Martin Luther King Jnr Day
Remembering the Civil Rights Leader and Icon......19th January 2009.
Martin Luther King Jnr (January 15th 1929 - April 4th 1968)
Born in Atlanta, Georgia USA
Married Coretta Scott… had four children; Yolanda King, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King, and Bernice King.
He was a Baptist Minister…He was a Civil Rights Leader…..He is an Icon….
Key Speeches....
- 1955 "Montgomery Improvement Association mass meeting speech"
- 1957 -- "A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations"
- 1957 -- "Give Us the Ballot"
- 1963 -- "Great March on Detroit speech"
- 1963 -- "I have a Dream"
- 1964 -- "Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech"
- 1964 -- "The Quest for Peace and Justice,"
- 1967 --"Beyond Vietnam"
Most famous speech " I have a dream……"1963 - Peaceful March on Washington DC
To see the full speech.... watch it at www.youtube.com
In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King travelled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles….
He was awarded five honorary degrees and also degrees in Arts, Sociology, Divinity and Philosophy. and….. was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963.
In 1964… he became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize…for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through non-violent means… he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.
Martin Luther King Jnr was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee…while standing on the balcony of his hotel room where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city…
He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004…At the White House on November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday to honour King. Observed for the first time on January 20, 1986, it is called Martin Luther King, Jr. Day…
Website Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/king_martin_luther.shtml
