Day Seven

Up and at ‘em, another fun day to be had in the ATL.  We got up, got dressed, the girls had run out of matching outfits so they were down to wearing clothes in the same color family or similarly themed clothes.  We ate with the family and then it was time to go over to the other hotel to see if the other family members where ready to go to the Martin Luther King, Junior Memorial.

As we waited for the family to get dressed, Mona and I realized Mort was a genius.  By him keeping all five boys, he gets excused out of stuff. 

“Oh, I’d come over there but all the boys aren’t up yet.”

“We’ll be there as soon as Renee gets back with breakfast for the boys.”

The list of excuses he could come up with was endless because he and his wife are caring for five boys.  Five boys who are ages 13, 11, almost 9, and two 7-year-olds, so he’s not dealing with a bunch of little kids.  But that implied and stated I’m caring for five boys gives him a free pass. 

Mort called and said, he couldn’t come to the hotel.  You know cause he has the five boys, but he would meet us at the memorial.  Genius, he is.  Genius.

By 1:30PMish, we were on the road.  We got there and our first stop was inside the famous Ebenezer Baptist Church, where MLK , Jr. went as a child, was ordained as a minster, co-pastored until his death, where his funeral was held, and where his mom and a deacon were murdered one Sunday morning.  In the sanctuary, they were playing recordings of his sermons.  I decided to skip the gift shop and instead slowly pushed the girls in the humid heat up to his childhood home.  Unfortunately after someone stole a radio from Dr. King’s home (and decided to sell it on e-bay – REALLY?!?!!), you can only go on guided tours which are booked within the first thirty minutes of the MLK Memorial Center opening.  So all we could do was look at his home from the outside and the other homes surrounding him.

We stopped at the burial site of Rev. Dr. and Mrs. King and saw the eternal flame, before we headed into the Martin Luther King, Jr Center for Nonviolent Social Change.  Quotes from his speeches hung above,  a photographic history of the lives of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, along with exhibit cases displaying unique artifacts of their lives, such as clothes, what he packed in his suitcase, awards and medals he won.

It was enjoyable and probably would have been more so if Layla hadn’t had a breakdown.  This baby and hot, humid weather obviously weren’t friends.  Layla wanted to be picked up and I told her screaming little girls couldn’t be picked up, particularly sleepy ones because they had the tendency to wake up as soon as they are put back in their stroller to sleep comfortably.  So obviously this Center wasn’t explored so closely though by the time we got to the gift shop she had calmed down and I was able to peruse a book written by Coretta Scott King’s sister about Coretta.

We crossed the street to see the shotgun houses that were there when MLK was a child, some of them still had people living in them.  Then we headed in to the visitor center and saw a short film about his younger years.  We walked around and saw various exhibits from his life.  The kids stood on the freedom walk where they had “people” who took part of Dr. King’s walks on a road in mid-stride.  It was interesting to see this exhibit, to think of the people they represented, people who gave their time, some even their lives, so others could have freedoms they could only dream of or imagined.

There was one room dedicated to Rev. King’s death and funeral.  Some of the photos, I had never seen before.  We saw a miniature replica of the MLK Memorial in DC.  The one thing that struck me as odd were the lack of quotes or excerpts from his speeches that mentioned God.  Here was this man, who was a PK, reared in the church, was a Christian, got his Divinity degree, became a pastor, yet the names: God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, were nowhere to be seen unless I completely missed them.  My mom said in some of the quotes and material it was implied.  Yes, I understood that.  But where were his words where they weren’t implied, but were stated firmly, boldly.  Even the lack of use of his title, Reverend, was noticeable to me especially since it's absent from his Memorial in DC.

On a cruise, I caught the end of a documentary about Gandhi.  And they said in his later years, he would at times test his strength by sleeping in the bed with naked young teen girls.  I was shocked by this and then when I saw a picture of Gandhi hanging proudly in Dr. King’s home, I thought that was odd.  But maybe this revelation about Gandhi wasn’t known back then.  And interestingly enough  in DC, the quotes on his memorial lack any mention of God, too. 

Yes, I know blurry.  This is what you see when you first walk into the church.

 I am only dreaming or is this burning an eternal flame?

 Outside of the King Center

 Rev. King's Childhood home with random people ruining my shot

 The shotgun houses that MLK saw as a child

The replica of the Stone of Hope in DC with the quote, "Out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope."  This quote was taken from his I Have a Dream speech.  On the other side is the quote,"I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness,” a statement suggested by Dr. King himself when describing how he would like to be remembered.

 The freedom walkers with random people stopping me from taking this picture.  Oops, those are my younger cousins on the side of this photo, my bad.

 Not sure who that woman is behind my girls there.

Look at Kayla being nice to the freedom walker

The carriage that carried the body of Rev. King, Jr.

 The cross that laid on top of his coffin

 The wagon symbolized Rev. King's work among the poor and I believe I read the donkeys represented his humility.

This funeral home was in exsistence when MLK was a child growing up in the neighborhood.  This funeral home is like two blocks from his home and church.

After leaving MLK National Park, we went out to dinner as a family, where we were surprised by some cousins who drove four hours to come say, “Hi” to us.  It was nice seeing them.  An evening with family, followed by a lovely dip in the pool.

A nice way to end another day in Atlanta with Rowan dying to play the card came I had taught her.