Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) – Remember Martin Luther King (1976)
Shirley Wahls' powerful rare soul anthem was one of the most lyrically hard-hitting songs ever written on MLK's radical life and why he was assassinated.
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Today marks the 55th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, a date that will forever live in infamy.
Shirley Wahls' powerful anthem “Remember Martin Luther King” (1976) is a rare soul, gospel-flavored masterpiece and one of the most lyrically hard-hitting songs ever recorded about MLK's radical life and why he was assassinated.
Here are its truth-telling, insightful lyrics:
It has become clear with the passing of time that MLK had many enemies within the U.S. power structure of the 1960s. The FBI was waging covert war on him, since longtime Bureau head J. Edgar Hoover hated King. He considered King a Communist and a potential Black Messiah who could lead an uprising of poor Black citizens in opposition to the system that was stacked against them.
When King began speaking out against the Vietnam War in 1967, he also became a threat to the military-industrial complex that former President Eisenhower ominously warned about in his final address to the nation.
Co-written and produced by Thomas "Tom Tom 84" Washington and Cliff Watley, “Remember Martin Luther King” was released on Blue Candle in 1976, a sub-label of T.K. Productions.
In 1969, following his assassination the year before, Wahls had released another tribute to Dr. King, the upbeat gospel soul message song “We've Got To Keep Movin' On.” Wahls is a Chicago gospel legend whose singing career began in the early fifties in the junior choir of the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church, directed by Ruth Lee Jones, who was better known by her stage name Dinah Washington.
The powers-that-be may have gotten away with the assassination of MLK, but the example he set will live on forever.
Rest In Power, Dr. King.
More info:
The Plot to Kill King: The Truth Behind the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., by King family attorney William Pepper, 2016
Fear of A Black Messiah: the FBI's Campaign to Delegitimate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from 1962-1968, thesis by Bryan Wilson, Arizona State University, 2018
“MLK/FBI looks at FBI's obsession with Dr. King,” Chicago Crusader, January 18, 2021
“FBI sought to discredit King to stop the civil rights movement,” Philadelphia Tribune, January 16, 2023
#soul #gospel #ShirleyWahls #MLK #MartinLutherKingJr