MLK Vignettes: Milwaukee pastor met Martin Luther King Jr., participated in open housing marches

Martin Luther King Jr. was speaking at a Southern Christian Leadership Conference meeting in Birmingham, Ala., when a white man jumped up from the audience and punched the civil rights leader several times.

Joseph Ellwanger was at the meeting and witnessed King's calmness under fire. The man was arrested after King's staff intervened.

"The point that was very clear was Dr. King, No. 1, didn't have any kind of weapon and, No. 2, did not enter the fight," said Ellwanger, 85. "He backed up and lived by his policy and his theology of non-violent resistance."

Ellwanger grew up in segregated Selma, Ala., seeing the indignities, injustice and inhumanity of the Jim Crow South.

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Like his father, Ellwanger became a pastor. He first met King while attending the seminary in St. Louis, when King came to give a speech in 1956.

While serving as pastor of an African-American congregation in Birmingham, Ellwanger's path again crossed with King, as well as King's inner circle, including Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young and James Bevel. 

Ellwanger participated in the march on Selma and led a demonstration of concerned white citizens on the day before what became known as Bloody Sunday — the day police beat marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

He attended meetings with King and listened to several of his speeches. One day, when Ellwanger was changing planes in Atlanta he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was King stopping to say hello.

"Obviously it was a happy surprise that he noticed me and took the time to greet me," Ellwanger said. "It was a sign of how personable a leader he was." 

After serving as a pastor in Birmingham from 1958 to 1967, Ellwanger moved to Milwaukee to become pastor of Cross Church. He was a minister there until his retirement in 2001. Ellwanger continues to be active in social issues, such as efforts to reduce mass incarceration.

Ellwanger said he would not be as deeply involved in civil rights had it not been for his experience with King and what happened in Selma and Birmingham.

King "motivated me to see that civil rights and the dignity of every human being are things we need to stand up for and work for and fight for — not in spite of our faith but because of our faith," said Ellwanger. 

"Involvement in the justice movement is not something that is only political, it's also theological and moral. Therefore as religious leaders we need to be engaged — that's one of the important lessons he taught me."