Martin Luther King Jr.
(1929-1968)
Born January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. came from a family line of Baptist pastors. His grandfather was pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931 when his father took over. From 1960 to until his death in 1968, Martin served as co-pastor with his father. He attended segregated public school in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of 15. He then received his BA degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, from which both his grandfather and father graduated. He studied for three years at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, and was elected president of the mostly white senior class. He went on to obtain his doctorate at Boston University in 1955. During this time he met and married Coretta Scott, an intelligent and artistic young woman. Together they had two sons and two daughters. In 1954 he accepted the pastoral of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
He worked as an executive committee member of The National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People, which was the leading organization of its kind. In December 1955 he led a Negro boycott of buses, the first mass nonviolent protest of the civil rights movement. The boycott lasted 328 days and culminated in the Supreme Court deciding that the laws requiring segregation on buses were unconstitutional. During the boycott King was arrested, his house was bombed, and he and his family were subjected to various abuses. Despite this, the success of the boycott put King in the ranks of great civil rights leaders.
In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which served to provide leadership for the fast-growing civil rights movement. As leader of this organization, he blended the ideals of Christianity with the nonviolent civil disobedience techniques of Ghandi, and between 1957 and 1968, he traveled 6 million miles and spoke 2,500 times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action. He wrote five books and numerous articles, as well as led a massive protest in Birmingham, organizing what he called a “coalition of conscience.” He helped register voters in Alabama and directed the peaceful march to Washington D.C. of 250,000 people, to whom he delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. He was arrested over twenty times and assaulted at least four. He was awarded five honorary degrees, and was named Man Of The Year by Time magazine in 1963. At 35 years old, he became the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
On April 4, 1968, on the eve of a protest march for striking garbage workers, he was assassinated. James Earl Ray was arrested, plead guilty, and was sentenced to 99 years in federal prison. In December of 1999, a jury of 12 citizens of Memphis Tennessee concluded in Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King III, Bernice King, Dexter Scott King and Yolanda King vs. Lloyd Jowers and other unknown conspirators that Lloyd Jowers and governmental agencies including the city of Memphis, the state of Tennessee, and federal government were party to the conspiracy to assassinate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (http://www.thekingcenter.com.html).
From the sermon given the night before he was assassinated:
“I’ve Been To The Mountaintop” April 3, 1968
“... that’s the question before you tonight. Not, if I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job. Not, if I stopped to help the sanitation worker, what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor? The question is not, If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me? The question is, if I do not stop to help the sanitation worker, what will happen to him? That's the question.
“Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge, to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God once more for allowing me to be here with you… and then I got into Memphis. And some begin to say threats, or talk about the threats that were out there.
“What
would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don't
know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But
it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop
and I don't mind. Like anybody else I would like to live a long life.
Longevity has its place. But I am not concerned with that now. I just
want to do God's will, and he's allowed me to go to the mountain. And
I've looked over and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there
with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we as people will get
to the Promised Land. And I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about
anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of
the coming of the Lord.”
~Martin
Luther King Jr.
Dr Martin Luther King Jr delivered his famous ‘I Have A Dream’ speech in 1963 in Washington DC. Dr Martin Luther King Jr was known for his success in the civil right movement. When he delivered his I have a dream speech he was speaking of freedom and an earnest desire to end injustice one day. He founded a group to organize nonviolent protest march demonstrations for the civil right movement of the time. Possibly because of this dream, Dr Martin Luther King Jr was instrumental in the overall protest and the civil right act that was passed in 1964. The biography of Martin Luther is filled with a life long struggle to spread freedom in America. From the quote above in his last speech, he knew that this was a dangerous movement, but his dream propelled the country towards freedom.