‘I have a dream’
Dilmika Tennekoon
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.”
- Martin Luther
Martin Luther King Jr was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta,
Georgia, USA. His original name was Michel Luther King, Jr but later he
changed his name to Martin. His father was a Baptist minister and his
mother was a school teacher. King acted as co-pastor from 1960 until his
death. He received his doctorate of Philosophy in 1955 from Boston
University.
Martin Luther King Jr |
Martin Luther King was a strong African American civil rights
activist. The civil rights movements in 1960s were mainly focused on
Rights of African Americans. King played the main role in order to
provide equal opportunities to people regardless the colour of their
skin.
King was a member of the executive committee of the National
Association for the Advancement of Coloured People which was the leading
organization of coloured people in the nation. He was the leader of the
first great Negro Non-violent Demonstration in the United States, the
black boycott of the Montgomery bus system in 1955. This boycott
organized as a result of refusal by a black woman, to give up her seat
on the bus to a white man.
In the segregated south, black people could only sit at the back of
the bus and not allowed to sit in front since those seats were given for
whites. However the boycott lasted 382 days.
Segregation
This led the bus company to change its regulations and the Supreme
Court declared such segregation on buses unconstitutional and Negroes
and whites rode the buses as equals. However during these days of
boycott, he was subjected to personal abuse, arrested and had his home
bombed by those who hated him. Nevertheless he emerged as a Negro leader
of the first rank.
In 1957 he became the president of the Southern Leadership Christian
Conference (SCLC) which was formed to provide new leadership to the
flourishing civil rights movement. He used non-violent direct action,
same technique used by Gandhi. This approach was derived from
Christianity itself. Wherever there was injustice and protests, King
travelled millions of miles to address the issue.
King was known as one of the most powerful speakers of the 20th
Century America and a man of great personal courage. He was not driven
by financial gain. He was able to give voice to millions of coloured
people, to throw off the shackles of racial discrimination and challenge
the barbaric racial oppression in the American south.
Despite the power structure of racial discrimination he also
challenged war, poverty and the social structure in which he lived.
His dream
He recognized the importance of a wider struggle against the economic
conditions that challenged all working people and decided to launch a
‘poor peoples campaign’ in Washington in 1968.
King’s 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail” a manifesto of the Negro
revolution, influenced the end of public and job discrimination
completely. He also led a campaign in 1965 for the registration of
Negroes as voters.
The famous speech “I have a dream” was delivered by King in a massive
march led by him in Washington DC in 1968, predicting a day when the
promise of freedom and equality for all would become a reality in
America. In a speech two months before his death, King condemned
American foreign policy as a ‘bitter, colossal, contest for supremacy.’
Referring to Vietnam, he said “We are criminals in the war and have
committed more war crimes than almost any nation in the world.”
Accolades
In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Prize. He was the youngest man to
receive the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 35. However King was
arrested over 20 times and assaulted at least four times during his
life. He was awarded five honorary degrees. Time Magazine in 1963 named
him the ‘Man of the Year’. He became not only the symbolic leader of
American blacks but also a world figure.
During his life time King was criticized, spied upon and was targeted
for murder. On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated. At the time he was
focusing his attention on a nationwide campaign for the poor. He was
only 39. The murder of Dr King has key features in common with the other
political assassinations of the 1960s; those of President John F.
Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy.
However 42 years after the murder of King, need for reform still
looms large: Social conditions of the majority of black working class
await redress in the US.
Martin Luther King is remembered for his famous speeches, for his
strong principals and for his tireless work for equality and peace.
He is honoured in the United States annually with a national holiday,
called Martin Luther King, Jr Day, celebrated on the third Monday of
January.
Martin Luther King was a one of a kind human being who had a
cherished dream. A different kind of an American dream: To have everyone
in America enjoy equality and justice. |