Martin Luther King and the Amistad Africans

Click to Enlarge

First of all, let me say that Martin Luther King and Coretta King are heroes of mine. I conclude the chapter in Revolutionaries involving the Kings by stating that Martin Luther King is a Founding Father in his own right, in that he helped finish the work of the American Revolution. I mailed a copy of my book to Coretta King, who sent me a thank you note via her assistant. I was pleased to learn that Ms. King is working on her memoirs and I look forward to purchasing my copy. I appreciate Ms. King's tolerance of the ideas forwarded in Revolutionaries, regarding her and Dr. King.

I would also like to thank Kweisi Mfume, the President of the NAACP, who graciously sent me a personal thank you note after I mailed a copy of my book to him. Mr. Mfume is also a reincarnation case in my book.

The past life identity for Dr. King was derived through a synchronistic event involving Willie Brown, the former Speaker of the California Assembly and Mayor of San Francisco. In Revolutionaries, Mr. Brown is identified as Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, who served on the Court of John Marshall and who wrote the Supreme Court decision regarding the trial of the Amistad Africans. The Joseph Story/Willie Brown past life match is one of the most remarkable cases in Revolutionaries, as it not only demonstrates how a soul can change race from lifetime to lifetime, it also shows how remarkably similar personality traits can remain from one incarnation to another.

The story of the Amistad Africans is portrayed in Steven Spielberg's movie, Amistad. It is the saga of a group of Africans who are being transported to Cuba to be sold as slaves in America. En route, the Africans rise up against their captors and mutiny, taking control of the vessel. The African leader of the uprising is a man named Cinque. The ship, Amistad, eventually lands in New York, and the Amistad Africans are taken into custody. The fate of the Amistad Africans is first argued in the lower courts. In ensuing months, their case is finally brought before the Supreme Court of the United States. The lawyers representing the Africans consist of Roger Baldwin and former President John Quincy Adams, the son of John Adams. In the end, Justice Joseph Story writes the opinion for the Court, freeing the Amistad Africans.

When I was working on the Joseph Story/Willie Brown case, I became aware of a meaningful coincidence, or synchronicity, involving Martin Luther King's funeral that made me conceive of a potential past-life connection between Willie Brown and Martin Luther King. Willie Brown was a leader in the Civil Rights movement of the sixties and when Dr. King was assassinated, Willie Brown made the following statement:

" I think a little bit of all of us died with him. He was the symbol of the hope of all black folks and what has been destroyed is that symbol."

Willie Brown was invited to Martin Luther King's funeral and he traveled with a delegation from California. Although Willie Brown and his cohorts were late, they were "ushered inside through a side entrance and found themselves unexpectedly in the front row at King's funeral." The rest of the California delegation was amazed at the good fortune of their leader, Willie Brown.

This synchronicity of Willie Brown being placed in the front row of Martin Luther King's funeral sparked an idea. If Willie Brown was Justice Joseph Story, who set the Amistad Africans free, then perhaps Martin Luther King was Cinque, the leader of the Amistad Africans. If Martin Luther King was Cinque, then I reflected that he would have wanted Joseph Story, that is, Willie Brown, in the front row of his funeral.

Cinque and Martin Luther King have character traits in common which support this past life match. Both men were gifted orators who stirred audiences with their words. It is documented that Cinque had the capacity to incite his fellow Africans into action with his passionate speech. After the Amistad Africans were set free, Cinque helped procure funds for transportation back to Africa by going on a speaking tour. Americans paid a fee to hear the words of Cinque through an interpreter, which infers that Cinque had a gift for oratory, as did Martin Luther King.

It is interesting to note that in court, Cinque himself rose with an impassioned plea, which seems to have been echoed by King in a later era. Let us compare these famous phrases:

Cinque: "Make us free, make us free."
King: "Free at last, free at last."

Another personality trait Cinque and Martin Luther King shared was uncommon courage, which allowed both to stand calmly in the face of dangerous situations. Cinque was also noted to have a nobility about him, as did Martin Luther King. An apparent discrepancy in character between Cinque and King is that Cinque was involved in a mutiny on ship, which resulted in the loss of lives. This seems inconsistent with Martin Luther King's character. Cinque led the mutiny because a member of the ship's crew told Cinque that the Africans would be murdered. Cinque believed the ship's hand and led the revolt in self-defense. Later, in America, Cinque was challenged to a fight, but demurred, demonstrating his peaceful nature.

Martin Luther King as a young man could also be aggressive, like most men. It was later on, in weighing ways to counter segregation in the South, that King took on Ghandi's philosophy of non-violence. Despite this non-violent approach, King was arrested and jailed multiple times. Thus another correspondence: Cinque and King both spent time behind bars in their quest for social justice and freedom.

In an unusual geographic synchronicity, King, as a college student, would travel from Georgia to Connecticut in the summers to work on a tobacco farm. King remarked that he experienced a remarkable sense of freedom in Connecticut. Of course, on the surface, this was due to that state's lack of overt segregation. It is interesting to note, though, that the Amistad Africans were first tried and freed in a Connecticut court.

The administration of Martin Van Buren appealed the Connecticut decision, which led to the case of the Amistad Africans being taking to the Supreme Court in Washington. It was in this venue that John Quincy Adams and Roger Baldwin defended the Africans and that Justice Joseph Story finally set them free.

Just as Cinque started on his road to freedom in a Connecticut court, and then won final freedom in Washington, Martin Luther King traveled similar roads. King first tasted the joys of freedom in Connecticut, then later in his career, made his greatest speech, his declaration, "I have a dream," on the mall in Washington.

Click to Enlarge

I was reluctant to reveal my hypothesis regarding Cinque and Martin Luther King given the emotional and sensitive nature of the issues involved, such as slavery, segregation and his assassination. It was not until I received confirmation of this match from Ahtun Re, the spirit guide channeled through Kevin Ryerson, that I reconsidered.

Ahtun Re also confirmed matches that I had established between Civil Rights leaders associated with Martin Luther King and other members of the Amistad group. Ralph Abernathy was confirmed as Cinque's first lieutenant, Grabeau. Jesse Jackson has been identified as Banna, Andrew Young as Fuli, and Stokely Carmichael as Kimbo. In contemporary times, Kenna has been identified as Malcolm X. Coretta King has been identified as Margru, who was but a child at the time of the Amistad trial.

One person who I was unable to identify was Roger Baldwin, the attorney, who along with John Quincy Adams, defended the Amistad Africans. Ahtun Re revealed Baldwin, in contemporary times, to be President of the NAACP. In a subsequent session, Ahtun Re confirmed Baldwin to be Kweisi Mfume, who has also served in the U.S. House of Representatives. Though facial architecture and character traits appear to be consistent in these cases, further research needs to be done to provide more objective support for these matches.

Other political leaders active during the era of the Civil Rights movement were also apparently members of the Marshall Supreme Court. In Revolutionaries, Lyndon Baines Johnson, the United States President who interfaced with Martin Luther King in enacting the Civil Rights Act, is identified as Justice Thomas Todd. John F. Kennedy is identified as Justice William Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy is identified as Justice Gabriel Duvall.

There is a certain beauty, tragic as it is, regarding the case of Cinque and Martin Luther King. This case demonstrates how a soul group, the Amistad Africans, enslaved in Africa and imprisoned in America, returned to the same race and setting, to set African Americans free. In dismantling segregation, a remnant of slavery, Martin Luther King helped finish the work of the American Revolution. He is indeed a Founding Father in his own right.