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Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Monday. As in any other year, there will be a host of tributes paid to Rev. Dr. King and his role in the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. Yet while Americans may rarely connect him to the Caribbean, he is honored there as well, and had ties to its countries and peoples.
The Philadelphia Tribune explored these ties in 2018.
The Caribbean influenced Martin Luther King and he influenced it
Most articles and papers that covered his visit to the region, chronicled his visits to be in or around the early 1960s. He visited Puerto Rico in 1962. Here he met Roberto Clemente, who would become one of Puerto Rico’s heroes. He visited the Bahamas in 1965 and returned in 1968. Bahamians proudly point out that King wrote his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech while visiting their country in 1965 and on a return trip in 1968 he wrote his “Sanitation Workers Speech.” He visited Jamaica several times in 1965 and the years that followed.
What could have been the magnet that drew him back to the Jamaican shores? Could it have been the magnet of intolerance for inhumane treatment? Did he feel that by observing their interactions, he could find a solution to the heartless treatment from the oppressors back in the States who still classified Black people as subhuman, two thirds of a person?
The magnet or pull that attracted King to the Caribbean region, specifically Jamaica is that it was a majority Black country that was free. Excerpts from an article originally written in the Jamaican Gleaner, said that King was invited by the University of the West Indies in Mona to be the keynote speaker during a commencement ceremony. His reputation preceded him and the Jamaican government wanted the famous civil rights leader to also come and address the public at the National Stadium. He accepted the invitation because he regarded it as a prime opportunity to see, first-hand, a majority Black country enjoying its newly found freedom, the same freedom that he craved for Blacks in America.
Author James Ferguson wrote about King’s connection to Jamaica for Caribbean Beat magazine in 2015.
Out of many: Martin Luther King Jr and Jamaica
Martin Luther King, Jr, visited Jamaica in 1965, at the height of his fame. He roused audiences there with his soaring speeches, James Ferguson explains, but the newly independent nation inspired the Civil Rights hero just as indelibly
King’s arrival in Jamaica understandably sparked off enormous excitement. It was not an “official” visit — acting Prime Minister Hugh Shearer was away in London for a Commonwealth summit — but was in fact arranged by the University of the West Indies, which had asked King to deliver the annual valedictory sermon for graduating students.
So it was that several hundred graduates — plus an unspecified number of unofficial admirers — crammed into UWI’s Assembly Hall to hear the sermon. Remembering the event in the Jamaica Gleaner, Professor Patrick Bryan remarked, “It was an incredible experience to hear so strong and commanding a speaker, it was as if you were entranced when listening to him . . . He used no notes and talked without a hitch.” The sermon was entitled “Facing the Challenge of a New Age”, and one passage — when King urged his audience to excel in whatever field was theirs — is rightly famous:
”If it falls to our luck to be street-sweepers, sweep the streets like Raphael painted pictures, like Michelangelo carved marble, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, and like Beethoven composed music. Sweep the streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth would have to pause and say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper.’”
Consider the size of the crowd at University of the West Indies commencement ceremony:
Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr, visited Jamaica in June 1965 to deliver the sermon at the University of the West Indies’ valedictory service. pic.twitter.com/g69o4eWfym— AFRICAN & BLACK HISTORY (@AfricanArchives) April 14, 2022
While in Jamaica, King also paid tribute to Marcus Garvey. From the Jamaica Gleaner on June 23, 1965:
Garvey first to give Negroes a sense of dignity – King
“Marcus Garvey was the first man of colour in the history of the United States to lead and develop a mass movement. He was the first man on a mass scale and level to give millions to Negroes and make the Negro feel he was somebody,” the Rev Dr Martin Luther King said at Marcus Garvey’s shrine in the George VI Memorial Park yesterday.
Dr King had just laid a wreath at the shrine in the presence of His Excellency the Governor General, Sir Clifford Campbell; the Hon Edwin Allen who is acting as prime minister, other prominent public figures, and a crowd of 2,000.“You gave Marcus Garvey to the United States of America,” Dr King said, “and he gave to the millions of Negroes in the United States a sense of manhood, a sense of somebodiness.”
“As we stand here, let us pledge ourselves to continue the struggle in this same spirit of somebodiness in the conviction that all God’s children are significant … that God’s black children are just as significant as his white children. And we will not stop until we have freedom in all its dimensions.
The Gleaner collected photos from his 1965 visit to Jamaica and crafted a compelling montage.
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Yet another connection between Jamaica and King can be found in the city of Atlanta. Jamaican sculptor Basil Watson was chosen to craft a King monument for its Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Innovation Corridor. As Stephanie Corney wrote for Jamaica Magazine:
New Statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Jamaican-born sculptor Basil Watson Installed in Atlanta
Watson was chosen for the project from among 80 applicants. Basil Watson was officially named to create a new statue of Dr. King through an extensive selection process that began in 2018. He was chosen for the project in July of that year.
It was appropriate for a Jamaican sculptor to create the new monument as Dr. King made a notable visit to the island nation in 1965 where he emphasized how “at home” he felt there. “In Jamaica, I feel like a human being…” King said at the time. He then returned to Jamaica in 1967 for a vacation in Ocho Rios, where he finished writing his book, “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community.” In 1968, Dr. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, told an audience in Kingston that her husband had “a great affection for you as a people and was greatly inspired” by Jamaica’s motto: Out of Many, One People.
The statue was installed in 2021.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms and City leaders unveiled a 12-foot bronze statue of Martin Luther King Jr “Hope Moving Forward” created by Jamaican sculptor Basil Watson; selected from 80 submissions. Monument pays tribute to King’s walk toward peace and equality for all people. pic.twitter.com/LL1xLyYrQx— Wayne Chen (@wcchen) January 16, 2021
ARTSATL highlights how much the opportunity meant to Watson.
Basil Watson on public art, his family’s connection to MLK and his latest sculpture
For sculptor Basil Barrington Watson, the opportunity to create a 12-foot-tall bronze monument to mark the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s long fight for civil rights was more than a simple commission. It also was about family legacy.
His father, painter Barrington Watson, was a visiting professor at Spelman College in 1970 when the school asked that he paint a portrait of King. “When I submitted my proposal and it was accepted, it was like a continuation of my father’s legacy,” says Watson. “I considered it a great honor for my family and our history.”
CaribNationTV interviewed Watson as the statue was installed. The sculptor discusses the challenges faced and honor felt in sculpting King—and the role of sculpture in social justice.
YouTube Video
From the CaribNationTV YouTube video notes:
This personal description of his lifelong passion is what defines the work of Jamaican artist, Basil Barrington Watson. For more than 40 years, he has been translating life’s most important attributes – positive emotions and attitudes, the spirit of freedom and spontaneity, strength, beauty, energy and vigor – into finely crafted works of art.Born in Kingston, Jamaica, the son of internationally renowned painter Barrington Watson, it was a natural progression for Watson to study at the Jamaica School of Art. He then went on to establish a successful career as Jamaica’s leading sculptor. The most notable of his achievements include having monumental works on the campuses of the 3 primary universities in the island, as well as signature works at the 2 major Stadia. In 2016, the Government of Jamaica awarded Basil the Order of Distinction(Commander) in recognition of his contributions in the field of Art.
Jesse Serwer, writing for LargeUp in 2013, collected some Caribbean songs honoring King.
Here are a few of his selections:
Hopeton Overton Brown, also known as “The Scientist” and “The Dub Chemist,” included King on his 14-track “International Heroes Dub.”
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Slinger Francisco, the King of Calypso known as “The Mighty Sparrow,” recorded two tunes about King.
First, there was “Martin Luther King for President” in 1963.
YouTube Video
Consider the opening lyrics:
[Verse 1]
I was born in the U.S.A
But because of my colour I’m suffering today
Because of my colour I’m suffering today
The white man preaching democracy
But in truth and in fact it’s hypocrisy
Truth and in fact it’s hypocrisy
[Chorus]
So we want Martin Luther King for President
Tell the North and go tell the South, mama
(Martin Luther King for President)
Spread the story all about
(Martin Luther King for President)
Join together now and shout
(Martin Luther King for President)
When Kennedy’s finished without any doubt
(Martin Luther King for President)
[Verse 2]
Discrimination got to go
Lord, Lord I can’t take it no more
Lord you know we can’t take it no more
Preaching one thing but then practicing the next
Lord, Lord, I’m getting vexed
Lord, Lord, I’m getting vexed
Mighty Sparrow went on to record “Martin Luther King” in 1969, after the assassination.
YouTube Video
The song’s refrain is powerful.
It′s going be a long hard summer
Discrimination has gone too far
Luther King is dead and now this we cannot avoid
Segregation must be destroyed
Jamaica wasn’t the only West Indian country King visited. Dan Zazworsky, writing for FlyLords in 2021, recalled King’s peaceful time spent in the Bahamas.
“Take Me Somewhere Tranquil” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Legacy in the Bahamas
The Bahamas, especially Bimini, was a special place to the great Civil Rights Movement leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who we remember as a nation today. His favorite island was surely Bimini, where he spent two extended stays while penning a pair of his speeches, preferring the quiet solitude of the islands to clear his thoughts. The first visit was in 1964 while Dr. King was working on his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, and the second in 1968 to work on his final speech “I Have Been to the Mountaintop.” Both times he asked a local Bimini guide, Ansil Saunders to take him onto the flats in search of “somewhere tranquil.”
MLK’s influence is impossible to overstate. It moves well beyond our own country’s civil rights movement into global change.
In Bimini, an island in the Bahamas, MLK found a friend in Ansil Saunders. Ansil is a bonefish guide and community leader who speaks of MLK as a friend as genuine to your face as he was to millions on a stage. Dr. King enjoyed the solitude of Bimini to write and think. Four days before his assassination, they sat in Ansil’s boat, sharing psalms while Dr. King worked on his final speech – “I’ve been the to the mountain top.”
Often overlooked are King’s visits to Puerto Rico. Latino Rebels explored them in 2014.:
When Martin Luther King, Jr. Visited Puerto Rico
King visited the island at least two times in his life: in 1962 and in 1965. A 2011 feature in El Nuevo Dia talks about both the visits (translation is ours):
The first visit was in 1962, when [King] was invited by the Fellowship of Reconciliation to speak in what is now the Interamerican University in San Germán. He also spoke at the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras.
After receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965, King returned to speak at the World Convention of Churches of Christ and “was in a chapel of the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico where Martin Luther King publicly denounced and broke the evangelical silence on Vietnam War…”
[…]
The King Center also contains several examples of correspondence between Puerto Ricans and King, including one letter from the island’s Secretary of Education to King about Puerto Rico’s race problems. It is a must read that offers an insight that is rarely discussed: that racism in Puerto Rico is the product of an imposed colonial system with a quote that says it all, “In the United States, a man’s color determines what class he belongs to; in Puerto Rico a man’s class determines what color he is.”
In addition, there is the fact that Roberto Clemente met with King for a day in Puerto Rico (either in 1962 or 1964), and how King’s life deeply impacted the Puerto Rican baseball legend. It is discussed in the definitive book on Clemente’s life, as well as in this blog post from Common Dreams:
It might seem odd that Clemente, a proud Puerto Rican national, would have led such an extraordinary action. But Clemente, who had a passionate belief in social and economic justice, considered King a personal hero. He had even met face to face with Dr. King, spending a day together on Clemente’s farm in Puerto Rico.
King’s entire 1962 speech at the Interamerican University has been preserved.
Scribd Content
Religion vlogger The VegaPod devoted an episode to discussing those visits to Puerto Rico—including King’s open opposition to the Vietnam War. Puerto Rican newsclip coverage, and recaps his meetings with Puerto Rican icon Roberto Clemente.
YouTube Video
Join me in the comments for more coverage of MLK Day events—both here and in the Caribbean.
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