{"id":1716,"date":"2019-05-23T04:15:58","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T08:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=1716"},"modified":"2021-09-21T04:17:49","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T08:17:49","slug":"he-had-something-in-him-some-kind-of-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/he-had-something-in-him-some-kind-of-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He had something in him – some kind of spirit\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
May 24, 1959 ~ commencement day at Maryland State College<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

1959 alumni reflect on their encounter with Martin Luther King Jr.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Thursday, May 23, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles Laws<\/strong> was a senior at Maryland State College in September 1958 when \u201cStride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story<\/em>\u201d by the minister of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Alabama’s capital city was published. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laws read the book because its 29-year-old author, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.<\/strong><\/a>, was an Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity brother. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little did Laws know at the time that eight months later, he and 52 of his classmates would have the opportunity to shake King’s hand as they crossed the stage during graduation exercises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember thinking,\u201d Allen J. Singleton<\/strong> said, \u201cI’ll never wash this hand again.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was May 24, 1959, a warm Delmarva Sunday that alumni fondly recall 60 years on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we heard Martin Luther King was going to be our speaker,\u201d Singleton said, \u201cYou got all excited.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe next big thing was Dr. King – he was going to be there,<\/em>\u201d Singleton said, his voice trailing off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

King’s appearance drew an overflow crowd to the Depression-era gymnasium and environs.\u00a0 The civil rights leader was a driving force behind the 1956 Montgomery bus boycott that thrust his brand of non-violent protest into the nation’s consciousness – and made Rosa Parks a household name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Each member of Maryland State’s class of 1959 was allocated two guest tickets.  Laws estimates \u201ctwo or three carloads\u201d of his relatives came to Princess Anne and waited outside the now-demolished brick gym that lacked air-conditioning.  Everyone was hoping to catch a glimpse of the charismatic King and listen through open doors and windows to what he had to say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had all eagerly anticipated seeing Dr. King,\u201d Ossie Goods Clay<\/strong> said.  \u201cWhen we finally spotted him before graduation, we were struck he was such a small man. He seemed taller on TV.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

King strode across campus that day accompanied by college President John Taylor Williams, an imposing six-feet-four — a height difference Clay acknowledged amplified her visual recollection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can remember Dr. King and Dr. (E. Worthington) Waters were in front of us,\u201d Betty Pinkett Mitchell<\/strong> said.  \u201cThe music was playing. Everyone was swaying back and forth. It was very, very touching.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back then, Mitchell acknowledged recently, she did not grasp the historic importance of the moment or the speaker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI only heard about him later,\u201d she said.  \u201cOh, the feeling I had, though, that I had been in the presence of this man who sacrificed for this country.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singleton noted \u201ca lot of people didn’t agree with (King) about his non-violent movement.  But he talked about the impact of boycotting.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salisbury, Md.’s daily newspaper the following day quoted King as saying, \u201cThe Negro stands on the border of the promised land of integration.  The new order brings new responsibilities, challenging him to make the world spiritually one as well as geographically one.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If King spoke from prepared remarks, those in the audience could not detect it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was clear\u201d to Laws, at least, \u201cthat he spoke from his heart.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

King’s \u201cvery authoritative voice,\u201d commanded everyone’s attention, Laws said.  \u201cYou could also feel his sincerity in his delivery.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mitchell said she can still hear the \u201csound of his voice.  He had something in him – some kind of spirit.  When he spoke, it did something to your body.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Clay, six decades later, \u201cthe one thing that stood out that day was one of his famous quotes: ‘Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase<\/em>.’\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has stayed with me through the years,\u201d said Clay, who studied home economics education.  \u201cI used it in my career. I used it working with organizations and students. It molded my thinking.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singleton, who served in the U.S. Army before enrolling at Maryland State, said King’s speech and his reputation guided him \u201cto try and do some of the things he did.  I’m not the spokesman he was.  But I tried to give and help organizations and people.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the ensuing years, Singleton’s generosity to his alma mater is unmatched; he holds the distinction of being the institution’s single-largest individual donor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singleton went on to a career in higher education administration and worked at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he had the opportunity to meet Coretta Scott King<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he made a point of telling Mrs. King that her late husband had been the speaker at his 1959 graduation from Maryland State. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was just so elated to be there,\u201d Singleton said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1959 alumni reflect on their encounter with Martin Luther King Jr. Thursday, May 23, 2019 Charles Laws was a senior at Maryland State College in September 1958 when \u201cStride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story\u201d by the minister of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Alabama’s capital city was published.  Laws read the book because its 29-year-old author, the…Read more \u2018He had something in him – some kind of spirit\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1717,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-1716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1716"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=1716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}