Martin Luther King Jr. Day

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.