Martin
Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)
Martin Luther King Day was established in his honour.
The Civil Rights Activist
Martin Luther King, Jr. completed following degree
- B.A. degree,
Morehouse college
- B.D degree
from Croser theological Seminary and
- Ph.D degree from
Boston
University
In
1954, Reverend King began his pastoral career at Dexter Avenue
Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. The first
big thing he did for civil right movement was bus boycott in 1955, which lasted over a year. His involvement in the
civil rights movement was the result of Mrs. Rosa Parks refusal to give up her seat to a white person. When the Montgomery
Improvement Association was formed in December 1955, King was elected president of the association. The U. S. Supreme Court
decision declaring Alabama law segregation on buses illegal
was the victory that made King a national hero and resulted in the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
He took the ideals for this organization from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi.
During the years between 1957 and 1968, King travelled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred
times, emerging wherever there was injustice, protest, and action. He also wrote five books and a lot of articles. He inspired people from various cultural backgrounds
to join in a peaceful, non-violent protest against segregation. On August 29, 1963, he made his most famous speech, I Have a Dream, at the Lincoln Memorial in front of 250000 audiences; at that time was the largest
civil rights demonstration in the history of the States.
When
King was assassinated on the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march
in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, the nation shook with the impact. Riots broke out in over one hundred
American cities.
Awards and Recognition
During
the course of his quest for the "dream" of equality and freedom for all Americans, especially African-Americans, Universities
awarded Martin Luther King five honorary degrees, and religious and civic organizations presented him medals and citations.
He was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. At thirty-five years old,
he was the youngest man to receive the award. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize
money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.
Not
only was the symbolic leader of American blacks, Martin Luther King also became a world figure.
What we see in his leadership qualities?
Martin Luther King Jr, being one of the great humanitarians, had lent his powerful voice in his courageous resistance
to prejudice and dedicated his life to the improvement of social justice and human dignity.
Martin Luther King was seen as a charismatic figure who single-handedly directed the course of the civil rights movement
through the force of his speeches. His public speaking was exceptional and many people saw him as a divinely inspired leader.
Movement activists instead saw him as the most prominent strategists, tacticians, ideologues, and institutional leaders through
his many outstanding movements. His success as a leader was based on his intellectual and moral logic and his skill as a conciliator
among movement activists who refused to be simply King's "followers".
Together with his many positive virtues, Martin Luther King performed victorious charismatic leadership in the African-American
protest tradition. His role in the modern black freedom struggle and his eclectic ideas regarding non-violent activism will
remain the recognitions of his greatness.
