Martin Luther King Jr. had a great impact on today’s society, and made important advancements in the civil rights movement. He is honored January 19th, and any time really is a good time to take some time and reflect back on his accomplishments plus the impact he has made on society today.
Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1954 until his assassination in 1968. Born in Atlanta, King is best known for advancing civil rightsthrough nonviolence and civil disobedience, tactics his Christianbeliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi helped inspire
Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. King’s speech at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963, in front of 250,000 people, is also one of the most-analyzed speeches in modern history. But King hadn’t included the sequence about the “Dream” in his prepared remarks. Singer Mahalia Jackson yelled for King to speak about “the Dream,” and King improvised based on remarks he had made in earlier speeches
On a hot summer day in 1963, demonstrators calling for civil rights joined Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
The days event’s included speeches from the likes of John Lewis, a civil rights activist who currently serves as a U. S. congressman more than 50 years later, Mrs. Medgar Evers, whose husband had been slain by a segregationist only two months prior, union leader Walter Reuther — and a performance by the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. But it was Dr. King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech that immediately took its place as one of the greatest in U. S. history.
August 28 was not the first time King had uttered the most famous four words from his remarks that day. He had spoken about his dream during speeches in Birmingham and Detroit earlier that year. His initial drafts did not contain any references to a dream at all, according to his closest advisers.
Before the speech, King allegedly told an aide that he wanted the remarks to be “a Gettysburg Address” of sorts.
Read the full text of the speech as he delivered it that day: I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Full text to the “I Have A Dream” speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Junior
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration
for freedom in the history of our nation.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “For Whites Only”. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
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.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
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 today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls 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 that I go back to the South with. 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.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Martin Luther King was a heavy hitter in several of the civil rights movements of the 1950s and ’60s. His nonviolent tone was precisely what was needed for the United States government to take heed. Here are a few of the notable boycotts, strikes, and speeches King is famed for:
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In 1955, King became one of the leaders for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. For 381 days, King and his followers boycotted the bus system that allowed segregation on public buses. They walked unimaginable lengths to work and other outings, but nonviolently made their point that segregation on buses was not only discriminatory, but unlawful.
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In 1957, King established the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. To this day, it aims to advance the cause of the civil rights movement in a nonviolent manner.
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In 1963, King’s famous “I Have a Dream Speech” was delivered to over 200,000 people, more than any other rally in Washington D.C.’s history at that point. People took heed to his message, laced with truths from the Bible and the U.S. Constitution. It not only marked him as a master orator and a brilliant wordsmith, but also put pressure on President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration to push for civil rights laws to pass through Congress.
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In 1968, King traveled to Memphis to advocate for the Memphis Sanitation Worker Strike. Black workers were being forced to work under unthinkable – not to mention unsafe – conditions while receiving a lower wage than their white counterparts. After much trial and tribulation, the workers did receive a fairer wage, but it also came with King’s brutal assassination.
A Vision That Changed the World
It’s because of Martin Luther King and the efforts of his supporters that America came to understand the power of nonviolent protest. When his nonviolent efforts were met with violence, it actually garnered empathy and support for his cause. The public was swayed to such a magnitude that major acts of Congressional power were set in motion.
King was largely responsible for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Civil Rights Act banned discrimination in the workforce and public accommodations based on “race, color, religion, or national origin.”
The Voting Rights Act protects African Americans’ right to vote. He also played a major part in the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. This prevents people from banning black people from any sort of housing, be it a rental or a sale.
Even until the day he died, King never allowed fear to triumph. He unified people together under a common goal. Today, you won’t find black people and white people forced to sit in separate sections on a bus or drink from separate water fountains in a public space. Although prejudice remains, the tide is shifting in a way where the racists of the world are scorned, and not innocent African Americans.
“If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
King Jr.’s biggest role in society has been his efforts is advancing the civil rights movement. He brought attention to a big issue that was incredibly controversial and sensitive during his time. His take on nonviolence was imperative in his efforts, and assisted in gaining traction for the movement. His protests and marches were not always successful, however, his presence in our society made a huge impact on the African-American Civil Rights Movement both before and after his assassination. On top of his Nobel Peace Prize, Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and is one of only four non-presidents to be honored with a memorial, which is located in Washington D.C.’s National Park.
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