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What Laws Exist Relating to Racial Inequality?

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What Laws Exist Relating to Racial Inequality?

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By: Counselor for Racial Equity Janis Bowdler and Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy Benjamin Harris Racial inequality is the unequal distribution of resources, power, and economic opportunity across race in a society. While the discussion of racial inequality in the United States is often fo…

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What is society's response to Racial Inequality?

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What is society's response to Racial Inequality?

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Racial inequality in the United States - Wikipedia

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In the United States, racial inequality refers to the social inequality and advantages and disparities that affect different races. These can also be seen as a result of historic oppression, inequality of inheritance, or racism and prejudice, especially against minority groups. There are vast differences in wealth across racial groups in the United States.

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The everyday response to racism — Harvard Gazette

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When someone makes a racially charged comment or joke, how would you respond? Research led by Harvard sociologist Michèle Lamont says your answer may very well depend on the group to which you belong.

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How can Racial Inequality be seen in the Durham Region?

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How can Racial Inequality be seen in the Durham Region?

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How is Canada fighting Racial Inequality?

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How is Canada fighting Racial Inequality?

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Town officials and hate crime experts are condemning a number of anti-immigrant posters that have been spotted around Whitby, especially in the community of Brooklin.

"All racism is dangerous rubbish," said Mayor Don Mitchell.

"This is not the Whitby I live in and certainly doesn't reflect the values of our town."

A resident who lives near Cochrane Street says they were walking in the area Wednesday when they made the troubling discovery of the posters, plastered to several mailboxes.

The poster says "the great replacement of European Canadians is not a conspiracy theory, it is an undeniable fact."

It then goes on to list statistics alleged to be from Statistics Canada, showing a supposed decline in Canada's white population.

"We strongly condemn any attempt to mislead and divide Canadians," Statistics Canada said in a statement.

"We collect data and provide information and insights that contribute to the strength of our people, our communities and our country. We trust Canadians will use this data responsibly."

The posters have since been removed, for the most part. However, the town is struggling with getting all of the material off, as those responsible glued the posters onto the mailboxes.

Durham police are investigating the incidents. They say the posters are similar to those posted on a separate occasion in Whitby last October.

"As of today, we were also told about three more incidents where the same posters were located in the Brooklin area at a school, so we have officers that are investigating," said Const. George Tudos.

"Obviously we take these very serious[ly]."

Durham's Jewish community spreads messages of love with chalk

Dr. Barbara Perry with Ontario Tech's centre on hate, bias and extremism says the posters could have come from a number of anti-immigrant groups.

"They could be coming from more extreme groups, like the Soldiers of Odin, all of which [have] a presence in the area," she said.

Perry says far right groups such as the Soldiers of Odin are "very fearful of a loss of privilege."

That kind of fear, the professor says, is what was responsible for some horrible incidents, like the mass killings in Christchurch, New Zealand.

It appears expressions of hate are becoming a more common sight in Whitby. Just a couple of kilometers from the posters, pieces of wood with anti-Semitic messages were found in a local park.

Perry says recent incidents are a concerning reflection of increased racism in the region.

"There is both cultural anxiety and economic anxiety in the region now. That makes it ripe for recruitment by these sorts of groups," she said.

The professor says municipalities and community members can make progress on the issue by continuing to publicly address any incidents that happen.

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'This is not the Whitby I live in': Town, experts react to racist posters spotted around city - Durham | Globalnews.ca

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Town officials and hate crime experts are condemning a number of anti-immigrant posters that have been spotted around Whitby, especially in the community of Brooklin. "All racism is dangerous rubbish," said Mayor Don Mitchell. "This is not the Whitby I live in and certainly doesn't reflect the values of our town."

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Video surfaces of teacher using racial slur in Ajax classroom

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In a video submitted to CityNews, the teacher in question can be seen talking to students inside a classroom at Viola Desmond Public School.

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Racist graffiti found at a pickleball court in Newcastle Sunday has the mayor and council in Clarington “deeply disturbed” and hopeful Durham Police can find those responsible for the “hateful act

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Building a Foundation for Change: Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2019–2022 - Canada.ca

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Building a Foundation for Change: Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2019–2022 informs the Government of Canada’s actions to promote diversity and inclusion and its work towards combatting racism and discrimination.

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A look at our role in anti-racism human rights cases

The Commission is responsible for mediating, settling and litigating key human rights cases with the aim to correct systemic forms of racism in Canada. It only takes one individual, one case to help create positive change for so many others. While the Commission is entirely separate from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, we often participate in Tribunal hearings and represent the public interest in cases that stand to impact the human rights of many people in Canada. Here are examples of human rights cases, in which we have participated, to help combat systemic racism.

CSIS affirms its commitment and actions to address and prevent racism and discrimination in human rights settlement

This settlement is the result of a complaint filed by a Black woman who worked for CSIS as an Intelligence Officer. The Commission referred the complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (the "Tribunal"). CSIS, the Complainant and the Commission settled the matter without a Tribunal hearing. Although the parties do not necessarily agree on all of the matters raised in the complaint, they have agreed to the public interest remedies described in this statement.

In this settlement, CSIS re-affirms its commitment to:

promote greater diversity on selection panels, with the goal of including at least one representative from an employment equity group on all panels, to the greatest extent possible;

run an executive recruitment process for employees from employment equity groups and prioritize the placement of qualified participants into executive roles in areas where representation of the relevant group is lower than workforce availability;

give employees training on unconscious bias and anti-racism;

integrate discrimination as an explicit ground for appealing staffing decisions; and

review HR assessment tools to reduce potential for individual bias and subjectivity.

Read our full statement.
RCMP commits to addressing and preventing racial discrimination

In 2023, the Canadian Human Rights Commission reached a settlement with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The RCMP agreed to implement a variety of equity, diversity and inclusion measures aimed at identifying and combatting possible obstacles to the successful recruitment and retention of racialized applicants and cadets at the RCMP Training Academy at Depot Division, in Regina. The case began with a complaint to the Commission from an RCMP cadet, who identified as a Black Canadian, and who attended the RCMP Training Academy.

Thanks to his courage, changes are being made right now to address any barriers that underrepresented groups may face when trying to successfully complete their training curriculum at the RCMP Training Academy.

The RCMP has committed to identifying and reducing workplace barriers and discrimination by taking steps to improve the experience of racialized employees at the RCMP, in particular at the RCMP Training Academy. The RCMP has also committed to taking proactive steps - in policy and training - to prevent and address racism, and to increasing the diversity of applicants and cadets at the RCMP Training Academy, as well as across the RCMP, and among those in leadership roles.
Terms of Settlement
National Film Board of Canada to better protect Inuit culture

In 2023, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) reached an agreement to settle a human rights complaint before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal about systemic discrimination in the workplace. The complainant, Mr. Stephen Puskas (who agreed to be named), was a young Inuk man who worked at the NFB as an associate producer intern in 2017-2018. He worked on multiple projects, including Hothouse 12 and Ingenia, the NFB's Indigenous Cinema webpage, and helping to promote the NFB and their work in Indigenous communities (ie. the Wide Awake Tour in Labrador and Kuujjuaq.)

Because of his courage and resilience, and with the support of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR), Mr. Puskas helped bring about powerful changes within the NFB, including.

NFB agreeing to provide mandatory training, to all its employees, on Inuit History and Inuit lived experience. The NFB will work with an Inuit consultant when developing this training;

NFB agreeing to work closely with Inuit agencies in developing an Indigenous internship program at the NFB during the 2023-24 fiscal year;

NFB agreeing to work with Inuit Human Resources consultation firms and/or advisors to ensure proper outreach is carried out in Inuit communities; and

NFB's restating its commitment to its Indigenous Action Plan, which references First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.

The rights of Indigenous prisoners in federal corrections

The 2018 Supreme Court decision in Ewert was an important step for the human rights of Indigenous offenders in Canada, who remain over-represented in our federal correctional system. The case centered around the use of risk assessment tests that help determine an inmate's safety risk based on their criminal history, personal characteristics and other various factors. However, there were questions about whether these tools could provide accurate assessments for Indigenous offenders, like Jeffrey Ewert. If not, Indigenous offenders could be misclassified as higher risk than they actually are. That kind of misclassification puts an inmate at a disadvantage in the correctional system.

The Commission appeared as an intervener before the Supreme Court.

In its decision, the Court ruled that Correctional Service Canada (CSC) failed to meet its legal obligations by not confirming the accuracy of the testing tools for Indigenous offenders. The ruling said that CSC must do more to ensure that risk assessment tests do not lead to discrimination and disparity in outcomes for Indigenous offenders.

The Supreme Court's ruling affirmed what has long been pointed out by the Commission, by the Office of the Correctional Investigator, and by prisoners' rights advocates: more work needs to be done to prevent discrimination and meet the unique needs of Indigenous offenders in the criminal justice system.

Racial profiling is prohibited by the Canadian Human Rights Act

In 2006, Ms. Davis, a member of the Mohawk Community of Akwesasne, filed a complaint alleging discrimination on the basis of race after she was detained at the border by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA). The Commission appeared as a party before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, which upheld Ms. Davis' complaint in part. The Tribunal found that a CBSA officer made comments that were "unjustified, even aggressive, and defiant" and that his behaviour was "marked by racist stereotyping" towards Ms. Davis as a First Nations woman.

The Tribunal affirmed that "racial stereotyping will usually be the result of subtle unconscious beliefs, biases and prejudices." The Tribunal awarded Ms. Davis $5,000 in compensation and directed the CBSA to develop and implement a policy specifically prohibiting racial discrimination and profiling.

When the CBSA tried to have the Tribunal's decision overturned, the Commission successfully defended the decision in the Federal Court.

The rights of First Nations children and their families

In 2007, the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, together with the Assembly of First Nations, filed a human rights complaint against the Government of Canada, on behalf of First Nations children and families. The complainants alleged the federal government discriminated on the basis of race and national or ethnic origin by failing to provide enough funding and other supports to enable the delivery of child and family services, and other services, capable of meeting the real needs of First Nations children on reserve and in the Yukon.

The complaint proceeded before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, where the Canadian Human Rights Commission participated, on behalf of the public interest. The Tribunal hearing took place over 70 days in 2013 and 2014. There were more than 25 witnesses, and over 500 exhibits.

In January of 2016, the Tribunal released its decision upholding the complaint. It ordered the federal government to reform the child and family services program, and to properly implement Jordan's Principle - a child-first principle that makes sure First Nations children can access the products, services and supports they need, when they need them.

Since 2016, the Tribunal has issued more than 20 additional rulings, giving guidance on the proper implementation of its remedies, and awarding financial compensation to thousands of individual victims of the discriminatory practices.

The Commission applauds the Tribunal's decisions as powerful reaffirmations of the human right of all First Nations children to grow up safe, with the love and support of their families.

Systemic racial discrimination in federal government selection procedures

In 1992, the National Capital Alliance on Race Relations alleged that Health Canada's employment practices discriminated against racialized employees by denying them promotions to senior management positions. At the time, only one of 118 people in senior management was a member of a racialized group. This compared with a 25% representation rate for racialized employees across the whole department.

The Commission participated in the hearing before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, which lasted 46 days. Together with the Alliance, we argued that the staffing and promotion practices were denying racialized people employment and advancement opportunities. For example, the hiring and promotion boards were composed disproportionately of white individuals; racialized people were offered less career and development training than white people, and were less often appointed in acting positions with supervisory duties.

The Tribunal issued its decision in 1997, upholding the complaint. It confirmed that systemic discrimination could be an unintentional consequence of employment systems and practices. It confirmed that in this case, the Alliance and the Commission had successfully demonstrated that there were "a number of staffing practices of [Health Canada] that have a disproportionately negative effect on visible minorities in [Health Canada] which the Tribunal finds discriminatory." Since Health Canada had chosen not to try to explain the significant under-representation of racialized employees in senior management, the Tribunal held that the Alliance and the Commission had proven that Health Canada had discriminatory promotion practices.

While the Alliance case was systemic in nature, a number of individual public servants filed complaints alleging their careers had been negatively affected in similar ways. The Tribunal upheld a number of these, including complaints filed by Dr. Shiv Chopra against Health Canada, and Dr. Chander Grover against the National Research Council. Along with the Alliance case, these rulings helped to establish important principles for identifying and eliminating systemic discrimination in federal workplaces.

The rights of Sikh members of the RCMP

Today, Sikh Canadians who join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police don't have to choose between wearing the RCMP uniform and following their religious practices. They can do both. But things were once very different.

When Baltej Singh Dhillon applied to be an RCMP officer in 1988, he was told that the RCMP's uniform policy did not allow him to wear his turban. For Staff Sergeant Dhillon, this meant that if he wanted to join the force, he would have to compromise his religious beliefs.

Staff Sergeant Dhillon's efforts to change the rules sparked a heated debate across Canada. Some felt that Canada's history and traditions were threatened by the country's growing cultural diversity.

In 1990, after consulting the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Human Rights Act, Solicitor General Pierre Cadieux ruled that turbans could be worn by uniformed RCMP officers. He said the decision was "not only the correct one in law but also the right decision."

When the ruling was challenged three years later, the Canadian Human Rights Commission was there to help defend the RCMP's decision to allow turbans. In the end, the 1990 ruling was upheld, and today, officers can choose to wear their Sikh turban while also proudly wearing their RCMP uniform.

The "subtle scent" of racial discrimination

On May 25th, 1984, Mr. Balbir Basi filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission alleging that he, a man of Indian descent, had been denied an employment opportunity with the Canadian National Railway Company (CNR) because of his race, color and national and ethnic origin.

The case eventually went before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. The Commission appeared as a party in this matter. At the Tribunal hearing, the CNR attempted to provide alternate explanations for its failure to hire Mr. Basi, but the Tribunal found those explanations inconsistent with the reasons CNR gave for interviewing 5 other candidates.

In its final decision, the Tribunal wrote: "Discrimination is not a practise which one would expect to see displayed overtly. In fact, rarely are there cases where one can show by direct evidence that discrimination is purposely practised." The Tribunal then famously wrote: "Frankly, the subtle scent of discrimination permeates the entire manner in which the CNR dealt with the Human Rights Commission in attempting to justify their actions regarding Basi. I am left with the conclusion that the rationale for not hiring Mr. Basi, as described by [CNR], was not as innocent, direct nor reasonable as first proposed."

The idea of the subtle scent of discrimination has since become a widely referenced phrase among human rights lawyers, experts, and anti-racism advocates. It perfectly captures the challenging burden of proof often placed upon those who have experienced racism, and the need for decision-makers to look deeper and beyond direct evidence.

In the end, the Tribunal ruled in Mr. Basi and the Commission's favour - that CNR had not provided a sufficient credible explanation as to why Mr. Basi had not been selected for the job.

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Systemic racism is a persistent problem in Canada. No organization and no government is immune. It is up to all of us to uncover and reject all forms of racism and discrimination. The Commission is made up of a diverse group of people, many of whom have lived experiences of the very kinds of discrimination that the Canadian Human Rights Act exists to protect.

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The two groups also recommend that the city:

Expand its community service offerings and establish programming for students between 3:00 pm-6:00 pm, diversify its recreational offerings, provide supports and more programming for seniors, provide more spaces available for use by community groups, complete a review on what and where arts programming is offered, and establish a plan to address the disparity in access to childcare in certain parts of the city.

Commit to a good jobs approach for members of racialized communities.

Commit to addressing housing disparities for Toronto's racialized communities.

Immediately and seriously consider alternatives to policing with the aim to provide appropriate community safety services and decrease the police budget in future budgets, and set up and reinforce accountability measures for its police force.

Expand rapid transit to the suburbs and urgently implement the busway in Scarborough.

Apply a racial justice lens to its consultation process and its communications to the public.

"Throughout the past 50 years, the Urban Alliance on Race Relations has seen the highs and lows of the fight for racial justice in Toronto. While we have a progressive and diverse city council, we must continue to hold our local leaders accountable to continuing this important fight." Nigel Barriffe, president of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations said.

Employees are eager for their organizations to be active in discussions when it comes to diversity in the workplace, according to a previous report from Catalyst.

2024 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

According to the UN, the 2024 theme of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is "A Decade of Recognition, Justice, and Development: Implementation of the International Decade for People of African Descent".

"Racial discrimination and the legacies of slavery and colonialism continue to destroy lives and curtail opportunities, preventing billions of people from enjoying their full human rights and freedoms," it said.

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international day for the elimination of racial discrimination

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Labour groups call on Toronto to end racial inequality

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'Racial inequity is felt deeply in Toronto' in areas of good jobs, community services and policing, among others, say groups

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Why is it important to address this racial inequality?

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Why is it important to address this racial inequality?

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To give everyone a fair opportunity in all fields, no matter what they look like or where they come from.

To reduce conflict and instill acceptance and understanding within communities.

To give people from different backgrounds the same opportunities for education, healthcare, and jobs.

To improve mental health and reduce poverty, addictions, and crimes.

To improve and strengthen workplaces as different views and ideas are represented.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. (born January 15, 1929, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.-died April 4, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee) Baptist minister and social activist who led the civil rights movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968. His leadership was fundamental to that movement's success in ending the legal segregation of African Americans in the South and other parts of the United States. King rose to national prominence as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which promoted nonviolent tactics, such as the massive March on Washington (1963), to achieve civil rights. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Early years

King came from a comfortable middle-class family steeped in the tradition of the Southern Black ministry: both his father and maternal grandfather were Baptist preachers. His parents were college-educated, and King's father had succeeded his father-in-law as pastor of the prestigious Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. The family lived on Auburn Avenue, otherwise known as "Sweet Auburn," the bustling "Black Wall Street," home to some of the country's largest and most prosperous Black businesses and Black churches in the years before the civil rights movement. Young Martin received a solid education and grew up in a loving extended family.

This secure upbringing, however, did not prevent King from experiencing the prejudices then common in the South. He never forgot the time when, at about age six, one of his white playmates announced that his parents would no longer allow him to play with King, because the children were now attending segregated schools. Dearest to King in these early years was his maternal grandmother, whose death in 1941 left him shaken and unstable. Upset because he had learned of her fatal heart attack while attending a parade without his parents' permission, the 12-year-old King attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story window.

In 1944, at age 15, King entered Morehouse College in Atlanta under a special wartime program intended to boost enrollment by admitting promising high-school students like King. Before beginning college, however, King spent the summer on a tobacco farm in Connecticut; it was his first extended stay away from home and his first substantial experience of race relations outside the segregated South. He was shocked by how peacefully the races mixed in the North. "Negroes and whites go [to] the same church," he noted in a letter to his parents. "I never [thought] that a person of my race could eat anywhere." This summer experience in the North only deepened King's growing hatred of racial segregation.

At Morehouse, King favoured studies in medicine and law, but these were eclipsed in his senior year by a decision to enter the ministry, as his father had urged. King's mentor at Morehouse was the college president, Benjamin Mays, a social gospel activist whose rich oratory and progressive ideas had left an indelible imprint on King's father. Committed to fighting racial inequality, Mays accused the African American community of complacency in the face of oppression, and he prodded the Black church into social action by criticizing its emphasis on the hereafter instead of the here and now; it was a call to service that was not lost on the teenage King. He graduated from Morehouse in 1948.

King spent the next three years at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he became acquainted with Mohandas Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence as well as with the thought of contemporary Protestant theologians. He earned a bachelor of divinity degree in 1951. Renowned for his oratorical skills, King was elected president of Crozer's student body, which was composed almost exclusively of white students. As a professor at Crozer wrote in a letter of recommendation for King, "The fact that with our student body largely Southern in constitution a colored man should be elected to and be popular [in] such a position is in itself no mean recommendation." From Crozer, King went to Boston University, where, in seeking a firm foundation for his own theological and ethical inclinations, he studied man's relationship to God and received a doctorate (1955) for a dissertation titled "A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman."

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Martin Luther King, Jr. | Biography, Speeches, Facts, & Assassination

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Martin Luther King, Jr., a visionary leader and advocate for equality, spearheaded the civil rights movement in America through nonviolent protests, inspiring lasting change and leaving an enduring legacy.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. Study Guide: Education | SparkNotes

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As a child King attended Atlanta Public Schools, first
David T. Howard Elementary, then Booker T. Washington High School, where…

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How did Dr. Martin Luther King make a difference? #1

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How did Dr. Martin Luther King make a difference? #1

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How did Dr. Martin Luther King make a difference? #2

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How did Dr. Martin Luther King make a difference? #2

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The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was the charismatic leader of the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. He directed the year-long Montgomery bus boycott, which attracted scrutiny by a wary, divided nation, but his leadership and the resulting Supreme Court ruling against bus segregation brought him fame. He formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to coordinate nonviolent protests and delivered over 2,500 speeches addressing racial injustice, but his life was cut short by an assassin in 1968.

Fast Facts: The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was born January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, to Michael King Sr., pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, and Alberta Williams, a Spelman College graduate and former schoolteacher. King lived with his parents, a sister, and a brother in the Victorian home of his maternal grandparents.

Martin-named Michael Lewis until he was 5-thrived in a middle-class family, going to school, playing football and baseball, delivering newspapers, and doing odd jobs. Their father was involved in the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and had led a successful campaign for equal wages for White and Black Atlanta teachers. When Martin's grandfather died in 1931, Martin's father became pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, serving for 44 years.

After attending the World Baptist Alliance in Berlin in 1934, King Sr. changed his and his son's name from Michael King to Martin Luther King, after the Protestant reformist. King Sr. was inspired by Martin Luther's courage of confronting institutionalized evil.

King entered Morehouse College at 15. King's wavering attitude toward his future career in the clergy led him to engage in activities typically not condoned by the church. He played pool, drank beer, and received his lowest academic marks in his first two years at Morehouse.

King studied sociology and considered law school while reading voraciously. He was fascinated by Henry David Thoreau's essay " On Civil Disobedience" and its idea of noncooperation with an unjust system. King decided that social activism was his calling and religion the best means to that end. He was ordained as a minister in February 1948, the year he graduated with a sociology degree at age 19.

In September 1948, King entered the predominately White Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, Pennsylvania. He read works by great theologians but despaired that no philosophy was complete within itself. Then, hearing a lecture about Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, he became captivated by his concept of nonviolent resistance. King concluded that the Christian doctrine of love, operating through nonviolence, could be a powerful weapon for his people.

In 1951, King graduated at the top of his class with a Bachelor of Divinity degree. In September of that year, he enrolled in doctoral studies at Boston University's School of Theology.

While in Boston, King met Coretta Scott, a singer studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music. While King knew early on that she had all the qualities he desired in a wife, initially, Coretta was hesitant about dating a minister. The couple married on June 18, 1953. King's father performed the ceremony at Coretta's family home in Marion, Alabama. They returned to Boston to complete their degrees.

King was invited to preach in Montgomery, Alabama, at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, which had a history of civil rights activism. The pastor was retiring. King captivated the congregation and became the pastor in April 1954. Coretta, meanwhile, was committed to her husband's work but was conflicted about her role. King wanted her to stay home with their four children: Yolanda, Martin, Dexter, and Bernice. Explaining her feelings on the issue, Coretta told Jeanne Theoharis in a 2018 article in The Guardian, a British newspaper:

"I once told Martin that although I loved being his wife and a mother, if that was all I did I would have gone crazy. I felt a calling on my life from an early age. I knew I had something to contribute to the world."

And to a degree, King seemed to agree with his wife, saying he fully considered her a partner in the struggle for civil rights as well as on all other issues with which he was involved. Indeed, in his autobiography, he stated:

"I didn't want a wife I couldn't communicate with. I had to have a wife who would be as dedicated as I was. I wish I could say that I led her down this path, but I must say we went down it together because she was as actively involved and concerned when we met as she is now."

Yet, Coretta felt strongly that her role, and the role of women in general in the civil rights movement, had long been "marginalized" and overlooked, according to The Guardian. As early as 1966, Corretta wrote in an article published in the British women's magazine New Lady:

"Not enough attention has been focused on the roles played by women in the struggle....Women have been the backbone of the whole civil rights movement....Women have been the ones who have made it possible for the movement to be a mass movement."

Historians and observers have noted that King did not support gender equality in the civil rights movement. In an article in The Chicago Reporter, a monthly publication that covers race and poverty issues, Jeff Kelly Lowenstein wrote that women "played a limited role in the SCLC." Lowenstein further explained:

"Here the experience of legendary organizer Ella Baker is instructive. Baker struggled to have her voice heard...by leaders of the male-dominated organization. This disagreement prompted Baker, who played a key role in the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, to counsel young members like John Lewis to retain their independence from the older group. Historian Barbara Ransby wrote in her 2003 biography of Baker that the SCLC ministers were 'not ready to welcome her into the organization on an equal footing' because to do so 'would be too far afield from the gender relations they were used to in the church.'"

Montgomery Bus Boycott

When King arrived in Montgomery to join the Dexter Avenue church, Rosa Parks, secretary of the local NAACP chapter, had been arrested for refusing to relinquish her bus seat to a White man. Parks' December 1, 1955, arrest presented the perfect opportunity to make a case for desegregating the transit system.

E.D. Nixon, former head of the local NAACP chapter, and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, a close friend of King, contacted King and other clergymen to plan a citywide bus boycott. The group drafted demands and stipulated that no Black person would ride the buses on December 5.

That day, nearly 20,000 Black citizens refused bus rides. Because Black people comprised 90% of the passengers, most buses were empty. When the boycott ended 381 days later, Montgomery's transit system was nearly bankrupt. Additionally, on November 23, in the case of Gayle v. Browder, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that "Racially segregated transportation systems enforced by the government violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment," according to Oyez, an online archive of U.S. Supreme Court cases operated by the Illinois Institute of Technology's Chicago-Kent College of Law. The court also cited the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, where it had ruled in 1954 that "segregation of public education based solely on race (violates) the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment," according to Oyez. On December 20, 1956, the Montgomery Improvement Association voted to end the boycott.

Buoyed by success, the movement's leaders met in January 1957 in Atlanta and formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to coordinate nonviolent protests through Black churches. King was elected president and held the post until his death.

Principles of Nonviolence

In early 1958, King's first book, "Stride Toward Freedom," which detailed the Montgomery bus boycott, was published. While signing books in Harlem, New York, King was stabbed by a Black woman with a mental health condition. As he recovered, he visited India's Gandhi Peace Foundation in February 1959 to refine his protest strategies. In the book, greatly influenced by Gandhi's movement and teachings, he laid six principles, explaining that nonviolence:

Is not a method for cowards; it does resist: King noted that "Gandhi often said that if cowardice is the only alternative to violence, it is better to fight." Nonviolence is the method of a strong person; it is not "stagnant passivity."

Does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding: Even in conducting a boycott, for example, the purpose is "to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent" and the goal is one of "redemption and reconciliation," King said.

Is directed against forces of evil rather than against persons who happen to be doing the evil: "It is evil that the nonviolent resister seeks to defeat, not the persons victimized by evil," King wrote. The fight is not one of Black people versus White people, but to achieve "but a victory for justice and the forces of light," King wrote.

Is a willingness to accept suffering without retaliation, to accept blows from the opponent without striking back: Again citing Gandhi, King wrote: "The nonviolent resister is willing to accept violence if necessary, but never to inflict it. He does not seek to dodge jail. If going to jail is necessary, he enters it 'as a bridegroom enters the bride's chamber.'"

Avoids not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit: Saying that you win through love not hate, King wrote: "The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent, but he also refuses to hate him."

Is based on the conviction that the universe is on the side of justice: The nonviolent person "can accept suffering without retaliation" because the resister knows that "love" and "justice" will win in the end.

Birmingham

In April 1963, King and the SCLC joined Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights in a nonviolent campaign to end segregation and force Birmingham, Alabama, businesses to hire Black people. Fire hoses and vicious dogs were unleashed on the protesters by "Bull" Connor's police officers. King was thrown into jail. King spent eight days in the Birmingham jail as a result of this arrest but used the time to write "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," affirming his peaceful philosophy.

The brutal images galvanized the nation. Money poured in to support the protesters; White allies joined demonstrations. By summer, thousands of public facilities nationwide were integrated, and companies began to hire Black people. The resulting political climate pushed the passage of civil rights legislation. On June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy drafted the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson after Kennedy's assassination. The law prohibited racial discrimination in public, ensured the "constitutional right to vote," and outlawed discrimination in places of employment.

March on Washington

Then came the March on Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. Nearly 250,000 Americans listened to speeches by civil rights activists, but most had come for King. The Kennedy administration, fearing violence, edited a speech by John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and invited White organizations to participate, causing some Black people to denigrate the event. Malcolm X labeled it the "farce in Washington."

Crowds far exceeded expectations. Speaker after speaker addressed them. The heat grew oppressive, but then King stood up. His speech started slowly, but King stopped reading from notes, either by inspiration or gospel singer Mahalia Jackson shouting, "Tell 'em about the dream, Martin!"

He had had a dream, he declared, "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." It was the most memorable speech of his life.

Nobel Prize

King, now known worldwide, was designated Time magazine's "Man of the Year" in 1963. He won the Nobel Peace Prize the following year and donated the $54,123 in winnings to advancing civil rights.

Not everyone was thrilled by King's success. Since the bus boycott, King had been under scrutiny by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Hoping to prove King was under communist influence, Hoover filed a request with Attorney General Robert Kennedy to put him under surveillance, including break-ins at homes and offices and wiretaps. However, despite "various kinds of FBI surveillance," the FBI found "no evidence of Communist influence," according to The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University.

In the summer of 1964, King's nonviolent concept was challenged by deadly riots in the North. King believed their origins were segregation and poverty and shifted his focus to poverty, but he couldn't garner support. He organized a campaign against poverty in 1966 and moved his family into one of Chicago's Black neighborhoods, but he found that strategies successful in the South didn't work in Chicago. His efforts were met with "institutional resistance, skepticism from other activists and open violence," according to Matt Pearce in an article in the Los Angeles Times, published in January 2016, the 50th anniversary of King's efforts in the city. Even as he arrived in Chicago, King was met by "a line of police and a mob of angry white people," according to Pearce's article. King even commented on the scene:

"I have never seen, even in Mississippi and Alabama, mobs as hateful as I've seen here in Chicago. Yes, it's definitely a closed society. We're going to make it an open society."

Despite the resistance, King and the SCLC worked to fight "slumlords, realtors and Mayor Richard J. Daley's Democratic machine," according to the Times. But it was an uphill effort. "The civil rights movement had started to splinter. There were more militant activists who disagreed with King's nonviolent tactics, even booing King at one meeting," Pearce wrote. Black people in the North (and elsewhere) turned from King's peaceful course to the concepts of Malcolm X.

King refused to yield, addressing what he considered the harmful philosophy of Black Power in his last book, "Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?" King sought to clarify the link between poverty and discrimination and to address America's increased involvement in Vietnam, which he considered unjustifiable and discriminatory toward those whose incomes were below the poverty level as well as Black people.

King's last major effort, the Poor People's Campaign, was organized with other civil rights groups to bring impoverished people to live in tent camps on the National Mall starting April 29, 1968.

Earlier that spring, King had gone to Memphis, Tennessee, to join a march supporting a strike by Black sanitation workers. After the march began, riots broke out; 60 people were injured and one person was killed, ending the march.

On April 3, King gave what became his last speech. He wanted a long life, he said, and had been warned of danger in Memphis but said death didn't matter because he'd "been to the mountaintop" and seen "the promised land."

On April 4, 1968, King stepped onto the balcony of Memphis' Lorraine Motel. A rifle bullet tore into his face. He died at St. Joseph's Hospital less than an hour later. King's death brought widespread grief to a violence-weary nation. Riots exploded across the country.

King's body was brought home to Atlanta to lie at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he had co-pastored with his father for many years. At King's April 9, 1968, funeral, great words honored the slain leader, but the most apropos eulogy was delivered by King himself, via a recording of his last sermon at Ebenezer:

"If any of you are around when I meet my day, I don't want a long funeral...I'd like someone to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others...And I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity."

King had achieved much in the short span of 11 years. With accumulated travel topping 6 million miles, King could have gone to the moon and back 13 times. Instead, he traveled the world, making over 2,500 speeches, writing five books, and leading eight major nonviolent efforts for social change. King was arrested and jailed 29 times during his civil rights work, mainly in cities throughout the South, according to the website Face2Face Africa.﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿

King's legacy today lives through the Black Lives Matter movement, which is physically nonviolent but lacks Dr. King's principle on "the internal violence of the spirit" that says one should love, not hate, their oppressor. Dara T. Mathis wrote in an April 3, 2018, article in The Atlantic, that King's legacy of
"militant nonviolence lives on in the pockets of mass protests" of the Black Lives Matter movement throughout the country. But Mathis added:

"Conspicuously absent from the language modern activists use, however, is an appeal to America's innate goodness, a call to fulfill the promise set forth by its Founding Fathers."

And Mathis further noted:

"Although Black Lives Matter practices nonviolence as a matter of strategy, love for the oppressor does not find its way into their ethos."

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan created a national holiday to celebrate the man who did so much for the United States. Reagan summed up King's legacy with these words that he gave during a speech dedicating the holiday to the fallen civil rights leader:

"So, each year on Martin Luther King Day, let us not only recall Dr. King, but rededicate ourselves to the Commandments he believed in and sought to live every day: Thou shall love thy God with all thy heart, and thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. And I just have to believe that all of us-if all of us, young and old, Republicans and Democrats, do all we can to live up to those Commandments, then we will see the day when Dr. King's dream comes true, and in his words, 'All of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning,...land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.'"

Coretta Scott King, who had fought hard to see the holiday established and was at the White House ceremony that day, perhaps summed up King's legacy most eloquently, sounding wistful and hopeful that her husband's legacy would continue to be embraced:

"He loved unconditionally. He was in constant pursuit of truth, and when he discovered it, he embraced it. His nonviolent campaigns brought about redemption, reconciliation, and justice. He taught us that only peaceful means can bring about peaceful ends, that our goal was to create the love community.

"America is a more democratic nation, a more just nation, a more peaceful nation because Martin Luther King, Jr., became her preeminent nonviolent commander."

Additional References

Abernathy, Ralph David. "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: An Autobiography." Paperback, Unabridged edition, Chicago Review Press, April 1, 2010.

Branch, Taylor. "Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63." America in the King Years, Reprint edition, Simon & Schuster, November 15, 1989.

Brown v. Board of Education Topeka. oyez.org.

"Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)." The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, 21 May 2018.

Gayle v. Browder. oyez.org.

Garrow, David. "Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference." Paperback, Reprint edition, William Morrow Paperbacks, January 6, 2004.

﻿Hansen, Drew. "Mahalia Jackson and King's Improvisation." The New York Times,Aug. 27, 2013.

Lowenstein, Jeff Kelly. "Martin Luther King Jr., Women, and the Possibility of Growth." Chicago Reporter, 21 Jan. 2019.

McGrew, Jannell. "The Montgomery Bus Boycott: They Changed the World.

"Principles of Nonviolent Resistance By Martin Luther King Jr." Resource Center for Nonviolence, 8 Aug. 2018.

"Remarks on Signing the Bill Making the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a National Holiday." Ronald Reagan, reaganlibrary.gov/archive.

Theoharis, Jeanne. "'I Am Not a Symbol, I Am an Activist': the Untold Story of Coretta Scott King." The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 3 Feb. 2018.

X, Malcolm. "The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley." Alex Haley, Attallah Shabazz, Paperback, Reissue edition, Ballantine Books, November 1992.

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Biography of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Civil Rights Leader

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The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was the charismatic leader of the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. He directed the year-long Montgomery bus boycott, which attracted scrutiny by a wary, divided nation, but his leadership and the resulting Supreme Court ruling against bus segregation brought him fame.

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MLK, who was inspired by his Christian faith, embraced nonviolence as a tool for social change; with teachings from Gandhi and his own experiences with segregation, he believed that love and peace were the best paths to justice and equality.

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The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute

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As a theologian, Martin Luther King reflected often on his understanding of nonviolence. He described his own “pilgrimage to nonviolence” in his first book, Stride Toward Freedom, and in subsequent books and articles. “True pacifism,” or “nonviolent resistance,” King wrote, is “a courageous confront…

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MLKs “I Have a Dream” speech became a huge moment in the civil rights movement, amplifying support for racial equality and contributing to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 64.

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Civil Rights Movement Before the Speech

Martin Luther King Jr., a young Baptist minister, rose to prominence in the 1950s as a spiritual leader of the burgeoning civil rights movement and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SLCC).

By the early 1960s, African Americans had seen gains made through organized campaigns that placed its participants in harm's way but also garnered attention for their plight. One such campaign, the 1961 Freedom Rides, resulted in vicious beatings for many participants, but resulted in the Interstate Commerce Commission ruling that ended the practice of segregation on buses and in stations.

Similarly, the Birmingham Campaign of 1963, designed to challenge the Alabama city's segregationist policies, produced the searing images of demonstrators being beaten, attacked by dogs and blasted with high-powered water hoses.

Around the time he wrote his famed "Letter from Birmingham Jail," King decided to move forward with the idea for another event that coordinated with Negro American Labor Council (NACL) founder A. Philip Randolph's plans for a job rights march.
READ MORE: Black History Milestones: Timeline
March on Washington

Thanks to the efforts of veteran organizer Bayard Rustin, the logistics of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom came together by the summer of 1963.

Joining Randolph and King were the fellow heads of the "Big Six" civil rights organizations: Roy Wilkins of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Whitney Young of the National Urban League (NUL), James Farmer of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Other influential leaders also came aboard, including Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Joachim Prinz of the American Jewish Congress (AJC).

Scheduled for August 28, the event was to consist of a mile-long march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, in honor of the president who had signed the Emancipation Proclamation a century earlier, and would feature a series of prominent speakers.

Its stated goals included demands for desegregated public accommodations and public schools, redress of violations of constitutional rights and an expansive federal works program to train employees.

The March on Washington produced a bigger turnout than expected, as an estimated 250,000 people arrived to participate in what was then the largest gathering for an event in the history of the nation's capital.

Along with notable speeches by Randolph and Lewis, the audience was treated to performances by folk luminaries Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and gospel favorite Mahalia Jackson.

'I Have a Dream' Speech Origins

In preparation for his turn at the event, King solicited contributions from colleagues and incorporated successful elements from previous speeches. Although his "I have a dream" segment did not appear in his written text, it had been used to great effect before, most recently during a June 1963 speech to 150,000 supporters in Detroit.

Unlike his fellow speakers in Washington, King didn't have the text ready for advance distribution by August 27. He didn't even sit down to write the speech until after arriving at his hotel room later that evening, finishing up a draft after midnight.

'Free At Last'

As the March on Washington drew to a close, television cameras beamed Martin Luther King's image to a national audience. He began his speech slowly but soon showed his gift for weaving recognizable references to the Bible, the U.S. Constitution and other universal themes into his oratory.

Pointing out how the country's founders had signed a "promissory note" that offered great freedom and opportunity, King noted that "Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'"

At times warning of the potential for revolt, King nevertheless maintained a positive, uplifting tone, imploring the audience to "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."

Mahalia Jackson Prompts MLK: 'Tell 'em About the Dream, Martin'

Around the halfway point of the speech, Mahalia Jackson implored him to "Tell 'em about the 'Dream,' Martin." Whether or not King consciously heard, he soon moved away from his prepared text.

Repeating the mantra, "I have a dream," he offered up hope 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" and the desire to "transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood."

"And when this happens," he bellowed in his closing remarks, "and when we allow freedom 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!'"

'I Have a Dream' Speech Text

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 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 languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've 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 quicksands 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 a 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 they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And 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 cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.

We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only."

We cannot 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, that one day right down 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 exhalted [sic], 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 will 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 new meaning, "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrims' 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 snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that; let freedom ring from the 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, and when we allow freedom 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!"

MLK Speech Reception

King's stirring speech was immediately singled out as the highlight of the successful march.

James Reston of The New York Times wrote that the "pilgrimage was merely a great spectacle" until King's turn, and James Baldwin later described the impact of King's words as making it seem that "we stood on a height, and could see our inheritance; perhaps we could make the kingdom real."

Just three weeks after the march, King returned to the difficult realities of the struggle by eulogizing three of the girls killed in the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.

Still, his televised triumph at the feet of Lincoln brought favorable exposure to his movement, and eventually helped secure the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. The following year, after the violent Selma to Montgomery march in Alabama, African Americans secured another victory with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Over the final years of his life, King continued to spearhead campaigns for change even as he faced challenges by increasingly radical factions of the movement he helped popularize. Shortly after visiting Memphis, Tennessee, in support of striking sanitation workers, and just hours after delivering another celebrated speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop," King was assassinated by shooter James Earl Ray on the balcony of his hotel room on April 4, 1968.

'I Have a Dream' Speech Legacy

Remembered for its powerful imagery and its repetition of a simple and memorable phrase, King's "I Have a Dream" speech has endured as a signature moment of the civil rights struggle, and a crowning achievement of one of the movement's most famous faces.

The Library of Congress added the speech to the National Recording Registry in 2002, and the following year the National Park Service dedicated an inscribed marble slab to mark the spot where King stood that day.

In 2016, Time included the speech as one of its 10 greatest orations in history.

Sources

"I Have a Dream," Address Delivered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute.
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. National Park Service.
JFK, A. Philip Randolph and the March on Washington. The White House Historical Association.
The Lasting Power of Dr. King's Dream Speech. The New York Times.

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MLK's I Have A Dream Speech Video & Text | HISTORY

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Watch & learn about the political & social backdrop to Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous 'I Have A Dream' speech and the rhetorical devices that helped its message.

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His protests drew national attention, helping to bring awareness to the causes he championed, such as racial injustice.

His message inspired generations and helped to shift public opinion.

His actions influenced the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which helped to dismantle segregation and discrimination