The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

suggesting that use was merely made of King’s “star power” to draw international and
national attention. While the lustre of Martin Luther King Jr might not have shone as
brightly at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, this contest of biography was still
located within a paradigm that focused on leadership, albeit between local and
national ‘stages’. This approach was also one that portrayed the movement as “a series
of key moments … under the orchestration of charismatic leaders” in an overarching
teleological narrative of inevitable “regional transformation undertaken at seemingly
preordained locales”. In response to criticism from local activists, the exhibition was
extended to include the “mundane heroics” of the “footsoldiers of the movement”,
with visitors able to access interviews with local activists in an oral history archive
through interactive workstations. In addition, former local activists volunteer as
exhibition guides enabling the emphasis on the “sweeping and fabulous” and the
‘Great Man’ to be further contested. 96
But the main site for commemorating “the places where Martin Luther King, Jr was
born, lived, worked, worshipped and is buried”, established by Congress in 1980, is
the King National Historic Site in Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn, “the heart of Atlanta’s
black community in the 1930s”. The national historic site, which is adjacent to the
preservation district, has incorporated the Martin Luther King Jr Birth Home, restored
to recreate “the childhood years of Sweet Auburn’s most famous resident”, and the
Ebenezer Baptist Church, “important to the King family for four generations”. Tours
of the site are conducted by the National Park Service, whose Visitor Centre on
Auburn Avenue has exhibitions on King’s life and legacy in the Civil Rights struggle, a
video programme and a programme of volunteer assistance to “meet and greet visitors
from all over the nation and the world”, and to “help maintain archival records and
artefacts”. 97 This is a site of commemoration, not criticism, dedicated to turning King’s
ideas, “vision” and example into a heroic national legacy of teachings on civil rights
activism and anti‐racist values.
96 Owen J Dwyer, ‘Interpreting the Civil Rights Movement’, pp 663‐666.
97 Martin Luther King, Jr National Historic Site, ‘I Have a Dream’ (Brochure and Map, 1997);
‘Capture the Dream’ (Brochure, n.d.); ‘Volunteers in Park Program’ (Pamphlet, n.d.).
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