Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was known by many people throughout his life, and not all of them marched with him at Selma or attended the historic 1963 March on Washington.
Two prominent Washingtonians, Dr. Walter Leonard, the former president of Fisk University, and Hardy Franklin, the former head of the D.C. Public Library, knew Dr. King in his early years as a student at Morehouse and throughout his career as a civil rights leader.
Mr. Franklin recalls meeting Dr. King in 1948 while they were students at Morehouse College. He was two years behind Dr. King, but said that everyone on the Atlanta University complex knew who he was.
"I sang with the Glee Club, and we would go over to his father's church to sing," he said. "While there, we would sometimes hear him preach and he was excellent."
He confirmed that Dr. King was a good friend of then Morehouse College president Dr. Benjamin Mays and said that they would talk about theological matters often. When Dr. King was required to give his inaugural sermon for his senior project, Mr. Franklin quips that a lot of women from Spelman College came over to here him.
"He was popular with the ladies," he said.
Mr. Franklin said that on campus he was known as "ML" and that he was not a sportsman, he loved to watch sporting events and was an astute pool player.
Despite his accomplishments, Dr. King was a humble person, and would repeatedly tell Mr. Franklin that he "was not great." When in Washington, he would visit Mr. Franklin's house and they would cook ribs.
Dr. King told Mr. Franklin several times that he knew the FBI was watching him.
"He told me that whenever he would go somewhere, he would see the same faces, Black and White, over and over again," Mr. Franklin said.
Dr. Leonard said that Dr. King was a man of great, yet not imposing intellect.
"He was a regular fellow and a pure intellectual," Dr. Leonard said. "He had a comprehensive view of the world. He also appreciated the power of words."
Dr. Leonard met the Nobel Peace Prize winner in Atlanta in 1948 at a function, but he said that it was more of an informal greeting situation. While living in Atlanta in the 1950s, he said that John Gloster, a White civil rights leader and a vice president of Citizens Bank, brought them both together to work on the annual Emancipation Day program one year.
Throughout their careers, Dr. Leonard said that they talked often. He said that Dr. King intimately was a man who was often misunderstood.
"Dr. King often expressed his concern to me about being misunderstood," he said. "For instance, on the question of nonviolence, he did not see being nonviolent as being 'weak' but as being strong enough not to hate someone who does you wrong."
He said that Dr. King discussed issues such as the Vietnam War and having to keep a strong disposition in the face of painful criticism even in front of his closest friends and allies.
"If Dr. King were living today," Dr. Leonard said, "he would be concerned about how drugs, guns and liquor have taken over our community."
Both men said that Dr. King, if living today, would be a senior moral statesman, probably not in a political job.
Back to Top
Back to Dr. Martin Luther King's Main Page