MLK—The Ashes of a Dream
An Unknown MLK Story
Dr. Gary Straub.
Meadow@StMatthews
Epiphany – 2023
Duke professor Richard Lischer recounts the backstory of how MLK’s famous ‘Dream’ phrase first caught his attention and later became his signature line.
King first heard this phrase well off the-beaten path— over the ashes of Mt Olive Baptist Church in Terrell County, GA, near the Alabama line. Mt Olive was one of seven local KKK church burnings. Flames arose in ugly reprisal for a strong and surprisingly successful voter registration effort by those seven country churches.
King journeyed to Mt Olive for an impromptu worship service on the holy ground torched by hate. That night, a young college woman & SNCC volunteer, led the Prayers of the People. She wove her impassioned intercession around the phrase: ‘I have a dream.’ As Lischer tells it “that evening the whole church, including its most distinguished visitor, swayed to the line: I have a dream!” King resonated so deeply because it echoed Joel’s prophecy. That night, the Holy Spirit ignited the imagination of the preacher who would later inspire thousands. History has hidden the identity of this young woman intercessor. While her name may be lost; her prayer is NOT!
Amidst her intercessions from the ashes, there arose a Word. King was ‘Given The Word’ he would later preach on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the prompting of another woman of faith. As the August crowd grew hot and restless, Mahalia Jackson whispered loudly across the platform: “Pssst—Martin, tell’em Martin, tell them about the dream.” King caught fire; the 7 angels of Revelation chapter two touched the trembling wings of those 7 Terrill church angels. Divine energy crackled. This illumination became a witness to the DC crowd of a dream that continued to rise on angel wings—all thru a humble student’s intercession—whose name we will never know… nor ever forget.
Sometimes it causes me to tremble at the mysterious ways the Holy Spirit carries the ‘earnest cargo’ of our dreams and soul intercessions straight to the Heart of God.
Walter Wink’s devotional classic “Engaging the Powers” alludes to this mystic prayer power. Romans 8:26 echoes how the Holy hovers near; giving voice to human longing; binding hearts human and holy; immersing us in incessant prayer. There’s a prayer constantly prayed beneath our consciousness. Despite our dark circumstances; when our souls are badgered by strenuous contradictions & sinking fast—especially then—Wink’s word rings: “History really does belong to the Intercessors.”
Wink calls intercession “spiritual defiance of what is, in the name of what God has promised.” Intercession visualizes an alternative future to the one seemingly fated by the unrelenting hostility of combative, contradictory forces. Intercession infuses the air of our suffocating circumstances with Spirit Witness to a time yet-to-be; when we will breath free! “All who learn to pray in this way breath the future into being.”
…. Breathe with me?
** Gratitude to Richard Lischer’s “Preacher King” and Walter Wink’s “Engaging the Powers.”
