MLK: "If I had sneezed..."

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Martin Luther King Jr. recovers from surgery in bed at New York's Harlem Hospital on following an operation to remove steel letter opener from his chest after being stabbed by a mentally disturbed woman as he signed books in Harlem. (John Lent/AP)

from NYDN (Originally published by the Daily News on Sept. 21, 1958):

The Rev. Martin Luther King, leading African-American apostle of nonviolence in the integration struggle and spearhead of the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott two years ago, was stabbed and seriously wounded by an apparently demented [African-American] woman as he was autographing copies of his book in a crowded Harlem department store at 3:35 P.M. yesterday.

The attack, on the first floor of L.M. Blumstein’s department store, 230 W. 125th St., near Seventh Ave., shocked Harlem. Hundreds of persons called THE NEWS and police, asking about the condition of the slightly built, 29-year-old Baptist minister.

The assailant, a 42-year-old domestic named Izola Ware Curry, who came here only a month ago from Adrian, Ga., could offer no coherent explanation for the attack, police said.

However, they disclosed, she had apparently planned the assault, for in addition to the eight-inch steel letter opener which she drove into the clergyman’s chest, she was carrying a fully loaded Italian automatic concealed inside her clothing...

Ten years after the attack, April 3, 1968, Dr. King recounted the stabbing in his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech in Memphis, Tennessee, the night before he was assassinated, followed by his prophetic remarks about death:

“The x-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And, once that’s punctured, you’re drowned in your own blood – that’s the end of you.”

A letter opener protruding from his chest, the Rev. Martin Luther King has wound treated at W. 123rd St. police station. (Vernoll Coleman)

“And I want to say tonight – I want to say tonight that I, too, am happy that I didn’t sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting in at lunch counters.

“If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1961, when we decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in interstate travel.

“If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Ala., aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream I had.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is embraced by his wife Coretta Scott King during a news conference at Harlem Hospital in New York, Sept 30, 1958, where he was recovering from a stab wound following an attack by Izola Ware Curry. At left is his mother, Alberta Williams King. (AP Photo/Tony Camerano)

[cilla4progress]

1. I didn't

know this!!

[Stallion]

2. History is Cool--Ex. I Discovered this Morning that Adlai Stevenson's Grandfather was Vice-President

I'm a History major and follow politics religiously-and I never knew that the first Adlai Stevenson was VP to Grover Cleveland. I was born in 1958 so I missed that little tid-bit when the grandson ran for President in the 1950s. Or maybe I just skipped that day in History Class

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3. »

[Omaha Steve]

4. K&R!