Overview: Living in the Shadows of a Legend
"Living in the Shadows of a Legend:
Unsung Heroes & Sheroes Who Marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr"
It is frequently said that a man's legacy is determined by those he develops to come after him. If that is true, then Martin Luther King Jr. led a rich life, indeed. Literally dozens of those who followed and worked side by side with Dr. King in forging the civil rights movement, including former Ambassador Andy Young, Rainbow/PUSH Chairman Jesse Jackson, Center for Democratic Renewal Chairman C.T. Vivian, SCLC President Emeritus Joseph E. Lowery, Congressman John Lewis, former Congressman Walter Fauntroy, comedian/activist Dick Gregory -- have gone on to create rich legacies of their own.
However, there are far more lesser known -- yet no less courageous or sacrificial followers of Dr. King -- who have also stayed faithful to the dream of equality for all men that are glowing examples of Dr. King's unique and unprecedented impact on those who joined his cause.
They include:
– The one-time San Francisco dock worker who saw the shameless police brutality unleashed upon men, women and children marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the right to vote on "Bloody Sunday" and headed East to join Dr. King's movement and has been there ever since.
– The dentist who braved segregationists in St. Augustine in a fight to lead black people to believe they did not have to be second class citizens and persisted in fighting the good fight even after being kidnapped by the Ku Klux Klan and having his house shot into.
– The only known minister to be ordained by Dr. King, he became the first person in the nation to challenge the public accommodations act and also was the first "mainstream" minister to open his church doors to the man who has now become the most powerful black leader in America.
– A lady who constantly tested the open housing ordinances in the urban North, marched with Dr. King in Chicago and was the person credited with motivating Rev. Jesse Jackson to run for President.
What was so special about Dr. King that drove his followers to continue the dream with all the fervor and the zeal he invigorated them with even today - more than 30 years after his death? Why was his ability to inspire the "common man" so much greater than that of Kennedy, Roosevelt, or even Malcolm X?
This book is an effort to profile these foot soldiers of the movement -- men and women who were touched by the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. And although he was struck down by an assassin's bullet on April 4, 1968, this project is a glimpse into how they have each achieved a glimmer of greatness in their own right and how his legacy continues to live through them.
Read Chapters from Living in the Shadows of a Legend...