Dr. King – The Father

It was a Saturday evening and it was our piano recital at the Phyllis Wheatley branch of the YWCA on Mitchell Street in Atlanta, Georgia. We were about six years old and Yolanda “Yokie”, Dr. King’s oldest child and I were performing in our very first piano recital. Mrs. Sykes, our piano teacher, lived across the street from Dr. and Mrs. King. My parents were so proud and I remember my mother made me this beautiful dress with ruffles.  I am not sure why my parents and I were among the very last to leave,   I guess my parents were still talking to Mrs. Sykes and Mrs. King but everyone else  had left at the end of the recital.  I remember as I was putting my coat to leave, Dr. King rushed in wearing his over coat with his hat in his hand. Yokie looked up and ran to jump into her Daddy’s arms. She was so happy to see him. I can now look back at that moment with adult eyes and appreciate that this iconic man, who had the weight of the world on his shoulders, for that instant only had the weight of a precious child in his arms.  He spun her around and hugged her tightly. He told her how sorry he was that he had missed her recital and asked her if she would please play for him now. Yokie said yes Daddy I will play for you as she ran over to the piano.  Dr. King sat there in one of those grey  hard metal folding chairs in the community room with institutional tile and worn out faded drapes as if he were sitting in Carnegie Hall , smiling and listening with such joy and pride and nodding his approval to his little girl who  he had not wanted to disappoint. I look back at that moment and I am so clear that as concerned as he was about civil rights, as committed as he was to justice for all human beings, as concerned as he was about lifting the South from the grips of segregation, as committed as he was to moving the world to higher moral ground, at that moment nothing was more important than being with his precious daughter and letting her know that her Daddy was there for her.   As my parents and I walked to the door to leave them alone to share that moment, Dr. King turned to me and said would you play for me too?  Would you play for me too? I haven’t thought about that moment in many many years, perhaps not since shortly after I heard the news of his death. Would you play for me too?  Thinking about it now brings tears to my eyes.  Although my parents had told me that Dr. King was an important man who was helping our people, at that time I really only understood that he was Yokie and Marty’s Daddy.  I played for Dr. King that Saturday evening.  He applauded, thanked me and gave me a hug.  The world knew him as a visionary and miraculous leader that changed the fate of a people for generations yet born and changed the way we value human beings forever. At 6 I knew Dr. King as a Daddy with a big smile and hug who valued and nurtured his children and cared enough to ask a little colored girl to play for him.