Posted on 02/10/2006 11:58:11 AM PST by Hoodat
Missing from the list of attendees at the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 was the name of the Lt. Governor - James Earl Carter. Also missing was the President of the United States - LBJ.
I find it criminal that Carter can use the funeral of Coretta Scott King to criticize President Bush when he didn't bother to show up for her husbands funeral.
It is noteworthy that both Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan attended the '68 funeral of King, while President Johnson did not.
Majestic Wake. It was a humbling experience for some of the 60 U.S. Congressmen who attended the funeral, and found themselves forced to wait outside. "I'm Fred Schwengel," announced the Iowa Representative. "What's your business?" came the curious reply. Illinois' Senator Charles Percy, Maine's Edmund Muskie and Texas' Ralph Yarborough had to stay outside the church. Auto Workers Boss Walter Reuther was shoved brusquely aside with the rest when a burly Negro marched through crying: "Make way for Wilt, everybody, let Wilt come through." Into the church, his faintly smiling face high in the breeze, stalked Basketball Star Wilt ('The Stilt") Chamberlain, 7 ft. 1 in., and invited. Football's Jim Brown, Baseball's Jackie Robinson and Olympic Decathlon Star Rafer Johnson followed in The Stilt's majestic wake.
No such indignities beset such guests as Singer Harry Belafonte, who had brought Mrs. King back from Memphis on his chartered plane, and sat in a front row, as did Black Comedian Dick Gregory. Before the service, Richard Nixon leaned over to whisper hello to Jacqueline Kennedy, black-draped in the pew ahead, and received an icy stare in return. Such soulful spirituals as My Heavenly Father, Watch Over Me and If I Can Help Somebody were rendered so poignantly by Contralto Mary Gurley and Mrs. Jimmie Thomas, a soprano, of the Ebenezer Church Choir that Singer Mahalia Jackson, the misty mistress of mourning, began to weep silently in her pew.
Dark Decorum. That mood was reinforced by the dignity of King's closest associates. His children—with the exception of five-year-old Bernice Albertine, who toyed uncertainly with her Topsy-twisted hairdo and stared wonderingly at her mother—were models of decorum. Elder Daughter Yolanda, 12, whom King called "Yoki," played a coy game of blindman's buff with her handkerchief at one point, and Son Martin III, 10, wept briefly, his tears illuminated by the bright TV lights. Dr. Ralph Abernathy, 42, King's chosen successor as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, wore scuffed, thong-laced "marching boots" under his red-slashed ministerial robes.
Yes, here in Atlanta. Governor Maddox was really pissed that the flags on the Capitol grounds were flying at half mast.
I don't blame Johnson for not attending. It was open-air, and after one assassination and the unrest in the country, I'm sure the Secret Service was not wild about a repeat.
He was hunting rabbits.
Sorry, I thought that's what I said.
Do as I say...not as I do...Dems
HOLD ON just a minute!
I believe Jimmy was NOT Lt. Gov. of Georgia at the time. I think it was George T. Smith.
http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/GA/ofc/ltgov.html
Wikipedia states that after losing the election to Lester Maddox, Jimmy went back to peanut farming for 4 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter#Early_political_career
Please be careful when posting information such as this, last thing we want is our guys spreading false info on the Internet and for Madame Hillary to call for an Internet "moderator" ;-)
Amen to that. Let's get our facts straight first.
Ms. Lillian wouldn't let little Jimmy out to play that day....
But this tidit from the wikipedia site sets forth
"...In 1966, at the end of his career as a state senator, he chose to run for the United States House of Representatives. His Republican opponent dropped out and decided to run for Governor of Georgia. Carter did not want to see a Republican as the governor of his state, and in turn dropped out of the race for Congress and joined the race to become Governor. Carter lost the election and for the next four years, returned to his peanut farming business and carefully planned for his next campaign for Governor in 1970, making over 1,800 speeches throughout the state...."
Seems Jimmy Carter would include a visitation/showing at MLK's funeral as he "carefully planned for his next campaign for Governor in 1970, making over 1,800 speeches throughout the state". Would it reason that Carter should have played it up to the Georgian Black voters, to appease them.
So he wasn't Lt Governor in 1968 ..but did he or did he not attemd MLK's funeral?
Again ...thanks for your effort.
"It is noteworthy that both Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan attended the '68 funeral of King"
As did Dwight Eisenhower.
It is my understanding that Carter was Maddox's Lt. Governor. If I got it wrong, then I most humbly apologize. However, after going through numerous articles, I did not find his name mentioned.
MLK was a Republican and an integrationist. However, after he was killed the civil rights movement went in a more militant and nationalistic direction. Abernathy was ineffectual. The new wave was black power. That is the train that Jesse jumped on and has ridden to the end.
This may explain the absence of this civil rights hero./sarcasm
Though he had always stood up for civil rights and inclusion, and was able to win reelection to the state senate against a segregationist opponent, Carter was stung by a humiliating defeat in a run for governor of Georgia in 1966. He attributed this loss to a lack of support from segregationist whites, who had turned out in large numbers to vote for his opponent, a nationally known segregationist named Lester Maddox. In a bid to win their vote in the 1970 governor’s race, Carter minimized appearances before African American groups, and even sought the endorsements of avowed segregationists, a move that some critics call deeply hypocritical. Yet after he became governor of Georgia in 1971, he surprised many Georgians by declaring that the era of segregation was over!
A lot of people make that mistake, Maddox was actually Carter's Lt. Gov in the 70's. (Which is amazing when you think about it.)
>>>So he wasn't Lt Governor in 1968 ..but did he or did he not attemd MLK's funeral?<<<
He was obviously a public figure at that time...Why wasn't he at MLK's Funeral?
Now Jimma has the audacity to lecture a sitting President at the funeral of a woman who's husband's funeral HE refused to attend.
Un-freakin'-believable.....
RD
Not only that but he attended this funeral as an DUD ex-President.
Figures that the low-life incompetent would use such an occasion to push his partisan agenda.
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