Reflections from Martin Luther King, Jr ~ 1954

For Dr. King the Confederate flag symbolized much more than ‘state’s rights.’

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr (p. 42) – Edited by Claiborne Carson

“Not long after I arrived (in Montgomery, Alabama) a friend was gracious enough to take me by the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where I was to preach the following morning.  A solid brick structure erected in Reconstruction days, it stood at one corner of a handsome square not far from the center of town.  As we drove up, I noticed diagonally across the square a stately white building of impressive proportions and arresting beauty, the State Capitol – – one of the finest examples of classical Georgian architecture in American.  Here on January 7, 1861, Alabama voted to secede from the Union, and on February 18, on the steps of the portico, Jefferson Davis took his oath of office as President of the Confederates States.  For this reason, Montgomery has been known across the years as the Cradle of the Confederacy.  Here the first Confederate flag was made and unfurled.  I was to see this imposing reminder of the Confederacy from the steps of the Dexter Avenue Baptists Church many times in the following years.”