~~January 18, 2014~~
More than 45 years after his death and 50 years after his historic “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King Jr.‘s stirring words and writings remain as relevant and inspiring today as they were when he lived.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American pastor, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs.
Born Michael King, his father changed his name in honor of German reformer Martin Luther. A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, in 1962, and organized nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama, that attracted national attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history.
He also established his reputation as a radical, and became an object of the Federal Bureau of Investigation‘s COINTELPRO for the rest of his life. FBI agents investigated him for possible communist ties, recorded his extramarital liaisons and reported on them to government officials, and on one occasion, mailed King a threatening anonymous letter that he interpreted as an attempt to make him commit suicide.
|Martin Luther King, Jr.|
BornMichael King, Jr.
(1929-01-15)January 15, 1929
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.DiedApril 4, 1968(1968-04-04) (aged 39)
Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.MonumentsMartin Luther King, Jr. MemorialAlma materMorehouse College (B.A.)
Crozer Theological Seminary (B.D.)
Boston University (Ph.D.)OccupationClergyman, activistOrganizationSouthern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
African-American Civil Rights Movement, Peace movementReligionBaptist (Progressive National Baptist Convention)Spouse(s)Coretta Scott King (1953–1968)ChildrenYolanda Denise King (1955–2007)
Martin Luther King III (b. 1957)
Dexter Scott King (b. 1961)
Bernice Albertine King (b. 1963)ParentsMartin Luther King, Sr.
Alberta Williams KingAwardsNobel Peace Prize (1964), Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977, posthumous), Congressional Gold Medal (2004, posthumous)
On October 14, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence. In 1965, he and the SCLC helped to organize the Selma to Montgomery marches and the following year, he took the movement north to Chicago. In the final years of his life, King expanded his focus to include poverty and the Vietnam War, alienating many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled “Beyond Vietnam“.
In 1968 King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People’s Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4, in Memphis, Tennessee. His death was followed by riots in many U.S. cities. Allegations that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of killing King, had been framed or acted in concert with government agents persisted for decades after the shooting, and the jury of a 1999 civil trial found Loyd Jowers to be complicit in a conspiracy against King.
King was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986. Hundreds of streets and a county in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor.
Martin Luther King’s Last Speech: “I’ve Been To The Mountaintop”
Uploaded on Apr 4, 2010
The final part of Martin Luther King’s last speech. He delivered it on April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee.
The next day, King was assassinated.
“15 of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Most Inspiring Motivational Quotes ”
1. “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
2. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
3. “Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude.”
4. “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
5. “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
6. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
7. “Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.”
8. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
9. “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”
10. “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.”
11. “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.”
12. “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”
13. “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
14. “Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
15. “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
THE POWER OF THE SPOKEN WORD.
THE POWER OF THE MESSENGER. NEVER FORGOTTEN.
~~THE OPPRESSED MUST DO THEIR PART~~
~~”I HAVE A DREAM”~~
THE CONCEPT OF HONOR, COMMITMENT, STRENGTH AND STEADFASTNESS …. REASONS FOR LIVING
We ALL are ONE!!
We ALL are connected through a DREAM!!!