About Dr. King
OVERVIEW
Born at noon on Tuesday, January 15,
1929 at the family home in Atlanta, Martin Luther King, Jr. was the first son
and second child born to the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta
Williams King.
1
2
3
4
5
6
During the less than 13 years of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s leadership of the modern American Civil Rights
Movement, from December, 1955 until April 4, 1968, African Americans achieved
more genuine progress toward racial equality in America than the previous 350
years had produced. Dr. King is widely regarded as America’s pre-eminent
advocate of nonviolence and one of the greatest nonviolent leaders in world
history.
Drawing inspiration from both his
Christian faith and the peaceful teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. King led a
nonviolent movement in the late 1950’s and ‘60s to achieve legal equality for
African-Americans in the United States. While others were advocating for
freedom by “any means necessary,” including violence, Martin Luther King, Jr.
used the power of words and acts of nonviolent resistance, such as protests,
grassroots organizing, and civil disobedience to achieve seemingly-impossible
goals. He went on to lead similar campaigns against poverty and international conflict,
always maintaining fidelity to his principles that men and women everywhere,
regardless of color or creed, are equal members of the human family.
Dr. King’s “I Have
a Dream” speech, Nobel
Peace Prize lecture and “Letter
from a Birmingham Jail” are among the most revered orations and
writings in the English language. His accomplishments are now taught to
American children of all races, and his teachings are studied by scholars and
students worldwide. He is the only non-president to have a national holiday
dedicated in his honor, and is the only non-president memorialized on the Great
Mall in the nation’s capitol. He is memorialized in hundreds of statues, parks,
streets, squares, churches and other public facilities around the world as a
leader whose teachings are increasingly-relevant to the progress of humankind.
Some of Dr. King’s most important
achievements include:
- In 1955, he was recruited to serve as spokesman
for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was a campaign by the
African-American population of Montgomery, Alabama to force integration of
the city’s bus lines. After 381 days of nearly universal participation by
citizens of the black community, many of whom had to walk miles to work
each day as a result, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation
in transportation was unconstitutional.
- In 1957, Dr. King was elected president of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization designed
to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. He
would serve as head of the SCLC until his assassination in 1968, a period
during which he would emerge as the most important social leader of the
modern American civil rights movement.
- In 1963, he led a coalition of numerous civil
rights groups in a nonviolent campaign aimed at Birmingham, Alabama, which
at the time was described as the “most segregated city in America.” The
subsequent brutality of the city’s police, illustrated most vividly by
television images of young blacks being assaulted by dogs and water hoses,
led to a national outrage resulting in a push for unprecedented civil
rights legislation. It was during this campaign that Dr. King drafted the
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” the manifesto of Dr. King’s philosophy
and tactics, which is today required-reading in universities worldwide.
- Later in 1963, Dr. King was one of the driving
forces behind the March for Jobs and Freedom, more commonly known as the
“March on Washington,” which drew over a quarter-million people to the
national mall. It was at this march that Dr. King delivered his famous “I
Have a Dream” speech, which cemented his status as a social change leader
and helped inspire the nation to act on civil rights. Dr. King was later
named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year.”
- In 1964, at 35 years old, Martin Luther King, Jr.
became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. His acceptance
speech in Oslo is thought by many to be among the most powerful remarks
ever delivered at the event, climaxing at one point with the oft-quoted
phrase “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the
final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger
than evil triumphant.”
- Also in 1964, partly due to the March on
Washington, Congress passed the landmark Civil Rights Act, essentially
eliminating legalized racial segregation in the United States. The
legislation made it illegal to discriminate against blacks or other
minorities in hiring, public accommodations, education or transportation,
areas which at the time were still very segregated in many places.
- The next year, 1965, Congress went on to pass the
Voting Rights Act, which was an equally-important set of laws that
eliminated the remaining barriers to voting for African-Americans, who in
some locales had been almost completely disenfranchised. This legislation
resulted directly from the Selma to Montgomery, AL March for Voting Rights
lead by Dr. King.
- Between 1965 and 1968, Dr. King shifted his focus
toward economic justice – which he highlighted by leading several
campaigns in Chicago, Illinois – and international peace – which he
championed by speaking out strongly against the Vietnam War. His work in
these years culminated in the “Poor Peoples Campaign,” which was a broad
effort to assemble a multiracial coalition of impoverished Americans who
would advocate for economic change.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s less than thirteen
years of nonviolent leadership ended abruptly and tragically on April 4th,
1968, when he was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis,
Tennessee. Dr. King’s body was returned to his hometown of Atlanta,
Georgia, where his funeral ceremony was attended by high-level leaders of
all races and political stripes.
- For more information regarding the assassination
trial of Dr. King. Click
here.
- For more information regarding the Transcription
of the King Family Press Conference on the MLK Assassination Trial Verdict
December 9, 1999 Atlanta, GA. Click
Here
- For more information regarding the Civil Case:
King family versus Jowers. Click
here.
- Later in 1968, Dr. King’s wife, Mrs. Coretta Scott
King, officially founded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent
Social Change, which she dedicated to being a “living memorial” aimed at
continuing Dr. King’s work on important social ills around the world.
- See more at: http://www.thekingcenter.org/about-dr-king#sthash.9PhEBLKE.dpuf
No comments:
Post a Comment