MLK

‘Ragtime Reverend’ Lynn Wright is a retired Espicopal minister from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, who is now a professional musician, touring the country as the piano-playing half of the duo Pianafiddle. I met Lynn when he stopped in the Wallowas on his way to perform in Idaho. It was a month before the presidential election and we got to talking about Obama.

He told me stories about growing up in the south and being one of the few white folks in the crowd when he went to hear Martin Luther King speak. Young Mr. Wright was so impressed that he wrote a letter in support of Doctor King, which was published in the paper. The next day his father asked him to stop. This was a surprise, as Wright’s father was a Baptist minister and his son pointed out that his letter in the paper supported the same message his father urged in his sermons. His father agreed. Then why the request to stop?

His dad told Lynn of the phone call he had received from the local Ku Klux Klan. He was ordered to shut his kid up, and if he did not, the list of consequences threatened against the family was detailed, extensive and I will not repeat them here.

For the safety of the family, Lynn’s father asked him to stop. Lynn agreed.

It would be hard for someone who wasn’t there at the time to understand the extreme tension, Lynn explained. I don’t doubt it.

Lynn later became the minister of an Episcopal congregation in Wyoming. He traveled to a church conference in Alabama, where the discussion shifted to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail.’ Lynn admitted he had never read King’s letter and was told he should get to the library at the first chance and do so.

Once Lynn got to the library and requested a copy of King’s letter, it came with another document attached. ‘A Call for Unity,’ was a statement signed by Alabama clergymen, which recognized that social injustices did exist, but suggested the court system was the proper avenue for them to be handled and that public protest by outsiders (Martin Luther King, Jr.) should be avoided.

Lynn wasn’t ready to read the statement by Alabama clergymen. His father had been an Alabama clergyman at the time and it would stand to reason his name would be one of the signatures.

He read first King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, which advocated direct action, a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws, and the conviction that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Wyoming is a long way from Alabama, and this was a long time since the KKK had threatened Lynn’s family should they contribute to King’s activities. Still, Lynn did not want to see his father’s signature on the statement by Alabama clergymen.

He read the statement. Then he read the signatures.

I had a strong grip on my coffee cup by this point in his story. He explained that his father was a good man. He repeated that the social climate at that time, in that place, could only be understood if you were there. So he sat at the library table, preparing himself to see his father’s name on the statement by Alabama clergymen calling for Martin Luther King to stop. And when he got to the bottom of the list, he saw what he was looking for. His dad’s name was not one of the signatures.

I thought I was going to shatter my coffee cup from squeezing so hard while listening to Lynn’s illustration of how Martin Luther King effected people who must choose between what they know they’re supposed to do and what they know they’re supposed to do. That’s not a typo.

I realize the official day of recognition for Martin Luther King, Jr. was last week. I wasn’t scheduled to have a column run last week, and considered waiting to write this until next year. Calendars are useful devices, sure. But I suspect we sometimes follow them more closely than we should. Why not do something nice in the Christmas spirit when it’s August? Send somebody a gift when it’s not their birthday. See what happens. I’ll wager they don’t appreciate it less.

I’ve seen, heard and read portions of what Martin Luther King, Jr. had to say. I know he made an impact. I learned that back in school. I didn’t quite understand, though, until a piano player and former preacher sat at my kitchen table and told me how. Since then, I’ve thought of Martin Luther King on a lot of days, not just his official one.

I’m looking forward to Ragtime Reverend Lynn Wright coming back this way next year on his Pianafiddle tour. I hope he has time for coffee.