Excerpt from My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. by Coretta Scott King (1969)
In the summer of 1945 Martin went with several other Morehouse men to work in the tobacco fields of Connecticut. Though it was hardly a glamorous job, my husband would later talk of the exhilarating sense of freedom he felt to be able to eat in any restaurant and to sit in the orchestra at the movies in Connecticut. Then, when the train on which he was coming home reached the southern states and he went to have a meal in the dining car, the waiter ushered him to a rear seat and pulled a curtain down in front of him. “I felt as though that curtain had dropped on my selfhood,” Martin said.
It’s important that we never forget the things that happened in the past, and strive to remember that we’re all in this world together. We are all more alike than some would have us believe. Walking around in the other guy’s shoes, as King did, can teach us a lot.
The recent movie “Selma” has been getting some well-deserved recognition, and it is pretty accurate in spite of some little issues where the story was simplified or slightly altered to make the script more streamlined. I was disappointed that it had no mention of A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Sleeping Car Porter’s Union and long-time advisor to Dr. King.
In the 1950’s the PRR had purchased ten passenger coach cars from their southern cousin the N&W. They were transported to Altoona for the cosmetic change over to make them look like a PRR passenger car. While the work was being performed some workers at the shop noted an odd looking wall installed that separated a portion of the seats in the coach. Unaware of their purpose they learned the separation was due to the “Jim Crow Laws” of the south; a shop supervisor looked at it and while walking away gave the order to have them removed.
Pullman Porters who worked trains that traveled from the north into the south had to be aware of when they entered the Jim Crow territory, a new set of rules and attitude. As a Porter gained seniority he would be in a position to avoid such assignments.
A. Phillip Randolph not being mentioned in the movie is a shame. He was the man who assisted with the Call & Post while living in Chicago. Banned in the south to get copies smuggled in he called upon Pullman Porters who would hide them in their assigned car and toss them out at a pre-determined location so they could be picked up. This way African Americans in the south could learn of the progress concerning the civil rights movement.
His first name was Ada, he hated the name thus only using the A. He sacrificed much of his own personal wealth in the effort, many times eeking by on just pennies a day. Interesting story about the role America’s railroads played in the civil rights movement.
He was a personal friend of Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise, who was one of the four founders of the NAACP. Another was Reverand Holmes, and I am blocking on his first name, so maybe somebody can fill in it. Also, who was the fourth founder?
R. Wise officiated at my Bar Mitzvah.
As can be expected, the synagogues where I grew up, had joint programs with a black church. In the late '30s and after. Probably still does.
I have a copy of Michael Palin’s “Hemingway Adventure” and in it there is an artist’s depiction of a train on the viaduct to Key West. My girlfriend at the time, a Brit of Jamaican ancestry asked about the train. It had a lighted combination car at the front of the train with the baggage section to the rear of the car and then the other passenger cars trailing behind. I explained Jim Crow cars to her. She had no idea.
History as presented in this movie was more than " simplified or slightly altered to make the script more streamlined." The director herself, in interviews with Charlie Rose, both on CBS News and on Rose’s own PBS talk show, flat out said that she believes history is fluid and ever-changing, that she knew there was one version or narrative of the MLK story which has already been well documented, but that she wanted to present her own narrative in her movie. Read on:
All movies are forced to compromise. They are constrained by serious time constraints and other practical factors that force the producers to alter events and locations, compress time, rearrange the order of events, modify dialogue, and make many adjustments to bring the film to completion within a certain budget and schedule, and produce a finished product of a specific length. In the case of “Selma”, the writers weren’t even allowed to use the actual texts of Dr. King’s speeches because they did not have the legal right to do so.
How accurate is any movie? Two quick examples: The WWII films “Midway” and “The Battle of the Bulge” were, in my opinion, absolute howlers. Even documentaries suffer in the accuracy department because they will inevitably reflect the viewpoint of the producers and the director.
The most significant and most frequently cited complaint against “Selma” is the depiction of Lyndon B. Johnson. I don’t believe the Johnson role was ever intended to be a 100% accurate depiction of the man. In reality, he was possibly the most astute political creature of his day, and thus perfectly suited to serve as a metaphor. Who better to illustrate the political and practical realities that Dr. King was facing? Johnson’s role was a supporting role. The film was about Dr. King, and the contacts with the film character of Johnson helped to tell that story.
For just a moment, let’s pretend we are making a film about Johnson. That story would be rich in historical fact, political intrigue, nuance, personal interactions, plotting and scheming. I have no idea how LBJ’s story could be condensed into a two hour movie because that story is so incredibly complex; but I’ll guaranee that there would be compromises with historical fact. In that case, the depiction of LBJ would be the priority, and other characters
There is artistic license and then there are flat-out lies about (comparatively) recent history made for political purposes. Pinning the FBI taping of King’s motel activities on LBJ instead of Bobby Kennedy is assuredly an example of the latter.
How’d it happen? LBJ, for all his good works, is a liberal villain because of Vietnam. Bobby, for his all his nastiness as his brother’s AG, is a hero because he opportunistically opposed the war in 1968 and otherwise pulled out all the liberal stops for a few months.
Excerpts from A. Philip Randolph’s obituary in The New York Times
“Gentlemen, the Pullman Company is ready to sign.” That statement by E. F. Carry, Pullman’s president, ended a long and bitter struggle to unionize the sleeping-coach company, a battle that propelled a new black leader onto the national scene…
Over the years, a porter’s union salary, which never exceeded $13,000 annually, had been his main support…
To the 250,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial, and to millions of others watching on television and listening on radio, the speech of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most memorable of the day. But when the erect, austere, dignified Mr. Randolph went to the podium, he spoke from experience and emotion that the younger man could little know. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/b
The Saturday Evening Post, July 24, 1915
Your Porter
By Edward Hungerford
He stands there at the door of his car, dusky, grinning, immaculate–awaiting your pleasure. He steps forward as you near him and, with a quick, intuitive movement born of long experience and careful training, inquires:
“What space you got, guv’nor?”
“Lower five,” you reply. “Are you full-up, George?”
An absolute fascinating book is “The Passage of Power” by Robert Caro. Caro has written several volumes on the life of Lyndon Johnson. “The Passage” covers the era from the late 50’s thru about 1965 including his run for President in 1960, his struggles with Bobby Kennedy, his effective shutting out of power and influence during the Kennedy administration (what a waste of a resource), and his elevation to President in November, 1963.
I am not a student of history, nor am I of liberal political leaning, but the book was fascinating and how he did what the Kennedys either refused to do or were incapable of doing is nothing short of amazing. He literally pushed thru an amazing stack of bills into law in a very short period of time.
His “War on Poverty” has proved to be a failed war, but his work on the the Voting Rights/Civil Rights, etc. was classic politics, using his Senate skills and political accumen.
I do not believe the final volume has been published, which dealt with his participation and escalation in Viet Nam.
Much ado this week about the “inaccuracies” of American Sniper. The MSNBC and Vox crowd are extremely upset. Oh well.
