24 InsIdeOutHawaII.cOm | MARCH+APRIL 2016

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It was an encouraging message and one in sharp contrast to the previous four-week turmoil that Dr. King Jr. and fellow protesters endured while attempting to march 54 miles from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. Despite the years of persecutions, lynchings and social injustice, nonviolent demonstrators persevered, representing a symbol of hope and peace in the face of fear and ignorance. Their courage would finally spark the nation’s attention to civil rights.

While many states throughout the country shared the same ideals as the Freedom Marchers, there was one state in particular that Dr. King Jr. truly admired. This place, which he once declared as an “inspiration and a noble example of racial harmony,” is none other than Hawai‘i.

Despite the ugliness of hecklers in attendance that momentous day, there

was a symbol of love and beauty that stood out even among the thousands of peaceful protesters. On that day — befitting of the third and what would be the final and successful attempt of the Selma march — lovely strings of the fragrant plumeria lei donned around the necks of civil rights leaders, including John Lewis, James Farmer and Dr. King Jr. It was a message of support on behalf of the people of Hawai‘i, made possible by Dr. King’s friend, Rev. Abraham Akaka.

“I’m so grateful Daddy kept record of everything,” laughs Pualani Akaka, daughter of the late Rev. Abraham Akaka, as she read through copies of her father’s old appointment books. In September 1959, after Dr. King’s initial visit to O‘ahu to celebrate and welcome the islands into statehood, civil rights activists, Rev. Akaka, Senators Daniel Inouye and Charles Campbell and President of the Honolulu Council of Churches’ Rev. Lawrence Jones would form a lasting relationship with Dr. King. On Sept. 15, 1959 at 8 a.m., Abraham Akaka noted in his book to meet Dr. King for his service at the YMCA. Five years later on Feb. 19, 1964, he wrote a memo to bring an extra pair of black socks and gown for Dr. King and meet him at Kawaiaha‘o Church.

Tucked behind the March 19, 1965 section within Abraham Akaka’s appointment book — two days before the March 21, 1965 Selma march — Akaka and her sister discovered a hand-written note by her father, assumed to

On MARCH 21, 1965, on the footsteps of Selma, Alabama’s Brown Chapel, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. turned to the thousands of protesters and spectators and said: “… Walk together, children, don’t you get weary, and it will lead us to the Promised Land. And Alabama will be a new Alabama, and America will be a new America.”

(Previous spread)

Freedom

Marchers proudly

wear plumeria lei

prior to their final

march attempt.

(This spread from

left) Dr. Martin

Luther King, Jr.

gives a sermon;

Pualani Akaka

helps her father,

Rev. Abraham

Akaka give out

lei in 1996.

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26 InsIdeOutHawaII.cOm | MARCH+APRIL 2016

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have been retyped — as he did with all his hand-written notes — and sent along with Sen. Charles Campbell who delivered the boxes of lei to Dr. King Jr. and his supporters in Selma. This is what was so poetically written:

Dear Brother Martin Luther King –

As you “bring good news to the meek, bind up those that are bruised, release to captives” our Prayer and Aloha reach out to enfold you.

These flower lei were made by mothers of the Kawaiaha‘o Church — for you and our brothers in the cause of our Lord Jesus whose commandment you obey:

“Feed my lambs”Tend my sheepFeed my sheep”

History will honor this hour because His chosen servant was faithful and a great nation responded to that faithfulness.

Aloha, A. A

“Daddy knew exactly what he was writing,” Akaka says. “And he wanted to let him and everyone else know that we, people of Hawai‘i, were behind him.”

Rev. Akaka’s ideals, along with countless other families, helped spawn the Civil Rights Movement here in Hawai‘i. Dr. King took notice of Hawai‘i’s unique ability to live harmoniously among each other, which is why he looked to the aloha state for support and guidance.

“[Racial equality] was as familiar as breathing in and out,” says Akaka, in reference to what her life was like as a teenager during the height of the Civil Rights Movement in Hawai‘i. “I knew no other life. That this is the way it’s supposed to be.”

In 2011 Akaka visited the National Civil Rights Museum and the Lorraine Motel — where Dr. King Jr. had been assasinated. The motel was under renovation at the time but workers allowed her through to place a plumeria lei across Dr. King’s final resting spot. Last year, she visited Chicago for the 50th anniversary of the Selma march. With plumeria lei in hand once again, she was thrilled to be in the company of “great leaders” who were continuing Dr. King’s legacy of advocating equal rights. When asked if she believes that the legacy of peace will continue to thrive throughout Hawai‘i, she recalls her parents’ teachings.

“[They] would discuss and ask us if this is fair,” she says. “[We would ask] what we could do to bring people closer to that power of love that binds one to the other. That’s what people of Hawai‘i can and will do to make this world a better place.”✽

The National

Civil Rights

Museum is built

around the

former Lorraine

Motel (pictured

above), where

Dr. King was

assasinated on

April 4, 1968.