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General discussion

Izola Ware Curry, stabbed MLK in 1958, Died

by James Denison Mar 26, 2015 12:05PM PDT

I had forgotten this. Probably because it didn't get a lot of mention in the years since then. She lived longer than MLK, to the very ripe old age of 98 years.

"What surprised many observers at the time of the crime was that Ms.
Curry herself was black, the daughter of sharecroppers from the rural
South. Questions persisted about what could have moved her to attack Dr.
King, then a 29-year-old Alabama preacher who had assumed the national
stage amid the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56."

No mystery to me. The black woman (Miz Leona) who took care of us in the early 60's was leery of MLK stirring things up in the South. I remember her remarking once that "he's gonna get hisself killed if he keeps dis up!" How prescient she was. Still, when midday news came on, she'd take a break and come sit down to listen if there was news about him. Not all blacks in the South wanted the social upset he was causing then. Maybe this woman felt similar, but stronger about it.

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