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Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech

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'Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.'s Famed 'I Have a Dream' Speech' on ViewPure

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On Martin Luther King Jr.\'s birthday, we remember the civil rights leader\'s most famous speech, and King\'s remarkable legacy. He was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta. He gave the \

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Martin Luther King, Jr. (born Michael King, Jr.; January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968) was an American pastor, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He was best known for improving civil rights by using nonviolent civil disobedience, based on his Christian beliefs. Because he was both a Ph.D. and a pastor, King is sometimes called the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. (abbreviation: the Rev. Dr. King), or just Dr King. He is also known by his initials MLK.

Led by Dr. King and others, many African Americans used nonviolent, peaceful strategies to fight for their civil rights. These strategies included sit-ins, boycotts, and protest marches. Often, they were attacked by white police officers or people who did not want African Americans to have more rights. However, no matter how badly they were attacked, Dr. King and his followers never fought back.

King fought for equal rights from the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 until he was murdered by James Earl Ray in April 1968.

At age 6, King first went through discrimination (being treated worse than a white person because he was black). He was sent to an all-black school, and a white friend was sent to an all-white school.

Once, when he was 14, King won a contest with a speech about civil rights. When he was going back home on a bus, he was forced to give up his seat and stand for the bus ride so a white person could sit down. At the time, white people were seen as more important than black people. If a white person wanted a seat, that person could take the seat from any African American. King later said having to give up his seat made him "the angriest I've ever been in my life."

Civil rights work

Montgomery Bus Boycott

King first started his civil rights activism in 1955. At that time, he led a protest against the way black people were segregated on buses. They had to sit at the back of the bus, separate from white people. He told his supporters, and the people who were against equal rights, that people should only use peaceful ways to solve the problem.

King was arrested for starting a boycott. He was fined $500, plus $500 more in court costs. His house was fire- bombed. Others involved with MIA were also threatened. However, by December 1956, segregation had been ended on Montgomery's buses. People could sit anywhere they wanted on the buses.

March on Washington

In 1963, King helped plan the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This was the largest protest for human rights in United States history. On August 28, 1963, about 250,000 people marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. Then they listened to civil rights leaders speak. King was the last speaker. His speech, called " I Have a Dream," became one of history's most famous civil rights speeches. King talked about his dream that one day, white and black people would be equal.

That same year, the United States government passed the Civil Rights Act. This law made many kinds of discrimination against black people illegal. The March on Washington made it clear to the United States government that they needed to take action on civil rights, and it helped get the Civil Rights Act passed.

Nobel Prize

In 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. When presenting him with the award, the Chairman of the Nobel Committee said:

Today, now that mankind [has] the atom bomb, the time has come to lay our weapons and armaments aside and listen to the message Martin Luther King has given us[:] "The choice is either nonviolence or nonexistence"....[King] is the first person in the Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence. He is the first to make the message of brotherly love a reality in the course of his struggle, and he has brought this message to all men, to all nations and races.

Voting rights

In 1963 and 1964, civil rights groups in Selma, Alabama had been trying to sign African-American people up to vote, but they had not been able to. At the time, 99% of the people signed up to vote in Selma were white. However, the government workers who signed up voters were all white. They refused to sign up African-Americans. In January 1965, these civil rights groups asked King and the SCLC to help them. Together, they started working on voting rights. However, the next month, an African-American man named Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot by a police officer during a peaceful march. Jackson died. pp. 121-123 Many African-American people were very angry.

The first march was on March 7, 1965. Police officers, and people they had chosen to help them, attacked the marchers with clubs and tear gas. They threatened to throw the marchers off the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Seventeen marchers had to go to the hospital, and 50 others were also injured. This day came to be called Bloody Sunday. Pictures and film of the marchers being beaten were shown around the world, in newspapers and on television. Seeing these things made more people support the civil rights activists. People came from all over the United States to march with the activists. One of them, James Reeb, was attacked by white people for supporting civil rights. He died on March 11, 1965.

On August 6, 1965, the United States passed the Voting Rights Act. This law made it illegal to stop somebody from voting because of their race.

After this, King continued to fight poverty and the Vietnam War.

Assassination

On April 4, 1968, King was in Memphis, Tennessee. He planned to lead a protest march to support garbage workers who were on strike. At 6:01 pm, King was shot while he was standing on the balcony of his motel room.

King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital. His heart had stopped. Doctors there tried to make his heart start pumping again. However, they were unable to save King's life. He died at 7:05 p.m.

King's death led to riots in many cities.

"

[After I die,] I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others.

"

After his death, King was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. King and his wife were also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

In 2003, the United States Congress passed a law allowing the beginning words of King's "I Have a Dream" speech to be carved into the Lincoln Memorial.

More than 900 streets in the United States have also been named after King. These streets exist in 40 different states; Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico. and many others

In 2011, a memorial statue of King was put up in West Potomac Park next to the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

There are also memorials for King around the world. These include:

Interesting facts about Martin Luther King Jr.

He was born in his Grandparents house in Atlanta, Georgia.

He was named "Michael King" when he was born. He decided to change his name as a teenager to Martin Luther King Jr. after his father.

He graduated from high school early and entered college at just 15 years of age in 1944.

He only earned $8,000 a year as a preacher, which is just under $ 60,000 today, so he wasn't wealthy when he died.

In 1964 he was the youngest person (35 years) to have received the Nobel Peace Prize.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent resistance to racial prejudice in in the United States.

His favorite foods were fried chicken and pecan pie.

Martin Luther King Jr. would be 92 years old today.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. (born Michael King, Jr.; January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968) was an American pastor, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He was best known for improving civil rights by using nonviolent civil disobedience, based on his Christian beliefs. Because he was both a Ph.D.

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Kids learn about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s biography. A great civil rights leader.