Very few people can say they met Martin Luther King Jr. during his lifetime. Even fewer can say that they got to talk with him. And just a handful can say they stayed up until 4 a.m. talking Civil Rights with him.
Rep. James Clyburn is one of those lucky few.
On the day after what would have been King’s 85th birthday, the 75-year-old congressman delivered the keynote address at the university’s “Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”
Clyburn described his interactions with the civil rights giant and his thoughts on furthering equality through education.
As a student, Clyburn engaged in and helped organize multiple civil rights marches and demonstrations. Throughout his fight in the civil rights movement, he was thrown in jail three times; he met his wife, Emily, when she visited him and brought him a blanket and a hamburger.
“I won’t advocate going to jail to get a spouse,” he said, “but it worked for us.”
Later in his college career, on July 30, 1967, Clyburn attended King’s speech in Charleston and talked with him “man-to-man” over lunch for two hours. He met with King multiple times throughout his life; each time inspired him more to fight for equality and celebrate America’s diversity, he said.
Clyburn cited King’s letter to the Birmingham jail as one of the greatest pieces of King’s wisdom.
“Time is never right; time is never wrong,” he said, quoting the letter. “Time is what we make it.”
Standing up and taking a stance is what Clyburn believes citizens should do when it comes for fighting for what’s right. He said that if citizens do not actively pursue equal rights for all people, future generations won’t have to relive what their parents endured.
“The reason we study history is so that we know not just what happened but why it happened,” he said, “and to make sure that it never happens again.”