Martin Luther King Jr. was so funny he even had his own catch phrase!
Which reminds me—one weakness of fascism is its humorlessness.
Everyone who knew Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. says the man was straight-up hilarious.
Dr. King’s closest friend and colleague, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, swears that if King had not taken the path of a civil rights leader, he could have been a professional comedian.
The following description of a young Martin Luther King as a 23-24 year old Ph.D. student at Boston University is classic, but his little MLK catch phrase is too much!
“‘Martin was in the center of it all,’ one friend later commented, ‘as we discussed topics of interest.”
“King’s easy warmth and charm made him an attractive figure on campus. One friend described him as a ‘very amiable’ person who liked parties and was generous with his money: ‘He was like a prince,’ one friend recalled. A skilled mimic and comic, King developed a private language with the other students. Biting into a hot dog at his favorite restaurant, King would say, ‘Doctor, this is a great institution.’ The expression became his signature, and he would apply it in many situations.”
From The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Volume II, Clayborne Carson, et al, eds. (1994)
“Doctor, this is a great institution”?!?!?!
Are you kidding me?
MLK LOL!
One more King quote…
“Now the racists don’t understand this apparently, but our destinies are tied together. And somehow, we must all learn to live together as brothers in this country or we’re all going to perish together as fools. Our destinies are tied together.
....
John Donne was right. No man is an island and the tide that fills every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. And he goes on toward the end to say, ‘any man’s death diminishes me because I’m involved in mankind. Therefore, ask not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.’ Somehow we must come to see that in this pluralistic, interrelated society we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And by working with determination and realizing that power must be shared, I think we can solve this problem, and may I say in conclusion that our goal is freedom and I believe that we’re going to get there. It’s going to be more difficult from here on in but I believe we’re going to get there because however much she strays away from it, the goal of America is freedom.”
—Martin Luther King Jr. (1968)
Thanks Drew! It’s happening. 👍✊✌️
Beautiful!!