MLK, Robert E Lee both peacemakers in their time

Martin Luther King was this country’s most influential leader in the 20th century struggle against Jim Crow racial segregation. He was a peacemaker, in that ending legal racial segregation spared us increasing and inevitable violence.

Gen. Robert E. Lee was arguably the most influential figure in the defeated Southern states from 1865 until his death in 1870. He refused to join some of his officers who wanted to continue the War Between the States with a guerilla campaign. Instead, he advised all who would listen to accept the verdict of military defeat and get about rebuilding the South as constructive members of the restored United States.

He accepted the presidency of destitute Washington College in Lexington, Va., his home state, and served as a peacemaker. He modernized the curriculum from a classical one emphasizing Greek and Latin to one that taught the modern sciences as well to students who would rebuild Virginia instead of continuing the hatreds of war. Among other things, he established this nation's first school of journalism. The college now bears his name as Washington and Lee University.

Martin Luther King dragged the United States kicking and screaming into the 20th century and did so peacefully.

Robert E. Lee, more than anyone else, persuaded Southerners to choose peace in defeat instead of continued war.

These men were very different, but both were peacemakers. It is fitting that we observe both their birth dates in January.

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