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How Martin Luther Kings, Jr. Changed The World

Born: Michael King, Jr., January 15, 1929, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Died: April 4, 1968 (aged 39), Memphis, Tennessee, United States

King Sermon – Part 1

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addresses marchers during his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. The great civil rights leader Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have turned 82 tomorrow.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, Jr., was born and raised in Atlanta, GA. He was born the son and grandson of prominent Baptist preachers, but he was also a son of the segregated south, where blacks were not allowed to attend the same schools or churches, use the same public bathrooms or drinking fountains or eat at the same lunch counters as whites.

They were also blocked from exercising their legal right to vote, subjected to random acts of brutal violence and murder, and discriminated against in every possible way.

King followed in his familys footsteps, pursuing an education and a theological career. After attending Morehouse College, King attended the seminary in Pennsylvania, and pursued a doctorate degree at Boston University, where he met his wife, Coretta Scott. After graduation, the newlyweds moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where Dr. King took a job as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

Despite his extensive education and his familys social standing, Dr. King was still subjected to segregation and discrimination. But at seminary in the North, King had been elected president of his almost all-white class, and his time in Pennsylvania and Boston, away from southern segregation, had a profound impact on him.

In Montgomery, black people were made to ride in the back of public buses. One day in 1955, a woman named Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white passenger and was arrested. In protest, Dr. King led a boycott of the Montgomery bus system. The boycott lasted for more than a year.

Dr. King was arrested and jailed, personally assaulted, and his home, where his wife and small children lived, was bombed. In 1956, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that laws segregating buses were unconstitutional.

King formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to formally pursue his goals of social justice. In 1960, he joined young black students in a sit-in to protest the segregation of lunch counters in Atlanta. He was arrested and sent to prison. John F. Kennedy, then the Democratic candidate for President, intervened to secure Kings release.

In 1963, King led a demonstration against the segregation of lunch counters in Birmingham; AL. King was arrested along with many of his supporters, including young school children.

It was then that he wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail, outlining the imperative for racial equality and the necessity of achieving it through non-violent means.

In August of that year, King joined with other civil rights leaders in organizing the March on Washington, uniting more than 200,000 people in demanding equality and civil rights. In front of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

In 1965, King led 1,500 protesters on a march across the Pettis Bridge in Selma, AL. When they were met by state troopers, King had his followers kneel in prayer. He surprised and disappointed his supporters by directing the group to turn back, but that same year, the Voting Rights Act was passed.

Over the next two years, Dr. King expanded his pursuit of social justice to include the poor.

On April 4, he was shot to death while standing on his hotel balcony in Memphis, TN. The alleged assassin, James Earl Ray, confessed to the killing and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. In 1986 a national holiday was proclaimed in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., at the time of his birthday.

New York Post, January 14, 2011, Written by: Robin Wallace

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