Remembering his day with MLK

Fifth-grade students at Morley Elementary School recently read “Just Like Martin,” in which author Ossie Davis writes of his experience growing up in Alabama during the rise of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement.

On Monday, the students heard from a retired Lincoln police officer who spent a memorable day with King in 1964, one year after his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Albert Maxey was 25 years old and still relatively new to the police force when he was assigned to security duty for King during his visit to Lincoln for a speech at Pershing Auditorium. It’s an experience he still vividly remembers, more than 50 years later.

King asked Maxey questions about his life, including his move from Indianapolis to Lincoln to play basketball for the University of Nebraska. Maxey said talking to him was like talking to a brother - except he was too nervous to ask King any questions.

“He talked about life in general and he talked about the movement at the time,” Maxey told the students.

The students peppered him with questions - and still had plenty more when class ended. Before they left for recess, Maxey passed around framed photos of King’s visit to Lincoln, including one from the Omaha World-Herald that showed him with King.

“Since then I have felt so privileged to have spent that short amount of time with him,” Maxey said. “He said the right things at the right time that people needed to hear.”

 


Published: November 22, 2017, Updated: November 30, 2017

“He said the right things at the right time that people needed to hear.”

Albert Maxey