Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
category:Clubs and Organizations posted:January 8th, 2006
January 21 is the official day to commemorate the life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. [Jan. 15, 1929-April 4, 1968].Dr. King was born in Atlanta into a family of Baptist ministers.While his career began in the church, he went on to spearhead some of the landmark civil rights events of American history, based on the nonviolent examples of Mahatma Ghandi (whose family he visited in 1959).One of these was the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, which led to the Supreme Court ruling segregated buses as unconstitutional.
During the 1963 March on Washington, he delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech, which brought greater awareness of the civil rights movement and cemented his reputation as one of the great orators.A year later, he became the youngest person ever to receive a Nobel Peace Prize.Eighteen years after his assasination in Memphis, Martin Luther King Day was formally established as a holiday in 1986.
-King sang with a church choir at the 1939 Atlanta premiere
of the film, Gone With the Wind.
-He entered Morehouse College at age 15, having skipped both 9th and 12th grades.
-King is one of ten 20th century martyrs depicted as a statue above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey.
Among some of Dr. King’s great sayings…
An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
A man who won't die
for something is not fit to live.
I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.
Learn more about Dr. King’s legacy
Get involved with the Martin Luther King Day of Service
