Dr' Martin Luther King, Jr'

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• (1/15/29-4/4/68)
• was a Baptist minister and Civil Rights
• activist he received the Nobel Peace
• prize in 1964.

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Meaning of the Holiday

• On this day we commemorate Dr. Kings great dream
  of a vibrant, multiracial nation united in
  justice, peace and reconciliation a nation that
  has a place at the table for children of every
  race and room at the inn for every needy child.
  We are called on this holiday, not merely to
  honor, but to celebrate the values of equality,
  tolerance and interracial sister and brotherhood
  he so compellingly expressed in his great dream
  for America. (Coretta Scott King, 1983)

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MLK Holiday History

• It took 15 years to become a federal holiday.
  It was first introduced in 1968, by D-Rep John
  Conyers, 4 days after Kings assassination.
  Connecticut was the second state to proclaim MLK
  Day in 1974. It did not become a federal holiday
  until 1986. Ted Kennedy led the legislative
  efforts and President Reagan signed the bill into
  law.

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• In the year 2000, the state of South Carolina
  becomes the last state to make MLK day a paid
  holiday for state employees

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6 Steps For Nonviolent Social Change

• Information Gathering
• Education
• Personal Commitment
• Negotiations
• Direct Action
• Reconciliation

Derived from the essay "Letter from Birmingham
Jail" in Why We Can't Wait, New York Penguin
Books, 1963.
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• Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love
  and to justice for his fellow human beings, and
  he died because of that effort.

Quote, by Robert Kennedy, upon Kings
Assassination
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Kings arrest for Public Bus Segregation
I submit that an individual who breaks a law that
conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly
accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to
arouse the conscience of the community over its
injustice, is in reality expressing the highest
respect for the law.
Martin Luther King Jr.
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Letter from the Birmingham Jail

• Injustice anywhere is a
• threat to justice everywhere

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• When you are right you cannot be too radical
  when you are wrong, you cannot be too
  conservative.

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King on War

• Our scientific power has overrun our spiritual
  power. We have guided missiles and misguided
  men.

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• I believe that even amid todays mortar bursts
  and whining bullets, there is still hope for a
  brighter tomorrow. I still believe that we shall
  overcome.

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King on War

• A nation that continues year after year to spend
  more money on military defense than on programs
  of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

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• I refuse to accept the cynical notion that
  nation after nation must spiral down a
  militaristic stairway into the hell of
  thermonuclear destruction.

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• Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than
  sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Strength to Love, 1963, King
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• So we must see that peace represents a sweeter
  music, a cosmic melody that is far superior to
  the discords of war. ..We must shift the arms
  race into peace race.

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• History will have to record that the greatest
  tragedy of this period of social transition was
  not the strident clamor of the bad people, but
  the appalling silence of the good people.

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• It is not enough to say, we must not wage war.
  It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for
  it.

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• I look to a day when people will not be judged
  by the color of their skin, but by the content of
  their character.

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King on Education

• The function of education is to teach one to
  think intensively and to think critically.
  Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of
  true education.

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• It is one thing to agree that the goal of
  integration is morally and legally right it is
  another thing to commit oneself positively and
  actively to the ideal of integration the former
  is intellectual assent, the latter is actual
  belief.

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• The hottest place in Hell is reserved for
  those who remain neutral in times of great moral
  conflict.

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• The ultimate measure of a man is not where he
  stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but
  where he stands at times of challenge and
  controversy.

Strength to Love, 1963 King
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I Have a Dream

• Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I
  say to you today, my friends, that in spite of
  the difficulties and frustrations of the moment,
  I still have a dream. 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 (1963, King)

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• Everybody can be great. Because anybody can
  serve. You dont have to know the second theory
  of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only
  need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by
  love.

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• Direct action is not a substitute for work in
  the courts and the halls of government. Indeed,
  direct action and legal action complement one
  another when skillfully employed, each becomes
  more effective.

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Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

• Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial
  political and moral questions of our time the
  need for mankind to overcome oppression and
  violence without resorting to violence and
  oppression. (1964, King)

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Call to Action

• "The greatness of a community is most accurately
  measured by the compassionate actions of its
  members,
• Coretta Scott King
• What are you going to do to keep the Dream alive?

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Dont Let the Dream Fade

• Serve- become involved in service to your
  community, make a difference
• Educate- yourself and others
• Engage- politically, discover your values fight
  for the rights of all citizens
• Practice Non-Violence- practice the 6 principles
  in all your affairs
• Our lives begin to end the day we become silent
  about things that matter

Created by Dr. Julie Elkins, UCONN, 2008