Martin
Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)
On
the one hand I must attempt to change the soul of
individuals so that their societies may be changed. On
the other hand I must attempt to change the societies so
that the individual soul will have a chance.
--
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther
King Jr.
was an advocate of
non-violent social change who fought to abolish racial prejudice
in America. He served as the president of the Montgomery
Improvement Association (MIA) and as a result of lawsuits
created by MIA, in the 1950s and ‘60s the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that Alabama's state and local segregation laws were
unconstitutional. In 1957, King found the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC), which is defined by its commitment
to nonviolence and non-cooperation with unjust laws. King was
jailed many times for his protests but he never stopped fighting
for peace. In 1964 King attended the signing of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 with President Lyndon Johnson and received the Nobel
Peace Prize. Sadly, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at
the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, TN in 1968.
Martin
Luther King, Jr. Paper’s Project : http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/
Quotation of
Inspiration
I have a dream that one day
the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently
dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will
be transformed into a situation where little black boys and
black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys
and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I
have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley
shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the
rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be
made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and
all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the
faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will
be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling
discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray
together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand
up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
Resistance and
nonviolence are not in themselves good. There is another element
that must be presented in our struggle that then makes our
resistance and nonviolence truly meaningful. That element is
reconciliation. Our ultimate end must be the creation of the
beloved community
I went to
Gandhi through Jesus.
I want you to
go home and put down your weapons. We cannot solve this problem
through retaliatory violence. We must meet violence with
nonviolence ..., we must meet hate with love.
I have a dream
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.
Ordinarily, a
person leaving a courtroom with a conviction behind him would
wear a somber face. But I left with a smile. I knew I was a
criminal, but I was proud of my crime.
World peace
through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All
other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew. Nonviolence
is a good starting point. Those of us who believe in this method
can be voices of reason, sanity, and understanding amid the
voices of violence, hatred, and emotion. We can very well set a
mood of peace out of which a system of peace can be built.
