Conquering Fear: Martin Luther King Jr. on Living With Confidence In an Uncertain World
On September. 20, 1958, a 29 year old Martin Luther King Jr, was in Blumsteins department store in Harlem, signing copies of his book Stride toward Freedom. The book, in all it’s detail was Kings intimate account of how himself and 50,000 others fought for civil rights with nonviolent resistance, and in 1955 staged the surprisingly successful Montgomery bus boycott. But the book signing wouldn’t go as planned.
What was organized to be a lighthearted event, one where King engaged with new readers, would take a dark turn.
As King was greeting fans, an unassuming 42-year-old woman, later identified as Izola Curry, approached and asked if it was really him. When he replied yes, she said, “I’ve been looking for you for five years,” then she plunged a letter opener deep into his chest.
Police arrived on the scene to find him sitting in a chair, stunned with the letter opener’s ivory handle still protruding just below his collar. Afraid of the blade’s proximity to King’s heart, Officer Al Howard warned him, “Don’t sneeze, don’t even speak.” King was rushed to the hospital , surgeons opened his chest, and after a dangerous operation completed inches from his heart, he survived.
His assailant, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, would spend the rest of her life in mental institutions. King quickly let go of the offense and to the surprise of many, graciously offered Curry forgiveness.
His philosophy of love allowed him to bypass the bitterness, anger, hate and resentment that would have tormented many of us. It is through this example that we see a man who stood up to death and it’s fear with the firmest footing. King was highly qualified to counsel others on overcoming fear. Not just because of his popular speeches or actions, but as someone who lived after being faced so closely with their own demise.
ACKNOWLEDGE FEAR
In his book A Gift of Love, we find some of King’s most powerful sermons, one of which he guides his followers on four steps to overcome fear. He writes:
““First we must unflinchingly face our fears and honestly ask ourselves why are we afraid. This confrontation will, to some measure, grant us power. We shall never be cured of fear by escapism or repression, for the more we attempt to ignore and repress our fears, the more we multiply our inner conflicts…By looking squarely and honestly at our fears we learn that many of them resides in some childhood need or apprehension… By bringing our fears to the forefront of consciousness, we may find them to be more imaginary than real. Some of them will turn out to be snakes under the carpet.”
1957, National Portrait Gallery, Boris Chaliapin.
A man under relentless attack by segregationists, white supremacists, and at times those of his own race, Dr. Martin Luther King embodied courage under fire.
When he was savagely punched and kicked by a white man, one who was angry about him registering as the first Black guest of a historic hotel, he responded with the strength of love. While marching in Chicago, he was swarmed by about 700 white protesters hurling bricks, bottles, and rocks at him. He was struck in the head. Fell nearly unconscious. Regained his composure and courageously continued to lead the protest with fearless nerve. Imagine marching through a sea of furious white faces. All snarling in hate. threatening real anti-black violence at the very thought of desegregation.
On January 30. 1956 a bomb detonated on the porch of his home in Montgomery Alabama, no one was injured, but his followers were enraged and ready to take up arms in retaliation.
COURAGE IS ALWAYS NECESSARY
With a brave commitment to non-violence, he calms them and afterward continues the course of peaceful resistance. Like all of us, King had inward struggles with fear, but outwardly he seemed unmoved, steadfast, and ready to face an overwhelmingly hateful America. In this spirit, he considers a second way we can deal with fear, and that is through courage:
“We can master fear through one of the supreme virtues known to man: courage. Courage is the power of the mind to overcome fear. Unlike anxiety, fear has a definite object which may be faced, analyzed, attacked, and, if need be, endured.
Courage, the determination not to be overwhelmed by any object, however frightful, enables us to stand up to any fear. Many of our fears are not mere snakes under the carpet. Trouble is a reality in this strange medley of life, dangers lurk within the circumference of every action, accidents do occur, bad health is an ever-threatening possibility, and death is a stark, grim and inevitable fact of human experience.
Courage is an inner resolution to go forward in spite of obstacles and frightening situations; cowardice is a submissive surrender to circumstance. Courageous men never lose the zest for living even though their life is zestless; cowardly men, overwhelmed by the uncertainties of life, lose the will to live. We must constantly build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. ”
1967, National Portrait Gallery, George Tames
LOVE IS STRONGER
King acknowledges that fear has many manifestations. Inward ones, such as jealousy, hate, self-loathing, and depression. As well as outward ones such as segregation, human persecution, and war. With ongoing fear of death threats to his family, he admitted that he was tempted to carry a firearm, but he knew it was against his non-violent philosophy. He firmly asserted that the only counter to these fears was love. Even when much of America hated him, he maintained that his detractors were his brothers and sisters. He never let their extreme hate separate him from his belief that peaceful assertiveness was the only means to social change. In his third point on conquering fear he tells us how love can aid us:
1957, National Portrait Gallery, Boris Chaliapin.
“Fear is mastered through love. Hate is rooted in fear, and the only cure for fear-hate is love. Is not fear one of the major causes of war? We say that war is a consequence of hate, but close scrutiny reveals this sequence; first fear, then hate, then war, and finally deeper hatred. We are afraid of the superiority of other people, of failure, and of the scorn of disapproval of those whose opinions we most value.
Envy, jealousy, a lack of self confidence, a feeling of insecurity, and a haunting sense of inferiority are all rooted in fear. Is there a cure for these annoying fears that pervert our personal lives? Yes, a deep and abiding commitment to the way of love. “Perfect love casteth out fear.” Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear; only love can do that.””
1963, National Portrait Gallery. Robert Vickery
TO HAVE FAITH
Robust faith, religious zeal, and unflinching commitment to revolutionary Christianity are well-known parts of Martin Luther King’s life. As a Baptist minister, he fought racism through a mixture of scripture and hyper-aware social consciousness. It’s no wonder that his final antidote for fear is faith. With the idea that humans need the faith that comes through spirituality, he writes:
“Fear is mastered through faith. A common source of fear is an awareness of deficient resources and of consequent inadequacy for life. Abnormal fears and phobias that are expressed in neurotic anxiety may be cured by psychiatry; but the fear of death, nonbeing, and nothingness, expressed in existential anxiety, may be cured only by a positive religious faith.
A positive religious faith does not offer an illusion that we shall be exempt from pain and suffering, nor does it imbue us with the idea that life is a drama of unalloyed comfort and untroubled ease. Rather, it instills us with the inner equilibrium needed to face strains, burdens, and fears that inevitably come, and assures us that the universe is trustworthy and that God is concerned.
Religion endows us with the conviction that we are not alone in this vast, uncertain universe. Beneath and above the shifting sands of time, the uncertainties that darken our days, and the vicissitudes that cloud our nights is a wise and loving God. Above the manyness of time stands the one eternal God, with wisdom to guide us, strength to protect us, and love to keep us. ”
Certainly, we will never fully eradicate our fear, nor should we. It is a nature given response that heightens our awareness and helps us stay alive in dangerous situations.
The question then becomes, is our fear paralyzing or motivating us. Those deemed the greatest people in human history faced fear head on.
At worse they kept it at bay, at best they conquered it.
Martin Luther King Jr’s, A Gift Of Love is a magnificent read in it’s entirety. But the section on facing fear is a call to each of us to live a life of courage and fearless fulfillment.