Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most important voice of the American civil
rights movement, which worked for equal rights for all. He was famous for using
nonviolent resistance to overcome injustice, and he never got tired of trying to
end segregation laws (laws that prevented blacks from entering certain places,
such as restaurants, hotels, and public schools). He also did all he could to
make people realize that "all men are created equal."
Dr. King’s concept of “somebodiness,” which symbolized the celebration of human
worth and the conquest of subjugation, gave black and poor people hope and a
sense of dignity. His philosophy of nonviolent direct action, and his strategies
for rational and non-destructive social change, galvanized the conscience of
this nation and reordered its priorities. His wisdom, his words, his actions,
his commitment, and his dream for a new way of life are intertwined with the
American experience.
Martin Luther King, Jr., (January
15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his
name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as
pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931;
his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death
Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public
schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he
received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Black
institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had been
graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary
in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior
class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he
enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for
the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955 In Boston he met and
married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic
attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.
In 1954, Martin Luther King
accepted the pastorale of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery,
Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King
was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of
its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept
the leadership of the first great Black nonviolent demonstration of contemporary
times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his
presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On
December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared
unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites
rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his
home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he
emerged as a Black leader of the first rank.
In 1957 he was elected president
of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to
provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals
for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from
Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six
million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there
was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as
numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham,
Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called
a coalition of conscience and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a
manifesto of the Black revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the
registration of Blacks as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington,
D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he
conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B.
Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four
times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time
magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but
also a world figure.
At the age of thirty-five, Martin
Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize.
When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize
money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.
CREDIT: Rev. Martin Luther King congratulated by Crown Prince Harald, (left) and
King Olav after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, as Mrs. King
looks on United Press International photograph, 1964 Dec 10. Prints and
Photographs Division of the Library of Congress.
In 1968, King and the SCLC
organized the "Poor People's Campaign" to address issues of economic justice.
King's economic bill of rights called for massive government jobs programs to
rebuild America's cities. He saw a crying need to confront a Congress that had
demonstrated its "hostility to the poor" — appropriating "military funds with
alacrity and generosity," but providing "poverty funds with miserliness." His
vision was for change that was more revolutionary than mere reform: he cited
systematic flaws of racism, poverty, militarism and materialism, and that
"reconstruction of society itself is the real issue to be faced.
On February 12, thirteen hundred
African-American sanitation workers in Memphis went on strike. Though there had
been a long history of grievances, the strike was begun as a response to a
January 31 incident in which 22 black sanitation workers were sent home without
pay during bad weather while all the white workers remained on the job. When the
City of Memphis refused to negotiate with the 1,300 striking workers, King and
other civil rights leaders were asked to visit Memphis in support. Most of Dr.
King's close advisors thought he should not go to Memphis, they thought it would
interfere with the "Poor People's Campaign", Dr. King overruled them.
On Monday, March 18, King
traveled to Memphis, where he spoke to over 15,000 who had gathered at Mason
Temple. Ten days later, King arrived in Memphis to lead a march in support of
the striking workers. Unfortunately, as King led the crowd, a few of the
protestors got rowdy and smashed the windows of a storefront. The violence
spread and soon countless others had taken up sticks and were breaking windows
and looting stores.
Police moved in to disperse the
crowd. Some of the marchers threw stones at the police. The police responded
with tear gas and nightsticks. At least one of the marchers was shot and killed.
King was extremely distressed at
the violence that had erupted in his own march and became determined not to let
violence prevail. In the following day's Dr. King's demeanor and mood was
markedly different. He was depressed and easily agitated. His close friends and
advisors say that Dr. King seemed to act and think that the end of his life was
near. A second march was planned to show that a protest in Memphis could be
peaceful and to insure that a planned march in Washington D.C. could take place
later in the year. The first date of the protest was cancelled do to bad weather
it was then rescheduled to April 8.
On April 3, King arrived in
Memphis a little later than planned because there had been a bomb threat for his
flight before takeoff. That evening, King delivered his "I've Been to the
Mountaintop" speech to a relatively small crowd that had braved the bad weather
to hear King speak. King's thoughts were obviously on his mortality, for he
discussed the plane threat as well as the time he had been stabbed. He concluded
the speech with-
"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, I would like to live a long life - longevity has its place. But I'm not
concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to
go up 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 a people
will get to the Promised Land. And so 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."
On the evening of April 4, 1968
at 6:01 p.m. , while standing on the balcony in front of his room 306 at the
Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in
sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.
Martin Luther King Standing on the balcony moments before being killed
With him are Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson and Rev. Ralph Abernathy
The Balcony of The Lorraine Hotel seconds after Martin Luther King was killed
On Monday, January 20, 1986, in cities and towns across the country people
celebrated the first official Martin Luther King Day, the only federal holiday
commemorating an African-American.
I Have A Dream
by Martin Luther King, Jr.
On August 23, 1963, a crowd of more than 250,000 people gathered in Washington,
D.C. and marched to the Capitol Building to support the passing of laws that
guaranteed every American equal civil rights. Martin Luther King was at the
front of the "March on Washington." On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial* that
day, Dr. King delivered a speech that was later entitled "I Have a Dream." The
March was one of the largest gatherings of black and white people that the
nation's capital had ever seen... and no violence occurred.
Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28,
1963
I am happy to join with you today
in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the
history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great
American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation
Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to
millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering
injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their
captivity.
But one hundred years later, the
Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still
sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.
One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the
midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro
is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an
exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful
condition.
In a sense we have come to our
nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the
magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they
were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This
note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be
guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.
It is obvious today that America
has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are
concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the
Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient
funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse
to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity
of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us
upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come
to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no
time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of
gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the
time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path
of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of
racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make
justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation
to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's
legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of
freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those
who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will
have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be
neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his
citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the
foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I
must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the
palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be
guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by
drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our
struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our
creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must
rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The
marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us
to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by
their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up
with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We
cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the
pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are
asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never
be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of
police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with
the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the
hotels of the cities. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in
Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for
which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until
justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of
you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come
fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest
for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the
winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering.
Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back
to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana,
go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow
this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of
despair.
I say to you today, my friends,
so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a
dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this
nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these
truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on
the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave
owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even
the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice,
sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of
freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four
little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by
the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down
in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping
with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in
Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with
little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every
valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough
places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the
glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the
faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew
out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able
to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of
brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together,
to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together,
knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of
God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of
thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of
the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great
nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops
of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let
freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the
snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the
curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom
ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout
Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill
and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, When we
allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet,
from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all
of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and
Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro
spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at
last!"
Quotes from Martin
Luther King
·Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
-- "Letter from Birmingham Jail," 16 April 1963
·We must learn to live together as brothers or perish
together as fools.
-- Speech in St. Louis, Missouri, March 22, 1964
·The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in
moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge
and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even
his life for the welfare of others.
-- Strength in Love (1963)
·We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the
hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the
good people.
-- "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963
·I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the
sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit
down together at the table of brotherhood.
-- "I Have a Dream" speech, August 28, 1963
·Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere
ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
-- Strength in Love (1963)
·Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity
has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's
will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and
I've seen the promised land . . . So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about
anything. I'm not fearing any man.
-- "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, April 3, 1968 (the day before his
assassination)
·If a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he
isn't fit to live.
-- Speech in Detroit, Michigan on June 23, 1963
·The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for
which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have
guided missiles and misguided men.
-- Strength in Love (1963), Ch. 7
·Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must
be demanded by the oppressed.
-- "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963
·I have a dream that my four little children will one day
live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by
the content of their character.
-- "I Have a Dream" speech, August 28, 1963
·I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience
tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail in
order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in
reality expressing the very highest respect for the law.
-- "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963
·It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but
it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
-- Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 13, 1962
·A nation or civilization that continues to produce
soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan.
-- Strength to Love (1963)
·We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the
creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is
already alive.
-- "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963
·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.
-- Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, December 10, 1964
·Shallow understanding from people of good will is more
frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
-- "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963
·We were here before the mighty words of the Declaration of
Independence were etched across the pages of history. Our forebears labored
without wages. They made cotton 'king'. And yet out of a bottomless vitality,
they continued to thrive and develop. If the cruelties of slavery could not stop
us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. . . . Because the goal of
America is freedom, abused and scorned tho' we may be, our destiny is tied up
with America's destiny.
-- "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963
·Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every
waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is
accepted as truth in the society dominating them.
-- "Where do we go from here?" speech, August 16, 1967
·When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every
tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to
speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and
Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the
words of the old spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we
are free at last."
-- "I Have a Dream" speech, August 28, 1963
Credit: Nobel Organization, U.S.
Library of Congress, U.S. Department of State
