"I have a dream 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...""Freedom is never voluntarily granted by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the opressed."
In honor of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., today is a public holiday in the US. Curious to find out more about this man who has a national holiday bearing his name, I went to the library to borrow a book on Martin Luther King, Jr.
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For those who are not familiar with American history, Dr King played an instrumental part in the black civil rights movement in the US in the 1960s. King lead a movement of nonviolence protests to fight for race equality across the US. Like his idol, Mahatma Gandhi, King held the belief that love would conquer hate through justice. Hence, his tactic, "we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer." To King, nonviolence was not only a tactic but a way of life:-
."resistance and non-violence are not in themselves good. There is another element that must be present in our struggles that then make our resistance and nonviolence trully meaningful. Our ultimate goal must be the creation of the beloved community."
Sadly, King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in that city. He was only 39! King was the youngest man, at the age of 35, to have received the Nobel Peace prize (1964). According to his wife, King genuinely was uninterested in money and material success and wished he could take a vow of poverty. Benjamin Mays, a former teacher at his alma mater (Morehouse College), said,
"Because you did not seek fame, it has come to you. It must have been a person like you that Emerson had in mind when he said, 'see how the masses of men worry themselves into nameless graves where here and there a great, unselfish soul forgets himself into immotality.' You are a gentle and loving, Christian and brave, sane and wise".
40 years after his death, King's legacy lives on. In 1986, the then US President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation declaring the third Monday in January of each year a public holiday in honor of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. In Washington, President Bush today hailed King as a towering figure and called on the country to honor his legacy by showing compassion to those in need. "It's fitting that we honor his service and his courage and his vision." The president said that the federal holiday in King's memory is "an opportunity to renew our deep desire for America to be a land of promise to everybody."
Reference:
Charles Johnson & Bob Adelman (2000) King - The photobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
The most memorable speech of his life, "I have a Dream", was delivered at the footsteps of the Lincoln Memorial (Washington D.C.) on August 28, 1963. It is a timeless classic for any aspiring public speaker. The passionate and powerful speech (8 mins) can be viewed at youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEMXaTktUfA.
