Free Republic

"I remember Martin. I remember sitting in the audience and listening to the power of his rhetoric," said U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black as he stepped to the podium. The retired Navy chief of chaplains was on hand to deliver the keynote address for the 19th annual Martin Luther King Pentagon breakfast today. Noting that he was a student in Alabama during the civil rights movement, Black said, "I remember the sit-ins, the water fountains with the signs 'colored' and 'white.' I remember the Alabama jail cells. I remember being turned away from houses of worship because of the...

Shortly after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black was on his way into his college dormitory when he overheard some students talking about King's murder. "I was as incredulous as they were, and they were very upset," Black said during a telephone interview from his U.S. Capitol office. "I felt a great deal of anger. I was a young African-American still trying to find my identity in terms of race. I'd read and listened to Malcolm X as well as Martin. I'd actually been in the audience when Martin spoke." A...