Courage, Humility, and Faith Lived Boldly

By Douglas K. Shaw
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD/CEO

There’s so much that I don’t know about the greatest leaders of our country. I’m trying to correct some of my ignorance by studying U.S. history and learning from their influence and attributes. Until I’ve mastered my subjects, I’m left to measure the character of our nation’s leaders by how well their words align with what I know to be true of their actions.

What I’ve come to know of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inspires admiration and respect for his faith, eloquence, and actions on behalf of those seeking justice rooted in the inherent worth of all human beings in a country that was declared, fought for, won, and founded upon these same attributes.

The faith, eloquence, and actions of those who took on the British Empire did so at their own peril. Dr. King did the same, and he paid the ultimate price on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 PM on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was a young man, assassinated at the age of just 39.

I was just a few years older than Dr. King when I made my first visit to Memphis. It was there, while raising money for a local rescue mission, that I drove past the Lorraine Motel. I saw the balcony outside room 306, where he had been shot by his assassin, James Earl Ray. I was 13 years old the day Dr. King died, and even at that young age, I was deeply saddened by the senselessness of his killing.

At 13, I didn’t know much about civil rights, politics, or racial tensions. What I did know and experience was extreme poverty. By this time in my life, I had already come to know the backbreaking tolls of living with the uncertainty of my next meal, the shame of being poorly clothed, the fear of having our electricity turned off, and hopelessness that things would ever get better. Perhaps it was those experiences that I shared with the people Dr. King sought to give voice and hope to that made me so deeply saddened by his untimely death.

In my attempts to remedy my lack of familiarity with America’s great leaders, I’ve heard Dr. King described as a “moral compass” for our country. I believe he was, as far as any single human being could be.

As we remember Dr. King, I pray that we will all reflect more of the courage, humility, and faith that he lived out so boldly.