James Baldwin says there were 3 factors that impacted Martin Luther King Jr’s development:

1. He was raised in a Black middle class family
2. Religious ethos, Family Ethos
   1. Family Experiences –

• Kings fundamental character was shaped in the southern African America background – southern, black and rural and urban
• Father and Mother- Father being a preacher
• Long line of Baptist preachers – father, grandfather and great grandfather
• The preachers in his family were outspoken advocates of freedom and justice
• Rev Alfred D. Williams (grandfather) arrived in Atlanta in 1893, Grandfather took Ebenezer AME in 1894
• King displayed the unusual ability to endure pain as a child, refusing to cry  

3. The ongoing patter of Racial Segregation in the south

• Neighbors displayed racism – As a child Martin was no longer able to play with his friend who was white, because the parents refused to let
• Store owners displayed racism – As a child he was unable to try on a pair of shoes before his father purchased them.  As a result his father stormed out refusing to purchase the shoes

 King’s diagnosis of the black condition  

• African Americans need to develop a rugged sense of some-body-ness
• Blacks needed to transform disunity within the ranks
• Blacks needed to aspire to excellence
• Blacks needed to unite around powerful action programs
• Blacks needed to be mindful of uniting the whole society 

Points from King’s Last Sermon:  

• April 3, 1968
• Happened the night prior to his assassination
• Mason Temple God in Christ in Memphis
• Spoke without notes
• Was in support of a garbage workers strike
• At this point he might have been the most depressed he had been
• Martin had no intentions on speaking that night
• Opened with a joke
• Spoke about visions of a conversation with God where God asked him what age would he like to live in
• He visited all times and places from ancient Egypt to Greece but he would still choose to live in the 20^th century
• Spoke out against the Vietnam war
• Spoke out against whites keeping the blacks fighting amongst themselves
• Blacks must maintain unity by getting out of the slave mentality
• Reflected on all the struggles of the movement
• Called for us to be concerned about the homeless
• Called the African Americans to pool there money together… because at the time we were worth $30 billion
• Called for us to withdraw economic support and a redistribution of wealth
  • Not to buy Coke, Seal Test Milk, Wonder Bread, Harts Bread,
  • Redistribute the economic wealth
  • Take money out of banks
  • Establish black insurance
• Finished with comparisons to Moses seeing over the mountain top