Performer feels power in writings

He gave many famous speeches and sermons before adoring throngs, but the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was also jailed two dozen times where he could easily have been killed, said an actor who portrays Dr. King across the country. And it was during one of those incarcerations that he produced a "masterpiece" that has come to be known as the Letter from Birmingham Jail, a too-often overlooked work, performer Jim Lucas said.

Bearing a striking resemblance in voice and appearance to Dr. King, Mr. Lucas performed dramatic readings from the famed civil rights leader's work Friday at an observance of Dr. King's birthday. The annual event is a joint celebration by the Medical College of Georgia, Paine College and Augusta State University.

Though Dr. King preached nonviolence and sought to negotiate first, he also felt the need to confront social injustice head-on.

"One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws," he wrote in Letter from Birmingham Jail, dated April 16, 1963, and written in response to an open letter from white religious leaders asking him not to protest.

The stay behind bars could have cost him his life, said Mr. Lucas, who spent about three years studying Dr. King's writings and has most of his major works memorized.

"Back then, when a black man was arrested, it was almost like a death sentence," Mr. Lucas said. "He'd be killed and the police report the next day would say, 'He tried to escape. We had to shoot him.' "

Writing under the most difficult of circumstances, in the margins of newspapers or scraps of paper he got from his attorneys, Dr. King composed a "masterpiece of literature that was written basically from his head," whose words Mr. Lucas turns into a powerful sermon.

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed," the letter goes. "For many years now, I have heard the word 'wait.' It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This wait has almost always meant, 'never.'

"There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience."

The performance was impressive to Augusta State sophomore Brandon Whitaker, 19.

"He had the appearance down," Mr. Whitaker said. "He did a great job with his oration."

While he delivers the famous I Have A Dream speech, Mr. Lucas said, he is struck by what has not happened since then.

"Yes, part of the dream has been realized," Mr. Lucas said. "But we still have a long, long way to go."

Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213 or tom.corwin@augustachronicle.com.