MLK’s Best friend Ralph Abernathy spills the Beans
By Andre Austin
Abernathy called king his "dearest friend" and martin Luther King called him his "best friend". If Abernathy was his best friends then I don’t want any friends. Abernathy wrote a tell all book in 1989, just one year from his own death. The book is called: And the Walls Came Tumbling Down describing King as a violent womanizer towards black woman; and connects the title to falling, craving temptation of sex of King to sell books.
King would "Later acknowledged that there was ‘a Mr. Hyde and a Dr. Jekyll in us’ and that he was no saint, no, ‘Iam a sinner like all of God’s children". (Let the Trumpet Sound: The life of MLK p.438 By Stephen B. Oates)
I needed to confirm parts of Abernathy book to another book by Louis E. Lomax’s Too Kill a black man p.89. Lomax reported that:
"I once asked Martin during a television interview what he would do if someone, white or black, entered his home and menaced his wife and children. He replied, ‘Louis, I don’t know what I would do; my advocacy of nonviolence is as a tactic during demonstrations, not as a total private way of life". (To kill a Blackman)
Mrs King wrote in her book: "Philia meant reciprocal love, as between friends or men and women. ‘no one’, Martin said, "could be such a fool as to expect a person to feel that kind of love for his oppressor" (My Life with MLK by Mrs. King p.57)
King once said "I can’t accept an absolute pacifist position" (The papers of MLK Volume 1).
This confirms a fighting incident Abernathy reports that MLK had with one of his mistresses. I’m going to write about it in full context so I will start out with p.434-436 and then jump to 470-475 because Abernathy wrote in the index of King womanizing as relevant pages to the accusations.
"There was a black woman in the room as well, a member of the Kentucky legislature; and she had clearly come to see martin. They had known each other before. Their relationship was a close one…when I got back to the motel room, I left the door unlocked so that Martin could get in if he needed to. By then it was almost 3:00Am.
Sometime between 3am and dawn, I believe another young woman Martin knew well must have slipped into the room, looking for him but had not found him. (The other woman was upset because she didn’t get to spend time with him like the Kentucky woman did so a verbal fight started)
‘Suddenly martin lost his temper. ‘Don’t you say a ******* thing about Ralph’, he shouted and knocked her across the bed. It was more of a shove than a real blow, but for a short man, Martin had a prodigious strength that always surprised me.
She leapt up to fight back, and for a moment they were engaged in a full-blown fight, with martin clearly winning" (Walls p.434-436). Well so much said for the non-violent King. But like he said in his interview with Louis Lomax non-violence was "not as a total private way of life".
Now lets jump to pp.470-475:
" Much has been written in recent years about my friend’s weakness for women. Had others not dealt with the matter in such detail, I might have avoided any commentary. We all fall short of the mark, and an excessive preoccupation with one another’s shortcomings is a form of pride we should avoid. Sexual sins are by no means the worst. Hatred and a cold disregard for others are besetting sins of our time, but they don’t sell books or tabloid newspapers-and that’s the reason why people have talked about martin’s failings and left the flaws of some others alone…
In the first place, Martin and I were away more often than we were at home; and while this was no excuse for extramarital relations, it was a reason…
But in addition to his personal vulnerability, he was also a man who attracted women, even when he didn’t intend to, and attracted them in droves. Part of his appeal was his predominant role in the black community and part of it was personal…Indeed, he was the most important leader our people had seen in generations, probably the most important ever. That fact alone endowed him with an aura of power and greatness that women found very appealing. He was a hero-the greatest hero of his age-and women are always attracted to a hero…
I remember on more than one occasion sitting on a stage and having Martin turn to me to say, ‘Do you see that woman giving me the eye, the one in the red dress’?...later I would see them talking together, as if they had known one another forever. I was always a little bewildered at how strongly and unerringly this mutual attraction operated. [Recall Bill Clinton’s fall with a women in the blue dress he left his sperm stains on? Clinton was also admired a book and movie A Devil in a Blue Dress. Then he referred to Monica in the blue dress as "That Woman" the same language found in Revelations about Jezebel.]
A recent biography has suggested without quite saying so that Martin had affairs with white women as well as black. [he wasn’t that integrated] such a suggestion is without foundation. I can say with the greatest confidence that he was never attracted to white women and had nothing to do with them, despite the opportunities that may have presented themselves. [FBI Hoover would have used the white women as a Delilah to take down Samson King]
Ralph also tried to advise King to cool it with the concubines:
"So whatever your relationship with her, you need to cool it down. With Hoover’s men hiding under every bed, you just can’t afford to continue the way you have. Siting there on the edge of the cot, he stared at the Wall for a long time, weighing what I had said. When he answered, it was a friendly but firm tone.
"ralph, what you say may be right, but I don’t care. Nor do I care what Mr. FBI Hoover thinks or says. The FBI can do whatever they please, but I have no intention of cutting off this relationship"
I nodded my head and changed the subject".
By Andre Austin
Abernathy called king his "dearest friend" and martin Luther King called him his "best friend". If Abernathy was his best friends then I don’t want any friends. Abernathy wrote a tell all book in 1989, just one year from his own death. The book is called: And the Walls Came Tumbling Down describing King as a violent womanizer towards black woman; and connects the title to falling, craving temptation of sex of King to sell books.
King would "Later acknowledged that there was ‘a Mr. Hyde and a Dr. Jekyll in us’ and that he was no saint, no, ‘Iam a sinner like all of God’s children". (Let the Trumpet Sound: The life of MLK p.438 By Stephen B. Oates)
I needed to confirm parts of Abernathy book to another book by Louis E. Lomax’s Too Kill a black man p.89. Lomax reported that:
"I once asked Martin during a television interview what he would do if someone, white or black, entered his home and menaced his wife and children. He replied, ‘Louis, I don’t know what I would do; my advocacy of nonviolence is as a tactic during demonstrations, not as a total private way of life". (To kill a Blackman)
Mrs King wrote in her book: "Philia meant reciprocal love, as between friends or men and women. ‘no one’, Martin said, "could be such a fool as to expect a person to feel that kind of love for his oppressor" (My Life with MLK by Mrs. King p.57)
King once said "I can’t accept an absolute pacifist position" (The papers of MLK Volume 1).
This confirms a fighting incident Abernathy reports that MLK had with one of his mistresses. I’m going to write about it in full context so I will start out with p.434-436 and then jump to 470-475 because Abernathy wrote in the index of King womanizing as relevant pages to the accusations.
"There was a black woman in the room as well, a member of the Kentucky legislature; and she had clearly come to see martin. They had known each other before. Their relationship was a close one…when I got back to the motel room, I left the door unlocked so that Martin could get in if he needed to. By then it was almost 3:00Am.
Sometime between 3am and dawn, I believe another young woman Martin knew well must have slipped into the room, looking for him but had not found him. (The other woman was upset because she didn’t get to spend time with him like the Kentucky woman did so a verbal fight started)
‘Suddenly martin lost his temper. ‘Don’t you say a ******* thing about Ralph’, he shouted and knocked her across the bed. It was more of a shove than a real blow, but for a short man, Martin had a prodigious strength that always surprised me.
She leapt up to fight back, and for a moment they were engaged in a full-blown fight, with martin clearly winning" (Walls p.434-436). Well so much said for the non-violent King. But like he said in his interview with Louis Lomax non-violence was "not as a total private way of life".
Now lets jump to pp.470-475:
" Much has been written in recent years about my friend’s weakness for women. Had others not dealt with the matter in such detail, I might have avoided any commentary. We all fall short of the mark, and an excessive preoccupation with one another’s shortcomings is a form of pride we should avoid. Sexual sins are by no means the worst. Hatred and a cold disregard for others are besetting sins of our time, but they don’t sell books or tabloid newspapers-and that’s the reason why people have talked about martin’s failings and left the flaws of some others alone…
In the first place, Martin and I were away more often than we were at home; and while this was no excuse for extramarital relations, it was a reason…
But in addition to his personal vulnerability, he was also a man who attracted women, even when he didn’t intend to, and attracted them in droves. Part of his appeal was his predominant role in the black community and part of it was personal…Indeed, he was the most important leader our people had seen in generations, probably the most important ever. That fact alone endowed him with an aura of power and greatness that women found very appealing. He was a hero-the greatest hero of his age-and women are always attracted to a hero…
I remember on more than one occasion sitting on a stage and having Martin turn to me to say, ‘Do you see that woman giving me the eye, the one in the red dress’?...later I would see them talking together, as if they had known one another forever. I was always a little bewildered at how strongly and unerringly this mutual attraction operated. [Recall Bill Clinton’s fall with a women in the blue dress he left his sperm stains on? Clinton was also admired a book and movie A Devil in a Blue Dress. Then he referred to Monica in the blue dress as "That Woman" the same language found in Revelations about Jezebel.]
A recent biography has suggested without quite saying so that Martin had affairs with white women as well as black. [he wasn’t that integrated] such a suggestion is without foundation. I can say with the greatest confidence that he was never attracted to white women and had nothing to do with them, despite the opportunities that may have presented themselves. [FBI Hoover would have used the white women as a Delilah to take down Samson King]
Ralph also tried to advise King to cool it with the concubines:
"So whatever your relationship with her, you need to cool it down. With Hoover’s men hiding under every bed, you just can’t afford to continue the way you have. Siting there on the edge of the cot, he stared at the Wall for a long time, weighing what I had said. When he answered, it was a friendly but firm tone.
"ralph, what you say may be right, but I don’t care. Nor do I care what Mr. FBI Hoover thinks or says. The FBI can do whatever they please, but I have no intention of cutting off this relationship"
I nodded my head and changed the subject".