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It was a mild, rainy day in February and I walked along the Rue de Rivoli in Paris looking for a Protestant church hall. This was the middle 1960s, probably 1966. I had been told that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was to be a guest speaker there. Now I had heard of King and realized that he was a significant figure in the civil rights movement. So I decided to go and hear what he had to say.
The church was the Temple de l'Oratoire du Louvre and the hall was a short distance further east. When I arrived, I was made to feel welcome and ushered to a seat. There were already quite a few people there, many of them youngsters who could well have been students. There was no entrance fee, but I seem to recall that we were asked to contribute a franc to the maintenance of the hall, which was fair enough.
Dr. King was introduced and he gave an address similar to the "I have a dream" speech. This was accompanied by a slick simultaneous translation, which I can testify was absolutely accurate. King was an enormously impressive speaker – after all, he was a preacher by profession – and when he got to the words "not the colour of their skin, but the content of their character", I thought, "Just what I think!" It seemed to me that the entire audience were on his side – well, most of them were young Christians and were likely to believe in equality for all.
Thereafter I followed news about King and his campaign and was saddened to hear about his assassination a few years later. He was never able to complete the task he had set himself, but he sowed seeds which have borne fruit, although there is still work for his successors to do.
The rear of the Oratoire du Louvre seen from the Rue de Rivoli
(Photo: Mbzt at Wikimedia Commons)
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