Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta on January 15, 1929 and he was a Protestant pastor and American political activist. He has become one of the most important leaders of the black civil rights movement in the United States, and in the world, with a campaign of non-violence and love for the next. King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 serving as its first president. His efforts led to the 1963 March over Washington, where he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. On October 14, 1964 King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through non-violence. In the years leading up to his death, he expanded his focus to include poverty and the Vietnam War with a 1967 speech entitled “Beyond Vietnam.” King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He received posthumously the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a United States federal holiday in 1986. Hundreds of US streets were also renamed in his honor.

Some phrases from Luther King:

“True peace alone is not the lack of tension, it is the presence of justice.”

“We have to combine the hardness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a hard mind and a tender heart.”

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

“Love is the only force capable of turning an enemy into a friend.”

Rodrigo Moitas

0 comments