Martin Luther King – an inspiration for us all |18 January 2011

Dr Martin Luther King Jr (1929-1968) was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929.

He was was the oldest son of Martin Luther King Sr, pastor and civil rights leader, and Alberta Williams King, whose father was the Rev A.D. Williams, predecessor to King Sr as pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church and a founder of the Atlanta chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

He entered Morehouse College at the age of 15 and was ordained a Baptist minister at the age of 17. He graduated from Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, Pennsylvania, as class president at 22.

He married Coretta Scott King in June 1953 at the age of 24 while attending Boston University and received a doctorate in systematic theology in 1955 at the age of 26.

By this time, the core of the King philosophy of non-violent protest had been formed.

Martin Luther King led the historic march on Washington (August 28, 1963) where he delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech, and in 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. King was chief spokesman for non-violent activism in the civil rights movement, which successfully protested against racial discrimination in federal and state law.

In that famous speech he said: “When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all 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 spiritual, ‘Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty we are free at last’.”

On April 3, 1968 King spoke of having been on the mountain top and seen the promised land. The following day, while supporting a garbage disposal workers’ strike in Memphis, he was shot dead. Some 200,000 people attended his funeral in Atlanta.

To mark his birthday, the third Monday in January was designated a federal legal holiday, and his Atlanta birthplace and grave have been designated national historic sites.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the public holiday into law, and it was first observed in 1986.

At first some states resisted observing the holiday as such, giving it alternative names or combining it with other holidays. It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.

The success of this strategy was foretold when singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder released the single Happy Birthday in 1980 to popularise the campaign.

Six million signatures were collected for a petition to Congress to pass the law, described as the largest petition in favour of an issue in US history.

More than 750,000 people from around the world now visit the final resting place of Dr Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King every year. And his nearby home is a centre that illustrates Dr King’s life and teaching.

In his most famous speech, King said: “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all God’s children. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by their character.”

To write about Martin Luther King’s legacy would take many years to complete. But I hope everyone will remember him and his great work, not only for the American people but for the whole of humanity.

So Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King Jr. May your spirit live on.