Good Monday morning! The time is 5:50 am Why is Martin Luther King Jr important? What do you really know about the man? HISTORY LESSON THIS IS A LITTLE LENGTHY BUT I KNOW SOME OF YOU WILL THOROUGHLY ENJOY READING IT! I DID! Actually this post is short considering all that has been written about this great man! Born: January 15, 1929 Died: April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was THE MOST IMPORTANT VOICE of the American civil rights movement, which worked for equal rights for all. He was famous for using NONVIOLENT resistance to overcome injustice, and he never got tired of trying to end segregation laws (laws that prevented blacks from entering certain places, such as restaurants, hotels, and public schools). He also did all he could to make people realize that all men are created equal. Because of his great work, in 1964 King received the Nobel Peace Prize -- the youngest person ever to receive this high honor. King was also a Baptist minister. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, when he was just 39 years old. His birthday is now observed as a national holiday on the third Monday in January. The CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT had a big year in 1964. Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize, and Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This law made it illegal to treat people differently because of the color of their skin when they were trying to buy a house, rent an apartment or go to a restaurant, for example. But passing this law DID NOT ALWAYS make things better for African-Americans. King BELIEVED that the situation would NOT CHANGE until more blacks voted in elections. Although they had the legal right to vote, very few blacks were registered, and many states had rules that made it difficult for them to register and vote. King believed that most of the states voter registration requirements should be removed. King went to Washington, D.C., to discuss a voting rights bill with President Lyndon Johnson. Although the president was supportive, he didnt think the bill could pass. He told King to wait, but King did not want to wait. He and other activists decided to protest in Selma, Alabama. Selma was a typical Southern city. Very few blacks were registered to vote, even though about half the population was black. The protests began in January 1965. A month later, a protester, Jimmie Lee Jackson, was shot and killed by state troopers. Jacksons death spurred King and the others to organize a voting-rights protest march from SELMA to Montgomery, the state capital. On March 7, 1965, hundreds of marchers set out for the capitol building (King was not able to be with them). When the marchers reached Selmas Edmund Pettus Bridge, they met a group of state troopers who told them to turn back. The marchers refused, but, as King would have wanted, there was no violence on their part. Instead, they knelt on the sidewalk. The state troopers were not so peaceful. They used tear gas, sticks, and whips to attack the marchers. People all over the country were horrified over this treatment. BUT KING WAS NOT DISCOURAGED! They tried the march again, and this time made it to Montgomery. Days before, President Johnson had addressed Congress and America. He introduced the Voting Rights Act. After the Selma protests and violence, the time was right. On August 6, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King and the other protesters actions had successfully led to legal change. Now the federal government would help blacks use their right to vote. KINGS LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL: In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and sent to jail because he and others were protesting the treatment of blacks in Birmingham, Alabama. A court had ordered that King could not hold protests in Birmingham. Birmingham in 1963 was a hard place for blacks to live in. Everything was segregated, from businesses to churches to libraries. BLACKS FACED CONSTANT DISCRIMINATION AND THE CONSTANT THREAT OF VIOLENCE. WHAT IS SEGREGATION? To segregate is to separate from others. What this meant in Montgomery is that blacks could only sit in certain places in restaurants, that they could not go into certain businesses or that they could not use public rest rooms that were for whites only. While King was in jail, he wrote a letter to the newspaper explaining why he had broken the law. I am here because injustice is here, he wrote. I would agree with Saint Augustine that an unjust law is no law at all. Because black people had suffered injustice for so long, King believed they should not have to wait any longer for change. King believed nonviolence was essential for him as a man of God. He also believed that violence would ruin the chances for change. King and others were willing to go to jail for the cause of civil rights. BUS BOYCOTT IN ALABAMA On Dec 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks, an African-American, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger, as local law required. She was arrested. A few days later the black community in Montgomery began a bus boycott. Whats a boycott A boycott is when a large group of people refuse to take part in, or make use of, something as a way of showing their disapproval. Because so many black people rode the bus, a boycott would cause the bus system to lose a lot of money. The bus boycott was an immediate success. African-Americans walked, took taxis, and even rode horses, but they did not ride the bus. King agreed to head the organization leading the boycott, and Rosa Parks became a hero. It was the beginning of a new life for Parks and King. At the time, King was a new pastor. He had just finished school and had moved with his new wife to Montgomery to be a preacher. The bus boycott lasted more than a year. Many people tried to get King to end the boycott by threatening him. King and the boycotters finally won. On November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., agreed that Alabamas bus segregation laws were unconstitutional. (Unconstitutional means that the laws did not follow the U.S. Constitution and had to be struck down.) Because the U.S. Supreme Court made the decision, all states had to follow the ruling. King celebrated by riding the bus seated next to a white man. Happy Monday! I love you guys! Celebrate the man! Celebrate the day!
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 10:48:46 +0000
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