Martin Luther King, Jr

Martin Luther King Day

Do you realize he was assassinated at the age of 39? In my opinion, he went right into the heart of prejudiced Birmingham, Alabama, where

"...there had been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation"

to try and talk with city officials about racism.

"...when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you no forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience."

Cite: Letter from Birmingham Jail

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you can imagine that this being the mentality of our country back then, imagine also how liberating it was to have a man like Dr Martin Luther King, Jr take up the banner on racism and prejudice in America. It was a very beautiful thing.

Martin Luther King, Jr