One, it's been more than half
a century since the death of
Doctor Martin Luther King Junior.
People that actually knew him personally
are few and far between these days,
but you can find some.
You're still around.
Individuals like Tom howk.
People get ready.
There's a train a coming.
Picking up passengers from holes.
All you need is.
To hear that please. Yummy.
You just get on board.
It's working. Well,
this is the tour.
Tom Hough is on the move.
At 75 years old,
he offers civil rights bus tours
to the public in Metro Atlanta.
He's not behind the wheel but at the mic,
dropping Nuggets of knowledge about
legendary landmarks.
In 1966, how was behind the wheel,
serving as the personal driver
of Doctor Martin Luther King
Junior and the King family.
Being with him and driving nine months for he
and Mrs. King was the greatest. The thrill
of my lifetime.
Hawk was also, at the time
the youngest member of the
executive staff of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference,
where he worked on the Poor People's
Campaign along with initiatives
to end the war in Vietnam.
But as Doctor King's driver
and personal assistant,
how was in an enviable position? The
white folks were the most hassle to.
Absolutely. But because some of the
brothers would be a hassle to you as well,
so you had to be able to work it out,
you know, between that situation,
you know, particularly whenever.
Contracting his driver because
a lot of jealousy incurred,
and so it was that.
That's credits boy
from the time he was six years old.
Hawk, who is Irish and hails from Boston,
said. He was compelled to
fight against human injustice.
And that injustice was no more
apparent than in the oppressive Jim
Crow laws targeting black Americans,
particularly in the South.
In his late teens,
he would launch into action by
traveling to Alabama to participate in
the historic Selma Montgomery March.
That was followed by numerous
protest marches and nonviolent
acts of civil disobedience.
It was during these moments
Hawk found that being a white
civil rights activist put him
in a precarious position.
When I
was arrested in the civil rights group.
But they didn't put me
on the the brothers side.
They put put me in there with the
clan for white folks and all that.
I mean, it was hell, I don't know.
Moment was a jail in Birmingham, AL.
And I got slit by a guy with a knife,
got Tiverton stitches in my knee.
But because of that,
Hosea Williams and I filed a suit.
That lawsuit would eventually
lead the Supreme Court to rule
in favor of integrating prisons.
His closeness to King gave Hawk
unique insight into both the
activist as well as the man.
I was around him after he won the
Nobel Peace Prize and after he led the
March on Washington. And after Selma,
he recalls. Last seen Doctor
King just days before his death.
Doctor King was in Memphis
with the sanitation workers.
I was helping an organized low income whites.
I was in Hispanics for a sort of
a rainbow coalition that we're
going to bring to Washington
for the poor People's campaign.
Last time I saw him Doctor King,
it was kind of a depressed mood because
a lot of things weren't coming.
Coming to place.
Two days later on April 4th, 1968,
Doctor King would die in Memphis,
TN. By an Assassin's bullet.
Well, what I heard that no one I I
I course, I tried to call the home.
I had the home number. Coretta
was getting ready to go to the
airport to fly to Memphis,
and by the time she got to the airport
she found out that he had he was dead.
So she came back and went
back to Memphis, however,
to complete his marks the next day.
But I came back to Atlanta from
Knoxville and helped organize a
massive transportation effort
of bringing people to town for
the funeral funerals.
April 9th.
After King's death, how continue to
work on a number of social causes.
In the early 1970s he worked on the political
campaigns of Atlanta activist Andrew Young,
Maynard Jackson and John Lewis,
campaigns that would catapult each
into long running legislative careers.
He would then spend nearly 30 years in media,
hosting a long running radio show
and appearing on the Sunday morning
political talk staple Georgia Gang.
Although time has slowed him down some,
it hasn't dampened his
determination to continually.
Tell the story of the civil rights struggle,
and with recent events like the murder
of George Floyd and the banning of
critical race theory in schools,
Howe thinks that story is more
important now than ever.
I think we have to fight that every day.
And and I think that the movement we saw
during 2020 needs to stay alive and well
and get through the streets if necessary
because some people in this country, OK,
want to take the country back before, before,
OK, the civil war, the fight.
Is is is actually coming back
stronger than ever will hello,
but now it's beginning to move up again.
Hmm. The work of Doctor King lives on.
And thank you so much to Tom Hawk
for taking time to share that
very powerful insight and credit.