On January 16, 2012 the United States stopped, took a moment, and thought about the legacy Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. left behind to each individual person and America as a whole. Spreading a message of non-violence throughout his life, King worked tirelessly and passionately for the advancement of African-Americans’ civil rights and unification of all citizens, despite how different their skin colour might be, for the betterment of society.
King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia to Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King. After attending Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University and receiving his Bachelor of Arts in sociology, Bachelor of Divinity degree, and a Ph.D. in systematic theology, respectively, and marrying Coretta Scott, King took his place in the Civil Rights Movement.
In 1955, Dr. King was one of those who led out the Montgomery Bus Boycott, protesting the racial segregation on public transportation. During that time, buses were divided – Caucasians sat in the front and African-Americans sat in the back. For almost 13 months, African-Americans refused to ride the buses until a change was made. That change came in the ruling of Browder v. Gayle which outlawed segregation on Montgomery’s public buses. A year later, Dr. King and many other civil rights activists created the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a group organized to ensure peaceful demonstrations in the effort of civil rights improvements.
Martin Luther King, Jr. is most recognized, of course, for his delivered speech during the March on Washington in 1963. Hundreds of thousands of supporters flocked to the Washington Monument where people of every colour, gender, and occupation witnessed history being made. Prominent leaders in civil rights appeared and made addresses to the people, but the most notable and remembered of all was King’s speech, I Have a Dream. It called for the racial equality between Caucasians and African-Americans and the end of discrimination America desperately needed. Five years later, sadly, he was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee at the Lorraine Motel.
His life affected not just everyone in America, but the world. His teachings on non-violence and quality, inspired by great philosophers, theologians, and civil rights leaders, made him into the person we honour today, and his hope and vision for a world united, we still hope to achieve.
