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Show I n Defense Of King evil or subversive. Guilt by assas-ination assas-ination is an injustice. Bain mentions Anne and Carl Bradens among the disreputable friends of Martin Luther King Jr. Let me say this concerning them: The Bradens organized the Southern South-ern Conference Education Fund (SCEF) to educate people about the injustices in the South. A long time ago, Anne and Carl Braden were the only whites who had the courage to live and walk in t h e Negro slums of Louisville. For years they have had the faith and support of Louisville Negroes. Before Be-fore the civil rights movement began, be-gan, Anne and Carl Braden spoke and acted out their belief in equality equali-ty and brotherhood. The Real Threat It is people who think like Bain who charge SCEF representatives in Appalachia with sedition because they have the "Essential Works of Marxism" in their homes (along with "Conscience of a Conservative.") Conserva-tive.") The work of Anne and Carl Braden Bra-den is not only a testimony to their hope for a better society; but a testimony to the bigotry and cppresiveness of our current white society; a society that once bombed the Braden home, and more than once jailed them for believing Negroes Ne-groes to be a part of the human race. The only thing I have against the Bradens is that Anne Braden once gave me a kitten that wasn't house broken and it was so intolerable in-tolerable I had to give it to the animal shelter. In conclusion, I assert that the real threat to our social structure, the real threat to freedom and democracy are people like Bill Bain. George Jensen h Editor: I remember hearing Martin Lu- ther King Jr. speak at a voter's 1;. registration rally in Louisville, Ky. last year. This was shortly after - the Detroit riot and I remember Martin Luther King Jr. condemning rioting as only destructive and senseless; something to the effect : that there were 45 people dead; 45 Negroes. I remember Martin ' Luther King Jr., linking the senseless sense-less war in Vietnam with the crisis cri-sis situation of poverty and discrimination discrim-ination in America; linking the two with all the fire of a Baptist minister and all the logic of an inspired, in-spired, brilliant man. As the tide of black nationalism and the provocations of Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown rose, as all the other prominent Luther King Jr. for speaking out on the Vietnam war, I remember wondering if Martin Luther King Jr. would change his views. He didn't. It was the other Negro leaders lead-ers who resigned their previous criticism and stood with Martin Luther King Jr. Didn't Endorse Roits Stokely and Rap are symbols of disillusionment. When King spoke at the funeral of four little Negro girls who were killed when their church was bombed, he reasserted his dream of equality and freedom and brotherhood of men, for faith in his white brothers. Bill Bain's letter was a stupid ; waste of newsprint. His ideas are 1 warped and wrong. Martin Luther King Jr., did disavow those who turned the peaceful march in Memphis Mem-phis into violence, contrary to what Bain asserts. Bain further believes that the participants in peaceful marches should share the blame for violence they do not instigate. The absurdity of this belief needs no clarification. " Then Bain does the paranoid, right-wing thing, trying to mislead mis-lead people into thinking Dr. King was a communist (he does this regardless of saying he is not calling call-ing King a communist) Bain is right when he says, "There is too much of the ready acceptance of the label. . ." Were His Friends Evil? It is fallacious reasoning to assume as-sume that because the communist party espouses and supports the cause of civil rights that the cause of civil rights and its leaders are |
