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David Garrow builds his entire book around the scene of King's supernatural "call," which occurred early in his career. "It was the most important night of his life," writes Garrow, "the one he always would think back to in future years when the pressures again seemed to be too great.

"King was thrust into civil-rights leadership in Montgomery, Alabama, after Rosa Parks had made her courageous decision not to move to the back of the bus. The community formed a new organization to lead a bus boycott and chose as a compromise candidate the new minister in town, King, who, at age 26, looked "more like a boy than a man." Growing up in comfortable surroundings, with a kind of inherited religion, he hardly felt qualified to lead a great moral crusade.

As soon as King's leadership of the movement was announced, the threats from the Klan began. And not only the Klan—within days King was arrested for driving 30 mph in a 25 mph zone and thrown in the Montgomery city jail. The following night King, shaken by his first jail experience, sat up in his kitchen wondering if he could take it anymore. Should he resign? It was around midnight. He felt agitated and full of fear. A few minutes before, the phone had rung. "Nigger, we are tired of you and your mess now. And if you aren't out of this town in three days, we're going to blow your brains out, and blow up your house."

King sat staring at an untouched cup of coffee and tried to think of a way out. In the next room lay his wife, Coretta, already asleep, along with their newborn daughter, Yolanda. Here is how King remembers it:

And I sat at that table thinking about that little girl and thinking about the fact that she could be taken away from me any minute. And I started thinking about a dedicated, devoted and loyal wife, who was over there asleep. … And I got to the point that I couldn't take it anymore. I was weak. … And I discovered then that religion had to become real to me, and I had to know God for myself. And I bowed down over that cup of coffee. I never will forget it. … I prayed a prayer, and I prayed out loud that night. I said, "Lord, I'm down here trying to do what's right. I think I'm right. I think the cause that we represent is right. But Lord, I must confess that I'm weak now. I'm faltering. I'm losing my courage." … And it seemed at that moment that I could hear an inner voice saying to me, "Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo I will be with you, even until the end of the world." … I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No never alone. No never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.

Three nights later a bomb exploded on the front porch of King's home, filling the house with smoke and broken glass but injuring no one. King took it calmly: "My religious experience a few nights before had given me the strength to face it.

"Garrow weaves his narrative around that "visitation" at the kitchen table. He comes back to it over and over again, for King came back to it at every critical moment in his life. For him it became the bedrock of personal faith, an anointing from God for a particular task.

As I read the account of King's life, and his many references to that night, I was struck by the simplicity of the message he received: "I am with you." The Jews in Haggai's day—weak, demoralized refugees who hadn't followed God's orders for years—heard that same message (Haggai 1:13). So did Isaac, in the midst of a famine (Genesis 26:3); and the apostle Paul, who got a vision of comfort after harrowing experiences in Athens and Corinth (Acts 18:10). Those words express an underlying theme of the Bible: the Immanuel ("God with us") presence of God. King reported no further visitations or visions over the next 13 years of his career. This one word was enough. Continued on next page | A prophet's perspective

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January (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44