Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. knew he could be killed while fighting racial and economic injustice in America, but the threat did not deter him from his cause, a Chattanooga resident recalled.

“He knew that he (might) be killed, but death was no reason to stop,” said Russell Goode, who played piano at the funeral in Atlanta after Dr. King’s assassination on April 4, 1968.

Mr. Goode is one of many local and area residents observing the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination today. The Nobel Peace Prize winner and civil rights leader was shot and killed while standing outside the Lorraine Motel in Memphis at age 39.

Mr. Goode took part in the civil rights movement with Dr. King for nearly a decade by raising money, playing freedom songs during meetings and marching with him at rallies.

He played at Dr. King’s funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. King assisted his father as co-pastor, and accompanied the late Mahalia Jackson when she sang at Dr. King’s memorial service at Morehouse College.

“He knew he would be assassinated.” Mr. Goode said. “He gave his life to free us from the mess we were in.”

The Rev. Paul McDaniel, who attended Morehouse College with Dr. King in 1948, said he and his late wife Edna were getting ready to visit the late Bishop James Niedergeses when they heard the radio announcement of the assassination. Instead of discussing community concerns, the couple met with the pastor and prayed for the King family and the community, he said.

“He made a significant contribution, not only to the country, but to the world,” Mr. McDaniel said.

A mutual friend, the Rev. Larry Williams, of Atlanta, brought Mr. McDaniel and Dr. King together at Morehouse College. Both men were participants in the same ministers club. Dr. King, the club president, was the son of a prominent pastor who was a trustee at Morehouse.

Mr. McDaniel said Dr. King wasn’t at the top of his class, but he was well educated and prepared to be a leader. He was a cordial person and a good speaker, Mr. McDaniel said.

Marietta, Ga., resident Lamar Weaver said he met Dr. King in the 1960s when he attended a community meeting at Dr. King’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

Mr. Weaver said Dr. King was motivated by a desire to right a wrong in society and was inspired by Dr. King’s selfless efforts to help others.

“He was a very concerned person about other people, always trying to help other people and work for the betterment of mankind,” Mr. Weaver said.

Mr. McDaniel said the civil rights movement and Dr. King’s work have helped the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

“Certainly he benefited from the civil rights movement,” Mr. McDaniel said. “It opened the voter registration lines, but he’s just an amazing phenomenon.”

The Rev. Bernie Miller said every member of a minority race, every woman and all nationalities benefit from the civil rights movement because all of them have suffered injustice.

“(Sen.) Obama is the product of the civil rights movement. The movement isn’t something that just happened in the ’60s,” he said. “There is an eternal flame burning on John Kennedy’s grave. Anyone who looks at the flame and remembers the injustices and says they want to make a difference and steps out, be it political or otherwise, I believe they become beneficiaries of what the flame represents.”

Mr. McDaniel said that at times people hated Dr. King and questioned why he had a right to violate laws in the name of Christian religion. There were some people who told Dr. King to love the country or leave it, Mr. McDaniel said.

He said Dr. King’s home was bombed, he was stabbed and he was put in jail 30 times.

The March on Washington, led by Dr. King in 1963, preceded the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin.

E-mail Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com

‘I HAVE A DREAM’ EXCERPT

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which he delivered Aug. 28, 1963, at the March on Washington, mentioned Lookout Mountain:

“... So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California.

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”

MARTIN LUTHER KING TIMELINE

* Jan. 15, 1929 — Born to the Rev. Michael Luther King and schoolteacher Alberta King.

* June 8, 1948 — Graduates from Morehouse College

* Winter 1954 — Interviewed to be pastor of First Baptist Church in Chattanooga. Church members selected the Rev. Herman H. Battle for the job in March 1954.

* Sept. 1, 1954 — Appointed pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala.

* 1955 — Led Montgomery bus boycott

* 1957 — Forms and becomes president of Southern Christian Leadership Conference

* August 28, 1963 — Leads March on Washington and delivers “I Have a Dream” speech to almost 250,000 people.

* Dec. 10, 1964 — Wins the Noble Peace Prize

* April 3, 1968 — In Memphis to lead a march with striking sanitation workers. He delivered his last speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” during a rally at Mason Temple.

* April 4, 1968 — Assassinated at age 39 while on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

* Nov. 2, 1983 — President Ronald Reagan signed legislation for a national M.L. King Holiday.

* Jan. 26, 1986 — First observance of M.L. King Holiday nationwide.

Source: News reports, http://afroamhistory.about.com/cs/martinlutherking/a/timeline_mlk.htm

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