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Celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.
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On January 15, 1929 Martin Luther King, Jr., a voice for the nonviolent Civil Rights movement, was born.
We not only observe King’s birthday the third Monday of every January as a holiday, but we also take time to celebrate his compassion to create a nation free from social inequalities.
The federal government ordained this holiday in 1986.
The holiday is unique in and of itself. King is the only person other than Jesus and Christopher Columbus to get his own holiday. Even George Washington and Abraham Lincoln have to share Presidents’ Day every Feb. 18.
Before becoming a Civil Rights leader King received a secular education from Booker T. Washington High School, then began his collegiate career at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he received a B.A. in Sociology in 1948. After Morehouse, King enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pa., where he received a second B.A. in Divinity in 1951 and became an ordained Baptist minister, following in the footsteps of his father. Finally, King enrolled at Boston University where he received a Ph.D in Philosophy in 1955.
From 1955-1956 King led the boycott of segregated bus lines. Once the lines became desegregated his life as a Civil Rights leader began. In 1957 King helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in hopes to create a civil rights reform.
Through a series of nonviolent protests and the march on Washington in 1963 where King gave his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, commonly referred to as the “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King began to accomplish his dream of an undivided nation.
This week, this nation and university commemorate both Dr. King’s words and his spirit that led to the pursuit of equality in our country. We remember not only his words but also his actions.
His actions put his life on the line to secure a nation where people from every ethnicity and cultural background could have the same opportunities to succeed in life.
King spent four days in a Birmingham, Ala. jail, most of which he spent writing his famous open April 16, 1963 letter about nonviolent resistance. In that letter he wrote that civil disobedience is justified in the face of unjust laws.
“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws,” King wrote. The letter was first published in the June 12, 1963 edition of the Christian Century Magazine.
His assassination on April 4, 1968 triggered riots all over the country. He was shot in the neck while giving a speech from a hotel balcony in Memphis, Tenn. The U.S. National Guard was automatically called to action in Memphis and Former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson canceled a trip to Hawaii where he was trying to end the Vietnam War. The funeral was an international event.
MATTHEW BLACKBURN AND MAT LA RUE
Culture Writers
