Linda Edmonds' Thoughts on the Death of Martin Luther King, Jr., Excerpt from scrapbook, April 5, 1968

Title

Linda Edmonds' Thoughts on the Death of Martin Luther King, Jr., Excerpt from scrapbook, April 5, 1968

Date

Rights

Permission to publish material from the Virginia Tech Black History Collection must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.

Type

Identifier

LindaEdmonds_King2

Transcript

Note in margin: This part written the next day after flag raising at Burruss.

This morning when the flag was raised to its highest level--gloom surrounded my being. The march--step--step--step of the uniformed men--the systematic order of it all. You 3, you had your orders to follow, but how did your hearts feel? Did you realize that I could not look up with pride when the flag was blowing so powerfully in the early crisp air. Maybe you did, but you told yourself well it has to be. The U.S. flag was torn at the ends, the tears started climbing and winding their ways through that symbol of the country that I am a native of. Will there soon be nothing left but strips of cloth floating individually about the flag pole? Some bits will no doubt lose strength all together and drift off into the air and never return. No, this will not happen, we will buy a new flag and everything will be O.K.; I can smile and be happy looking at the stars and stripes forever. But I can't smile and be happy with my fellowman because people just want to exchange hate and past mistakes for something better. The society tears apart - floating about in individual strips, it eventually loses strength and bits of it drift off into the air and never return.

Citation

“Linda Edmonds' Thoughts on the Death of Martin Luther King, Jr., Excerpt from scrapbook, April 5, 1968,” VT Special Collections and University Archives Online, accessed March 28, 2024, http://digitalsc.lib.vt.edu/BlackHistoryVTIssues/LindaEdmonds_King2.