Martin Luther King: Who Was He?

We get a day off school on January 20 this year to take note of Martin Luther King's birthday.

Why?

Who was this man?

                                                         MLK Memorial     Washington, D.C.

He was named Michael Luther King, Jr., at his birth  on 1-15-1929 in Georgia. His father's name was originally Michael Luther King, but he changed his first name to Martin after German Reformist Martin Luther. When Michael, Jr., was a teenager, he changed his name to Martin like his father.

You may have heard him referred to as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This is because he earned a Ph.D, or Doctorate. Here are the degrees he earned:

Bachelor of Arts        Morehouse University   http://www.morehouse.edu/
*Note: Martin Luther King, Jr., graduated from high school at the age of 15.

Bachelor of Divinity  Crozer Theological Seminary  http://www.crcds.edu/

Doctor of Philosophy   Boston University  http://www.bu.edu/

Beginning his career, Dr. King was a Baptist Minister at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. His grandfather and father also served as ministers for that church. Ebenezer is still an active church today.

Dr. King was an activist for equal rights for African Americans. Later in his life, he also rallied against poverty in general and against the war in Vietnam.

In 1957, he spoke to a crowd of 15,000 people in Washington, D.C.

In 1961, he participated in a Freedom Ride, where people, both white and black, rode Greyhound buses through the south, where the freedom to do so was denied African Americans. It sounds like such a simple thing, but they encountered threats and violence as they rode from Washington D.C. to New Orleans. Someone even threw a bomb into one of the buses. Read about it here: http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/freedom-rides

One of his non-violent protests staged in Birmingham, Alabama, made national news, ironically, because of the violent response of the (white) police who tried to stop it.

The police response was to spray people with fire hoses--the force of this water knocked people over and injured them. The other was to sic their vicious dogs on the protesters.


Dr. King was arrested and served time in jail several times in his life: in 1960, 1962, twice in 1963, and 1967, for attempting to achieve equal rights for African Americans in the Deep South. He also worked in Chicago to end poverty.

These black people could be arrested for trying to eat a lunch counter designated for white people only. 

Signs like these were common throughout the South. Dr. King fought to obtain the equal rights that all people were entitled to.

The Civil Rights Act was not passed until 1964, guaranteeing people of color the same rights as white people, even though the Civil War which focused mainly on slavery had taken place 100 years earlier. Dr. King fought for equal rights his whole adult life. Read more about the Civil Rights Act and its history here: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act

What is a sit-in?  This was when a large group of people, in protest of unfair treatment of African-Americans, would arrive at a place of business or a government office and simply sit down. They were not a threat to anyone, they did not bear arms, they simply sat down and would not move, to show their solidarity. Police would typically move in and arrest them when they refused to move. In the case of the cafeteria, the people sat at the lunch counter and insisted on being served. Instead of enforcing that right, the police arrested the protesters.

Martin Luther King, Jr.,  was the first President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.  https://nationalsclc.org/

He wrote seven books in his lifetime:

"Letter From Birmingham"                 1963
"Strength to Love"                               1963
"I Have a Dream"                                1963
"Why We Can't Wait"                         1964
"Where Do We Go From Here"          1967
"Stride Toward Freedom"                   1967
"Trumpet of Conscience"                    1968


And another six were printed using his papers and his story, posthumously (after his death):

 "Daddy King"                                      1980
"The Words of Martin Luther King"    1984
"Testament of Hope"                            1986
"Martin Luther King Companion"       1992
"Papers of Martin Luther King"           1992
"Knock at Midnight"                            1992

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his activism. Here is a history of Nobel Peace Prize winners with links to information about them:

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/index.html

                                                      Dr King accepts his Nobel Peace Prize

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was murdered in Memphis on April 4, 1968. He was 39 years old. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr-assassination

After his death, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.

                                          Presidential Medal of Freedom

                                          Congressional Gold Medal

Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday has been a national holiday since 1986, while it had been a state holiday in many states since 1971.

Possibly his best-known speech is the "I Have A Dream" speech. Here is the text:

http://www.archives.gov/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf


What did Dr. King do to change the landscape of civil rights? Do we still have problems with it today? How could that be changed? Are there any leaders today who are similar to Dr. King?

Would you have the courage to do the things he did?

Black History Month

February marks Black History Month in the United States.


It started out as National African American History Week, the 2nd week in February, in 1926, The reason for this date? Both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass were born in February.


Read about the Emancipation Proclamation, signed in January of 1863, here: http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/emancipation-proclamation

Did you know this about Lincoln and the Proclamation?  http://www.history.com/news/5-things-you-may-not-know-about-lincoln-slavery-and-emancipation


The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1868 gave former slaves citizenship, but it had its flaws: It did not necessarily guarantee them their Constitutional rights. This was debated for years through Congress and the Supreme Court.


.The 15th Amendment gave men of color the right to vote (but not women, nor could any woman vote until 1919).

Shocking, right????

Note the use of the Roman Numerals XV

For a look at many constitution-related documents, follow this link to the National Archives site: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs

The celebration of the contribution of African Americans expanded to the month of February in 1976, and became Black History Month. It is about more than slavery, though. Here is just a brief listing of African Americans and their contributions to America:

• Harriet Tubman was well known for her work with the Underground Railroad, guiding slaves to freedom in the north. She will be the first woman featured on money, the $20 bill.
• W E B Dubois, Founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The organization began in 1909 and is still thriving today.
• Hirem Revels was the first Black senator
• Spelman College, in Georgia, was the first college for African American women http://www.spelman.edu/

• Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, in Alabama, was the first college for African American men: http://www.tuskegee.edu/

• Jackie Robinson was the first black baseball player. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
• Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 because she would not give up her seat on the bus to a white man. Here she is being fingerprinted:

• Martin Luther King worked tirelessly in a peaceable manner to achieve equality for African Americans. Read about his remarkable life here: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html

• Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, an African American, made the decision that interracial marriage is legal. In the past, it was not: You could be arrested for marrying someone of a different race.
• Shirley Chisholm was the first African American in the House of Representatives, from New York. She served from 1969 to 1983.
• The first African American in outer space was Guion Bluford, Junior.
• Read about astronaut Ron McNair, who has a TRIO scholarship program named for him:
•     https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/mcnair.html 

• The McNair Scholarship is unique in that it is for graduate students (those who have finished their Bachelors Degree) https://www2.ed.gov/programs/triomcnair/index.html
• Colin Powell was the first Secretary of State of African American background
• Condoleeza Rice was the first African American and first female to be Secretary of State.
• Barack Obama was the first African American elected president.
• We currently have 1 African American in the Senate, and 43 in the House of Representatives.

Young people talk about being mixed-race here: http://themash.com/blog/news/2012/11/15/mixed-race-teens-talk-about-identity/


What is the significance of Black History Month to you? Think about it, talk amongst yourselves, and see what we all have in common.