Celebrating Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King

In recognition of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday, let's recall the civil rights leader's last trip to the state. Three weeks before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., King delivered his speech "The Other America" in Grosse Pointe. He was invited to speak March 14, 1968, at what was then Grosse Pointe High School by a local fair-housing advocacy group. An estimated 2,700 people filled the gym. The school board's decision to host King was controversial and part of the deal was that the Grosse Pointe Human Relations Council take out a $1-million insurance policy to protect against any damage to school property if the event turned violent. Tensions were so high in the community that a local police chief sat on King's lap in the car on the way to the school to shield him from danger. Police checked the gym for bombs hours before King's speech, and five dozen officers from neighboring communities were on hand in case the evening turned ugly. From his speech: "We are going to win our freedom because both the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of the Almighty God are embodied in our echoing demands. "So however difficult it is during this period, however difficult it is to continue to live with the agony and the continued existence of racism, however difficult it is to live amidst the constant hurt, the constant insult and the constant disrespect, I can still sing we shall overcome ... "With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. "With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when all of God's children all over this nation -- black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics -- will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank God Almighty, We are Free at Last.' " The speech was interrupted by applause 32 times. But the Nobel Peace Prize recipient was heckled, too. Detroiter Donald Lobsinger, leader of a reactionary group called Breakthrough, which had about 200 right-wing protesters picketing outside, was thrown out of the gym after jeering King and calling him a traitor, the FBI report filed the next day recounted. Afterward, an apparently shaken King said he had never encountered such vocal hostility at an indoor gathering. Free Press Chief Photographer Tony Spina took this famous picture of King during a news conference before his speech. The photograph was later used as the model for a U.S. postage stamp. Mark E. Tyree