This story was reported for the San Diego News Network on January 15, 2010.
Nearly 42 years ago, Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles was sitting with Martin Luther King Jr. in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn.
Kyles — one of three friends to be with King at the moment of his assassination — said he wondered why he was given the privilege to be with the civil rights leader at the moment following the shooting.
“I thought I was having a nightmare and there’s never anything that doesn’t remind of that day,” Kyles said. “I wondered why I was honored to be with him in the last hour of his life, and over the years, God told me why – to be here today.”
Kyles, who like King, devoted his life to the Civil Rights Movement, was the keynote speaker at an event for more than 1,000 San Diegans Friday morning to honor the life of renowned leader at YMCA of San Diego County’s annual “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Human Dignity Award Breakfast.”
The breakfast, meant to celebrate the accomplishments of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner, awards one regional leader who has followed in King’s footsteps to forward the rights of human beings. This year, the award recipient was Robert Countryman. Additionally, the San Diego City Council named January 15 “Rev. Samuel Kyles Day.”
“We’re acknowledging his [King’s] legacy and his contributions and his life that he gave so we could come together today,” said YMCA board chair Dee Sanford. “[Kyles] is a man who has maintained the civil rights movement….today, this very special man has returned to San Diego.”
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Kyles, who is known for being among a group of black parents who enrolled their children in an all-white school, shared with attendees recollections on his life in Memphis during the 1960s and that fateful last hour he spent with King. He centered his speech around Langston Hughes’ poem, “Dreams.”
“They [school teachers] said the nastiest things to me and my 5-year-old daughter,” Kyles said. “They rubbed her skin as though her blackness would come off. We weren’t going to burn the school, we were going to make our dreams come true.”
Seven years later, on April 4, 1968, Kyles found himself with King. Kyles said he, King, Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy were meant to go to Kyles’ home for dinner and he told King it was at 5 p.m. King responded by saying he was told it was at 6 p.m. and would wait until then, and so they did.
“We were just three guys shooting the breeze,” Kyles said. “It was a quarter to six when we stepped outside and greeted people in the courtyard.”
The moments following would be what is now taught in history classes throughout the country.
“Every day I tell that story,” Kyles said. “I’ve slept in a different motel room every day this new year. But that’s OK because when people ask me, ‘Can you just talk a little bit about Martin Luther King Jr.?’ I say, ‘Yes, that’s OK.'”
Countryman, who had tears fill his eyes during his acceptance speech, described his feelings as “explosive” to be given the Human Dignity Award at the same event that celebrates the life of King.
Countryman, who is a chemist, has been involved in several organizations catered toward young people throughout his career. He has mentored students throughout the San Diego region in the field of science and is the founder of the San Diego Coalition of Black Organizations. He credits his achievements to those who have inspired him, like his brother who was the first person in his family to attend college and his wife, who is a cancer survivor.
“She’s fighting a battle with the after-effects of breast cancer and just looking at her leads me to keep wanting to continue to work with young people so they can become viable citizens,” Countryman said.
Like Kyles, Countryman noted the importance of dreams and said if he could give all young people in the world one tip it would be: “Follow your dreams. Dreams are outrageous sometimes, but go for it.”
Exemplifying the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. and those who marched beside him during the Civil Rights Movement, Kyles ended his speech by noting the power of dreams.
“Yes, unfortunately, you can kill the dreamer but you cannot kill the dream,” Kyles said. “The dream is still alive.”
Hoa Quach is the political editor for the San Diego News Network.