News Desk |
The world is remembering the services of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for American civil rights movement today. Dr. Martin Luther King was a civil rights activist who was assassinated during his struggle against racial discrimination in America on April 4, 1968. He was in Memphis, Tennessee, to support the workers protesting for safe working conditions. He was standing on the balcony of his hotel room where he was shot once from the bathroom of a nearby boarding house.
Dr. Martin Luther King was an aggressive and yet a rebellious leader of his time who rose against the white supremacy in the United States of America. He in his movement demanded the equal rights of representation for black Americans in the government and bureaucracy.
King was the influential leader of the civil rights movements. He was active since the 1950s as a minister and the founder of Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was an instrumental figure in protests and in the passage of landmark civil and voting rights legislation. He had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 35.
“Give us the ballot,” said Dr. King in his popular speech “and we will fill our legislative halls with men of goodwill”. His movement brought diversity in the American Congress, as Barack Obama’s rise to the presidency was another milestone achieved. Months before Dr. King was killed, Edward Brooke became the first African American to win election to the Senate by a popular vote.
Unfortunately, King during his end years suffered extreme isolation as American media started portraying him a rebellious leader inciting violence and challenging the authority of American establishment.
Read more: Humanitarian crisis in Syria expected to worsen in 2017: War Child…
Just six days after his death, one of congressman leader William Tuck from Virginia blamed King for his own murders. He said, “fomented discord and strife between the races … He who sows the seed of sin shall reap and harvest a whirlwind of evil.
Many commentators believe he faced criticism from African-American black who wanted him to employ more aggressive violent means of protest. Also, his speech to end the Vietnam War just a day before his death and his extreme outspokenness on poverty irked the media and government.
For years after his death, he was navigated as a notorious leader until now as America now recognized him a treasure after 50 years of his death. Martin Luther King Jr is still remembered for the memorable speeches he delivered on various occasions. These were some of the golden words from King.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”-( Letters from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963). “I have a dream that 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, August 28, 1963).
Read more: Gory Human rights abuses in Iran
“We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors.”- ( A Time To Break Silence, April 4, 1967).
“I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.”-( I Have Been To The Mountain Top, April 3, 1968)