Martin Luther King Jr, Jan. 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968), was born in Atlanta, GA. In 39 years of life, King became a symbol for peaceful rebellion. Marches and boycotts provided a resounding message across the southern portion of the United States, causing change in America as a whole.

On Oct. 14, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize. Shortly after, his influence began to wane among those he strove to help.

Martin Luther King, Jr.: Great Civil Rights Leader (Capstone Graphic Library)

By the end of his life, King’s ambitions had grown to include opposition to poverty, the Vietnam War and capitalism. Some of his stands alienated him against President Lyndon Baines Johnson who had been a powerful ally to King and his cause.

King’s final crusade was to back the black sanitary public works employees in Memphis, TN. The evening prior to his assassination, King gave his prophetic “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. In it, King spoke against those who had made threats against his life preaching, “I’m not fearing any man.”

In less than 24 hours King was shot dead by James Earl Ray.

His dream continues to live on. In the speech’s most famous passage King shared, “I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

“I have a dream that 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.

“I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

“I have a dream today.”

He is remembered today, though his dream still eludes believers.

Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story is the beginning of civil unrest in America. At least from the media standpoint. It is also the story of how a Baptist preacher became a household name in America.

Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story

When Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks refused to surrender their seats on a Montgomery, AL, public bus a movement began. From the simple action of two women a platform was built to challenge the Jim Crow laws of the time. For 385 days a boycott against the public bus system was staged. As a result, segregation was repelled by the United States District Court on the city’s public buses.

The comic book retells the tale of a stand taken by remaining seated over half a century ago.

King was instrumental in registering the plight of African-Americans long before the designation came to fashion. An advocate of non-violence, King and his followers suffered the backlash of an America not ready to change.

For his efforts, King was murdered April 4, 1968, in Memphis, TN, while attempting to better conditions for black sanitary public work employees. King was almost prophetic in his “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” sermon given the night before he was assassinated in which he proclaimed, “I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

A full copy of the comic book can be read online at:  http://www.ep.tc/mlk/index.html

Golden Legacy Illustrated History Series issue 13 provided a pictorial biography entitled The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The man who dreamed of peace and equality was silenced with violence April 4, 1968, depriving generations of a voice resonating in reason. His accomplishments live on with a day, one of only four persons given a federal holiday, commemorated to honor his memory.

Golden Legacy has made the Illustrated Martin Luther King Jr. issue available to read online – via their website – in its entirety.

Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams began their much acclaimed collaboration with the Green Lantern/Green Arrow Hard Traveling Heroes saga with issue 76.

When Lantern sides with the law Arrow derides his fellow hero for not considering justice in the equation. Arrow launches into a searing soliloquy causing Lantern to question his actions.

As Arrow stands on his soapbox, he honors the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., by reminding all listening, “On the streets of Memphis a good black man died…” referring to the Noble Peace Prize awardee for his efforts in Civil Rights. The image of King and Robert Kennedy are engraved in the background of the panel during the statement.

The comic book began an 11-issue run over the next year in which Lantern, Hal Jorden and Arrow, Oliver Queen cross America confronting the issues of the day.