2005 Civil Rights Journey. Atlanta. Monday, July 11.

Atlanta. Monday, July 11.

Making the most of our extra day in Atlanta, we head to the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum. Many of the adults remember him warmly. To the youth, he is an enigmatic figure. Some wonder which was more difficult to overcome in running for the presidency: being a humble peanut farmer or possessing such notable decency. We gaze at his Nobel Peace Prize and admire his post-presidential career as a human rights advocate. In his farewell address to the nation, Carter wrote:

"America didn't invent human rights.
Human rights invented America."

In the afternoon, we return to the King Center, where none of us yesterday had time to tour his birth home. Only guided tours are available and everyone in my group of ten falls under the spell of our National Park Service guide. She weaves the story of the young King, describing his day-to-day life as a short, somewhat chubby boy, quick and clever and curious. She tactfully deflects questions about anything in King's life happening after the age of 12, keeping the focus on his youth and on this thriving black neighborhood, where doctors and lawyers lived across the street from blue-collar professionals in smaller homes.

In this home, she does not talk about threats to the King family. She points to the kitchen table, where over supper King and his siblings were to present a story from each day's paper and then advocate a position relating to it -- in an era when no children, especially black children, were to talk with their parents as equals. She points to his tiny toy collection. She shows the small bed he shared with his brother and the corner of the house where he hid to avoid doing the dishes. In this home she preserves the memory of the little boy before he grew up. All the trouble? All the hardship?--that came later, and it's not welcome talk here in this home.