The Dangerous Book of Heroes Read online

  There were obstacles in his way, not least from other organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which preferred to fight battles in the courts and overturn unfair laws rather than organize mass protests. King recruited individual pastors, knowing that through their influence he could reach their congregations as well.

  In 1957 the movement to end segregation was gaining pace but against massive opposition. The integration crisis at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas was internationally publicized. Under federal legislation, schools could not be segregated by race. On the first day of the school year, nine black students, carefully chosen by the school board, showed up to attend the all-white school.

  That day the governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, chose to send 270 National Guardsmen to the school, where white protesters were lined up to bar the black students. He claimed he called in the guard to prevent the disorder that could follow black students joining a white school, but the guards seemed to think their job was to prevent them entering at all. The nine young students showed up on the second day accompanied by two white and two black ministers, but the guard refused them entry. News cameras captured the scene and the abuse they suffered at the hands of the angry white crowd. When they returned to the school another day, hate mobs showed up ready for violence. President Eisenhower was forced to send eleven hundred paratroopers to restore order, while the black students were smuggled out to safety. It was a deeply shocking event, and Governor Faubus then closed all schools in Little Rock rather than accept desegregation. He was reelected for four more terms after that, showing the sort of opposition men like Martin Luther King had to overcome just to be accepted as citizens.

  In that same year and perhaps influenced by the incidents at Little Rock, the 1957 Civil Rights Act was passed. Its stated aim was to increase black voter registration. At that time, the black population was around 10 percent of the whole and only 20 percent of those were registered voters. Martin Luther King wanted black people to be part of the democratic process. Without voting, he knew change would be even slower and more painful.

  The struggle was never going to be easy—not least because only whites could serve on a jury, so it was practically impossible to get a conviction on race-related crimes in some parts of the country.

  Nevertheless, King drove himself to exhaustion. Over eleven years, he wrote five books and countless articles, spoke at more than twenty-five hundred public gatherings, and traveled some six million miles. As well as President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon, he met heads of state in countries as far away as Ghana and India. He was a visible figurehead of the civil rights movement and also the prime target for those who wanted no change at all.

  In 1960, King became involved in nonviolent “sit-in” protests, which involved thousands of black students going to restaurants and department stores where black people were usually refused service. Inspired by King’s writing on nonviolent protest, they then sat in silence and refused to respond even if struck. Those protests were extremely successful and ended segregation in restaurants, libraries, and other institutions in more than twenty southern cities. King himself took part in a sit-in and was arrested with fifty-one others and jailed.

  The judge who heard his case had met King before. He had in fact given King a one-year suspended sentence for driving in Georgia with Alabama plates. That period of probation was still running, and although the charges for the sit-in were dropped, the delighted judge sentenced King to four months of hard labor.

  When the news became public, presidential candidate John F. Kennedy called Coretta King and offered to help. His brother Senator Robert Kennedy then called both the governor and the judge and secured King’s release on bail. King was more than a little relieved to be out of Georgia State Prison. Both he and his father publicly supported the Kennedy bid for the presidency, and on November 8, 1960, Kennedy won by a margin of only 112,000 votes—out of 69 million votes cast.

  Between 1960 and 1963, King was highly active in the civil rights struggle. At one point he was trapped inside a church by a white mob and had to be rescued by the National Guard, while his supporters were beaten up, jailed, and even shot as they tried to carry out nonviolent protests. Again and again, white and black moderates told him that he was going too fast, that they should wait a little longer, but he was impatient for real change.

  In 1963 he was arrested and jailed again in Birmingham, Alabama, for taking part in a demonstration against segregation in department stores. At that time, Birmingham was a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity and there were many incidents of brutality against black residents, including firebombing their homes. Once again, King put himself in danger. In prison, he wrote his famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” It is almost a manifesto for nonviolent protest and a warning to those who chose to ignore the winds of change beginning to sweep the country. More than a million copies were distributed, particularly in the North.

  Rather than make King a martyr, on that occasion the judge changed the charge to one of criminal contempt, which meant King left court a free man. He immediately jumped back to the fray. His supporters recruited thousands of black schoolchildren to join the protests, and the media watched in horror as police dogs and fire hoses were turned on the crowds. Not long afterward, President Kennedy made a promise that the issue of race would have no place in American life or law and prepared a new civil rights bill to be submitted to Congress. In January 1963, King was Time magazine’s Man of the Year, the first black man to be so honored.

  At last, King saw the approach of the sort of federal law he had always wanted. He had long said that it might not have been possible to legislate for integration but that it certainly was possible to legislate against segregation. Nonetheless, he would not sit back and wait for it to happen. In August 1963 he organized a march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 men, women, and children, all in support of the new bill. It was on that hot night, by the Lincoln Memorial, that Martin Luther King gave his most famous speech.

  “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slaveholders will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” He spoke with all the power of a southern preacher, building to a stirring climax of words and ideas that moved many of those who heard him to tears as he finished, “And when this happens…black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.’”

  In November 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated and the country mourned.

  Though it did not go far enough for King, Kennedy’s civil rights bill was passed in 1964 under President Johnson. That same year, King received the Nobel Peace Prize and donated the prize money to the civil rights movement.

  Copyright © 2009 by Matt Haley

  His work continued, and King broadened his cause to fight against poverty and oppose the Vietnam War. Overall King was arrested around twenty times and assaulted on at least four occasions. It did not stop him. Then, in April 1968, he went to Tennessee to lead a protest march for equal pay for black sanitation workers. There had been always been threats against his life from white extremists—even his plane to Memphis was delayed because of a bomb threat. It was simply part of the landscape in which he had chosen to work.

  King was standing on his hotel balcony with friends that night. James Earl Ray, a white man with a string of petty convictions, approached him and shot him once in the head. The killer escaped for a time and was eventually apprehended at Heathrow Airport in London. He would later be sentenced to ninety-nine years in prison, increased to one hundred after an escape attempt.

  Martin Luther King didn’t live to see the greater part of his work come to fruition. He would never have dared hope that within the lifetime of his supporters, a black man could become president of the United States. Coretta Kin
g had died in 2006, but the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who had been with King at that hotel in 1968, wept as the results of the 2008 presidential election were announced.

  Recommended

  Stride Toward Freedom by Martin Luther King Jr.

  A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Claybourne Carson

  Martin Luther King Jr. by Vincent P. Franklin

  Heroes

  When someone rows across the Atlantic, conquers Everest, or runs seven marathons in seven days, he is admired across the world. Our lives are gladdened by the achievement, and we feel that person has done something great. Such people are heroes because they inspire the rest of us, even if it’s just for a moment.

  Yet there is a second definition of hero: one who accomplishes something noble, risking it all in the process. Horatio Nelson may be the best example, as he lost his life defending against a tyranny that would have overrun the world. Most people can see the difference between Nelson and a baseball team winning the World Series.

  At no point do those definitions suggest that a hero must be likable. The heroism is in the life, in the achievement across just a short span of years, not in the men or women themselves, and whether they were a good friend, father, or mother. Good men sometimes do bad things, and it is even possible that many great achievements come about because an individual is attempting to atone for some sin, real or imagined, in the past.

  When the word is overused, it does reduce its impact, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. We cannot all stand against tyranny, though perhaps more of us should when we encounter its cold hands on a daily basis. Yet if a man is described as a hero for saving a child on a frozen lake, most of us can see that we could be that man. It is heroism within the bounds of possibility.

  Being aware that courage is still admired is not a danger to society—far from it. A “have-a-go hero” is a popular phrase for one who risks life and limb to stop a mugging or burglary, or even to have a word with a few kids causing trouble. It is an obvious truth to say there may be risk involved in such an action, but if every good man or woman turned away with eyes downcast, well, that would scorn the memories of Edith Cavell, Robert Scott, and Helen Keller, who would have waded in, eyesight or not.

  However we abuse the word, heroism will never be common or easy. The peculiar truth about humanity is that we deal with fear on a daily basis and that it often conquers us. That does not matter as long as we recognize that there are times when we must not “step off the curb” to let someone pass or something terrible happen.

  It is true that only a coward can be brave, as a man who feels no fear has conquered nothing. It is also true that when one person speaks up to stop some wrong, others often join in, desperately relieved that, at last, someone said something. It is not easy to be the one to speak up or to step in. If it was, we would not value and admire those who do. One final truth remains beyond the petty irritations of life in which we lose ourselves: all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

  The men and women in this book were sometimes possessed of incredible self-confidence and personal belief. Others doubted their every action to the point where they could hardly act at all. For some, their heroism is contained in a single moment, while others seem to have lived a life that stands out like a thread of gold. It may not be possible to live like Nelson, but we can be inspired by his life and others like it. We can know that in our history is the blood of greatness, and in our culture, for all its flaws and dark misdeeds, there can also be light.

  Searchable Terms

  Note: Entries in this index, carried over verbatim from the print edition of this title, are unlikely to correspond to the pagination of any given e-book reader. However, entries in this index, and other terms, may be easily located by using the search feature of your e-book reader.

  Note: Bold page locators indicate chapter entries.

  Adams, John, 21, 327, 332, 339, 340

  Adventure, 111–14, 116, 117

  Afghanistan, 36, 252, 268–69

  Agamemnon, 276–77, 279

  Alamo, siege of, 193–207

  Albemarle, 275, 417

  Alcock, John “Jackie,” 368–82

  Aldrin, Edwin “Buzz,” 344, 346–48 Alfred (the Great), 170

  Allenby, Edmund, 229–32

  American Airlines: Flight 11, 247–48; Flight 77, 248–50

  American War of Independence, 142, 172, 274; and Boone, 49–52; and Washington, 12–20, 22

  Amundsen, Roald, 418–22, 425, 428

  Antarctica: and Cook, 105, 112–16; and Scott, 411–33

  Apollo 11, 346–48

  Armstrong, Neil, 344, 346–48

  Atkinson, Edward Leicester, 429–32

  aviation, 57–73, 246–52, 306–14, 366–82

  Bader, Douglas, 72, 441

  Ball, Albert, 308, 310, 311

  Banks, Joseph, 325, 333, 339, 340

  Barne, Michael, 414, 417, 418

  Baseden, Yvonne, 187

  battle of Britain, 57–73, 262–63

  Beaverbrook, Lord (Max Aitken), 61–62, 64, 73

  Beck, Martin, 402, 404–5

  Behn, Aphra, 138

  Bell, Alexander Graham, 94–95, 98–99

  Bell, Gertrude, 226, 232

  Bernacchi, Louis, 412, 413

  Bishop, Billy, 306–14

  Blake, William, 175–76

  Bletchley Park, 315–24

  Bligh, William, 117–20, 284, 325–41

  Bloch, Denise, 186

  Boer War, 257–60

  Bonaparte. See Napoléon Bonaparte

  Boone, Daniel, 44–56

  Bounty, 123, 325–41

  Bourdillon, Tom, 127, 128

  Bowers, Henry “Birdie,” 423–33

  Bowie, Jim, 196–200, 203–4, 206

  Braddock, Edward, 6–8, 46

  Bradley, John, 300, 303–5

  Bradley, Joseph, 216–17

  Bridgman, Laura, 94, 95, 97

  Brown, Arthur “Teddy,” 368–82

  Brueys, François, 280–82

  Bryan, Daniel, 55

  Burgoyne, John, 15

  Burnett, Thomas, 248, 249

  Burton, Edward, 34–36

  Burton, Isabel Arundell, 41, 42–43

  Burton, Richard Francis, 34–43, 234

  Buxton, Thomas, 145, 146

  Byron, George Gordon, 42–43, 55

  Cavell, Edith, 165–69, 446

  Chamberlain, Neville, 261–62

  Charles I, 84–85, 87–89

  Charles II, 89–92, 209–10, 223

  Cherry-Garrard, Apsley, 421, 429–30, 432, 433

  Christian, Fletcher, 325–29, 332–33, 335–41

  Churchill, Winston, 82, 182, 232, 253–65, 315–16, 438; and battle of Britain, 61, 67–68, 70, 72, 73

  Clarkson, Thomas, 140–47, 360

  Clerke, Charles, 117, 123

  Clinton, Henry, 16, 18

  Cody, William “Buffalo Bill,” 160–61

  Colditz prisoners, 434–42

  Collingwood, Cuthbert, 277–78, 287–88, 290, 292

  Collins, Michael (astronaut), 344, 346

  Collins, Michael (Irish leader), 261

  computers, first, 315–24

  Constitution, U.S., 20–21, 81

  Cook, James, 19, 103–24, 274, 329, 330, 423

  Cooper, James Fenimore, 50, 55

  Cornwallis, Charles, 15, 16, 18

  Crockett, Davy, 47, 197, 199–206

  Cromwell, Oliver, 83–92, 208–9

  Crook, George, 154–56

  Culloden, 277, 278, 281

  Custer, George, 153–54, 157–60

  Dahl, Jason, 246, 248

  Dalrymple, Alexander, 106, 111, 114

  De Valera, Eamon, 261, 262

  Dickens, Charles, 94

  Dickinson, Susanna, 199, 200, 203–6

  Dinwiddie, Robert, 3–4

  Discovery, 117–19, 121, 123, 411–13, 416–17, 424
>
  Dowding, Hugh, 60–69, 72, 73

  Drake, Francis, 117, 381, 383–96

  Eleanor of Aquitaine, 75

  Elizabeth I, 383, 385–90, 392–94

  Elizabeth II, 82, 130, 264

  Endeavour, 106–11, 116

  Enigma, 315–19

  Evans, Charles, 127, 128

  Evans, Edgar “Taff,” 416, 419, 424–27, 429, 433