Politics

As we mark the one year anniversary of the pandemic, there is no question that it’s been a terrible year. Half a million dead in the US, the economy shut down, the feeling of being under house arrest in front of a Zoom screen, the need to exercise constant self-control with family with whom we have been too intimate and with friends who interpret their own good luck and privilege as proof that no one is at risk. The drama of politics vs science, the aftermath of the election—I have had to ration my exposure to the news to keep from foaming at the mouth.

Along with the vaccine, a bright moment for me in the last few months was the publication of the book Nine Days by Stephen and Paul Kendrick. It is a readable history of an episode during the 1960 Presidential election, when the Kennedy and Nixon campaigns reacted (or didn’t) to the jailing of Martin Luther King, Jr. My father, Louis E. Martin, helped publicize the call JFK made to Coretta Scott King in order to mobilize the black vote for the Democrats. My father and mother are both gone, but I know that they would be pleased to see him recognized for his role in JFK’s campaign. The Kendricks, father and son, weave an impressive amount of research into history that reads like suspense, even knowing the outcome. So much could have gone wrong.

My parents believed in the possibility and hope of a multi-racial society, in social justice, in democracy. They would have been shocked beyond measure by the events at the Capitol January 6. So was I.

My father standing behind President Carter, as Carter greets Muhammad Ali. The photograph is from the Carter library.