Chris Collins examines MLK's Mountaintop speech, delivered the night before his assassination, arguing it rivals the famous I Have a Dream address. The Mountaintop shifts from appeals to peace toward Black unity and solidarity, using biblical parallels to make its case.
What did your dad think of Martin Luther King? He thought he was great. He was just sad that he didn't finish the job he wasn't allowed to. I don't know what.
Urged me to do this, but I.
I recorded.
A conversation.
Of me and my pop.
No one's ever heard this except me.
They didn't succeed. Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, all them people tried to change people to make them nicer. We still the same rotten son of a bitches we always were.
And I don't know how to do it.
But. Oh, come on. We do. Yeah. Gotta figure it out. They had the right idea, but it wasn't able to change them.
We'll see.
I. I have my views on. On MLK myself. Which of what a lot of people talk about the I have a Dream speech. You know, the one where he was at the Capitol and it was great. But I think what was a greater speech was.
The mountaintop speech right before. Right before he died. When you watch that and when you read the transcript, he was kind of babbling.
It was almost like he was kind of muster up.
Whatever was in his spirit to say until it got close to the end and something clicked. Something clicked. Yeah. There's a. There's a dramatic shift. Yes. And that's when he started talking. That's when he started talking. Talking about the Pharaoh's court.
Because at first MLK was talking about peace and togetherness with everybody and coming together. But that speech and the days leading up to that speech.
It changed a little bit. It was more focused on.
We as black people need to stay together. Like, we need to stay together. When he goes into. My favorite part is when he says. And I'm paraphrasing when he says, you know what happens when Moses went into Pharaoh's court?
He said things started to change.
And. Which is true. Read the story. Moses was not an Egyptian, yet he went into that court and changed.
Just the pages of history because of his importance and how he integrated into the system. Led his people out of the system because he understood the system, because he was taught in it. There's a lot of deep. Like Martin was dropping jewels like that. A lot of people didn't really catch up on. He was basically saying that it was when the slaves got together and formed unity. That was the getting out of slavery. He said, now let's maintain unity. And that's when he went into the mountaintop speech, which I believe, if anybody knows that story of Moses not being able to see the promised land because he sinned. So he saw the Promised Land from a mountain. He was able to see the land of Milkahenny from the mountain because he was not allowed to enter the kingdom. I think that was him alluding to the fact that I know I'm going to get killed.
