An Evening With Reverend Samuel Kyles

From left: Aurelia Kyles, Reverend Samuel "Billy" Kyles, Vicki Halcro and yours truly. 

February 3, 2010: Last night, the Alaska Black Chamber of Commerce hosted Reverend Samuel Kyles, a close former aide to Martin Luther King who was standing on the Lorraine Motel balcony in Memphis when King was assassinated in 1968.

Kyles, who has spent the last 50 years preaching at the same Memphis church, told about how he had invited King to his house for dinner on that fateful day.

Since Martin was always late, I purposely told him dinner was an hour earlier, Kyles told the crowd at the Captain Cook. However when Kyles showed up at the motel, King had already called Kyles home and knew they had an extra hour to spare.

An hour later, King and Kyles stepped from the Memphis motel room to depart for dinner and within minutes King was lying shot on the motel balcony outside of room 306.

Rev. Kyles recollections regarding the sacrifices Martin Luther King Jr. made (he had been in Memphis helping support striking garbage workers), the civil rights struggle and just how far America has come with race relations was a great life message.

As Kyles said, you can kill the dreamer, but you can't kill the dream.