' respite

Years later when King was head pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church out of which sprang the Montgomery Bus Boycott, he arranged for Thurman to speak at the church.

The bond between Thurman and King tightened in after King was stabbed during a book signing in New York City where he was promoting Stride Toward Freedom.

While he was on the mend Thurman counseled King to extend his recuperating period a few weeks and take time to reflect, meditate and pray. Thurman thought the stabbing happened for a reason. Thurman convinced King that such rest was necessary as he feared the movement had consumed King’s life.

Thurman felt that time away from the movement would reinvigorate King’s mind and body and offer a much-needed respite in preparation for the long-protracted struggle that lay ahead.

Thurman was convinced that were King to continue the frenzied pace he set for himself he would cease to be any good to his family, the movement or himself. Being constantly on-the-go, having to meet the high expectations of others and enduring the pressures that accompanied being the face of a movement were taxing on the year-old King. 

Bayard Rustin, King's unstoppable brother

Thurman, Mays and Rustin encouraged King to study Mahatma Gandhi and see the intellectual and spiritual power of the philosophy of nonviolence as a viable tool in the struggle for freedom, justice and equality. At their urging King went to India in Thurman traveled to India in

Rustin traveled to India in for seven weeks to learn the principles of nonviolence. He became a trusted advisor to King and shared with King what he learned in India. From Rustin, King learned much about organizing, effective strategizing and mobilizing troops. Rustin was instrumental in helping King develop a greater understanding and appreciation for the tactics of militant nonviolent resistance.

He also helped form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of which King was president. Rustin later said of King: “The glorious thing is that he came to a profoundly deep understanding of nonviolence through the struggle itself, and through reading and discussions which he had in the process of carrying on the protest.”

When Rustin visited Montgomery in early and observed a meeting of the Montgomery Improvement Association, he wrote: “. . .. I had a feeling that no force on earth can stop this movement. It has all the elements to touch the hearts of men.”

In a letter, King assured a colleague who expressed reservations about Rustin for one thing or another: “We are thoroughly committed to the method of nonviolence in our struggle, and we are convinced that Bayard’s expertness and commitment in this area will be of inestimable value.”

Seventeen years older than King, Rustin was more of a brother figure unlike the much older Thurman and Mays.

Benjamin E. Mays, King's spiritual father

After Mays visited with Gandhi in , he took Gandhi’s teachings to heart and began incorporating them into his sermons.

Mays had been a close friend of King’s father and a regular visitor to the King household. Mays had known King since he was a boy, thus naturally when King chose to attend Morehouse College their relationship grew. Although King had been under Mays’s tutelage for some time King got the opportunity to see Mays in his element every week during Tuesday morning chapel when Mays addressed the student body.

Mays would tell the students, “Strive to live up to your capacity, to live down below your capacity is a Cardinal Sin.” Every week students heard Mays apply the scripture to the real world in a way that resonated with them.

When King became the face of the modern civil rights movement, it was not uncommon to see Mays marching as well. King sought Mays’s sage counsel often.

Thirty-five years older than King, young Martin was in essence the son Mays never had.

When other Black leaders criticized King for speaking out against the Lyndon B. Johnson s administration and the Vietnam War Mays stood by him when others chose to distance themselves.

King often referred to Mays as his spiritual father.

That King’s triumvirate included two members of the illustrious Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.,  (Mays and Rustin) is no mere coincidence. There is no doubt that King’s ideological development, spiritual growth and ascendency into one of the world’s most revered agents for change can be traced back to the mentorship, guidance and sage counsel he received from those three men-Thurman, Mays and Rustin.

Judson L. Jeffries is professor of African American and African studies at Ohio State University and a regular contributor to The Columbus Dispatch.