"A man who won't die for something is not fit to live" Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has been an inspiration to countless individuals over the years. As a man his efforts lead to equality for African Americans in the United States in the culmination of the Civil Rights Movement. His legacy long after his passing continues to inspire people to follow their beliefs and challenge the impossible all around the world.

I myself was inspired by the works and teachings of Dr. King as a young boy growing up in the Bahamas. To the extent that I remember writing a 5th grade report about the life of Dr. King. For a ten year old reading about the civil rights movement, and the significance of what he and his followers went through while fighting for what they believed in empowered me to believe that any goals that I set for myself can be achieved despite the level of adversity set forth to deter. As a ten year old boy, although I had been raised in the Anglican Chruch and had been taught the teachings of Jesus Christ and his disciples, they always seemed more like stories rather than the factual accounts of what happened. However the story of Dr. King amazed me because by all accounts he was a man, a man who lived and died among the people but challenged everyone around him to do better in their lives and be a better person for themselves and for everyone around them. While reading about the pure hatred that black people experienced solely due to the color of their skin was surreal for a ten year old, when no ice cream after dinner was the extent of the injustice I routinely had to face. So for a ten year old boy living in the Bahamas the story of Dr. King was like the retelling of Jesus Christ with factual representation similar to the adversity that Jesus Christ faced in the bible for his beliefs and the message he sought to convey.  It gave me hope that being a good person and living a life of steadfast determination can have impact on the world.

For those of you who do not know, the population of the Bahamas is >90% of African descent. This was another reason why the story of Dr. King became such a staple in the foundation of my personal beliefs. When I read  the stories of the persecutions, lynchings and pure hatred black people in America were subjected to, it made me think that this could have been the Bahamas, this could have been my family and 40 years earlier this could have been me if that was where we lived. It gave me an appreciation that as human beings we do not control the fate that we are born into but we can shape our own destiny. There is no great story about the fight for civil rights in the Bahamas. Even dating back to the days of slavery, the Bahamas was known for less stringent slave laws and slaves were commonly known to marry into the families of their Master. Therefore, a history of equality between the races is at the basis of Bahamian heritage.  However as a ten year old boy living in the Bahamas in 1994, when I observed the apparent equality among the races in the Bahamas  I attributed this equality directly to the works of Dr. King. I figured the two must have been directly related. At the age of ten years old, the civil rights movement from thirty years earlier seemed like 3 lifetimes ago because for me it was. So in my mind the ability to get to this point of equality for all races  undoubtedly meant that Dr. King had succeeded  in his efforts and the fact that I had friends of all colors and races in my class was due in large part to his accomplishments. I did not comprehend that it was a little more complicated than that, and that the struggle of blacks in America was not exactly the struggles of blacks everywhere around the world and particularly the Bahamas. Furthermore I did not realize that even after everything that Dr. King had achieved the struggle was on going. But because of my logic, I grew up believing that I had a lot to thank Dr. King for, and in actuality I do, we all do.

Sunset in Bimini

It was not until many years later that I realized that Dr. King had an extensive relationship with the Islands of the Bahamas and the people who inhabited it. He was known to frequent the Bahamas often in particular the island of Bimini, one of the smallest islands in the Bahamas 50 miles off of the coast of Miami, Florida. He was said to have written his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in the Bahamas while vacationing with his family. The island of Bimini was also the last place he visited before his passing. It has been said that the island resonated with Dr. King, and he believed that the evidence of God's existence was validated by the creation of such a beautiful place. Little did he know just as the islands had mesmerized him personally, his life's work would forever impact a people he believed to be akin to, the inhabitants of the Bahamas.

Fast forward to 2002 and becoming an adult attending undergraduate education at an Historically Black University, Clark Atlanta University, in the heart of the establishment of the civil rights movement Atlanta, GA. I soon came to realize that the extent of the struggles that epitomized the fight for equality and the civil rights movement shaped the founding of the city of Atlanta and HBCUs like Morehouse College, Spellman College and Clark Atlanta University. We were further educated on the efforts of Civil Right leaders Like Dr. King, Malcolm X and Dr. Jesse Jackson and the substantial role they played in advocating for the education of black people as an essential right.

Atlanta City  Skyline

Going to school in Atlanta was a great experience for many reasons. From a historical standpoint ,I got to walk through the house that Dr. King grew up in with his siblings. That was amazing, because as a ten year old boy reading about Dr. King I never dreamed that I would one day walk through the halls of the house being vividly described in the books I was reading. Right next to our campus was Paschal's restaurant, an establishment known to serve as headquarters for Dr. King and other Civil rights leaders, where they planned 'The Movement'. I also had a chance to meet Rev. Joesph Lowery, one of the civil rights leader who vividly recounted what they went though and the atmosphere surrounding the significance of the impossible task they were undertaking. Just living in Atlanta was a history lesson in itself but in stark contrast to the history of Atlanta is to see what the civil rights movement has lead to. What the city of Atlanta has become instills a deep level of appreciation for everything that was sacrificed in the process by the many people willing to battle injustice in the form of bigotry.

Dr. Martin Luther King's Childhood home

The highlight of my experiences of living in the shadow of Dr. King, Atlanta, came in the highest form of flattery, when chosen to speak at a function memorializing Dr. King and his works. Every year the US Embassy in the Bahamas hosts a "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Essay Contest." The purpose of the essay contest is to encourage students around the Bahamas to explore the Life of Dr. King and reflect on how civil rights and diversity affect their lives today. Several participants who entered the competition were chosen to fly to Atlanta to experience the life, history and culture of Dr. King and his work during the civil rights movement which culminated in a dinner hosted by one of the daughters of Dr. King, Bernice King. It was at this dinner that I was afforded the opportunity to speak, as a Bahamian living/schooling in Atlanta  to the emerging youth of the Bahamas. In that moment I reflected on the circle of my life in concord with the teachings of Dr. King. It made me confront the reality that similar to the way that Dr. King served as a role model to me through his teachings and his vigor to pursue one's beliefs with steadfast determination, I too had become a role model for the youth of the Bahamas, by achieving my goals of attaining a PhD  in Molecular Biology. A goal I had never envisioned at the age of ten but is now a reality.

So for that I would like to say thank you Dr. King for helping me to believe in my dreams and helping me become what you had envisioned so many years ago.





Photo credit: Old Shoe Woman / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA, Photo credit: DrewMyers / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA, Photo credit: WilliamMarlow / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA, Photo credit: miamism / Foter.com / CC BY, Photo credit: crosscreations / Foter.com / CC BY-SA, Photo credit: Stuck in Customs / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA