Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a day when Americans celebrate the life and legacy of one of our nation’s most influential civil rights leaders, and by extension, the civil rights movement.  We at Minnesota Monitor would like to note the influence of Dr. King with a few facts about his life and the state of the civil rights movement.

  • King rose to prominence through role as one of the leaders of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  During the 381-day boycott, King’s house was bombed.  The boycott ultimately ended with the Supreme Court ruling in Browder v. Gayle, which outlawed segregation on public transit.
  • In 1957, King, along with Rev. Ralph Abernathy, helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and served as its president from 1957 to 1968.  The organization advocated nonviolent resistance to segregation, a stand which was based on the teachings of Mahatma Ghandi.
  • The SCLC’s first major victory came in May of 1963, with their efforts to desegregate businesses in Birmingham, Ala.  The protests had an impact in no small part because of the overzealous response of Birmingham’s public safety commissioner, Theophulis “Bull” Connor, who used firehoses and dogs against unarmed protesters, including children.  The actions so outraged the nation the Kennedy administration intervened to force desegregation.

  • During the Birmingham campaign, King wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, in which he advocated for nonviolent civil disobedience as a tool to speed desegregation.
  • The SCLC’s next major campaign was the March on Washington, which brought an estimated 350,000 people to Washington to protest racial injustice, and where King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
  • Legend tells us that King’s speech departed significantly from his prepared text, and that much of the speech was delivered extemporaneously.  No strong evidence exists to either support or refute this.
  • The speech includes a number of Biblical allusions, including allusions to Psalm 30:5, Amos 5:24, and Isaiah 40:4.
  • In 1999, the “I Have a Dream” speech was rated as the best American speech of the 20th century, according to a survey of scholars conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Texas A&M University.
  • The march was considered a major factor in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlawed racial segregation nationwide.
  • In 1964, King was named Time’s Man of the Year.  He was the first African American to be so honored.
  • In 1966, King, Abernathy, and the SCLC moved their focus to racial animus in the north, focusing on Chicago. 
  • The action brought attention to the conditions many of Chicago’s poor were forced to live in, and led to some positive movement on racial desegregation, thanks in part to the leadership of Jesse Jackson, a King protege. 
  • Significant gains were subverted by Democratic Mayor Richard J. Daley, who was a strong practitioner of machine politics, and not a friend to desegregation.
  • In 1967, King came out against the Vietnam War.  In speaking out against the war, King called the U.S. “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”
  • In 1968, King organized the Poor People’s Campaign, in which he called for strong government support to rebuild inner cities and poor communities.  He said that Congress had demonstrated “hostility to the poor,” and cited the Vietnam War as evidence of misplaced national priorities.
  • On April 3, 1968, King was in Memphis, Tenn., in support of a strike by African American sanitation workers, supported by AFSCME Local 1733.  That evening, King delivered an address, in which he said, “We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
  • On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 P.M., King was assassinated on the second-floor balcony of his hotel.  His last words were directed to Ben Branch, a musician who was with King on the balcony.  “Ben, make sure you play Take My Hand, Precious Lord in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty.”
  • King is venerated as a saint in the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and is included in the gallery of 20th century martyrs in Westminster Abbey.
  • King’s legacy survived his death.  Later in April of 1968, the Fair Housing Act was signed into law, prohibiting racial discrimination in housing sales and rentals.  And King continues to be a powerful figure to this day, cited by people on all sides of the political spectrum as a powerful figure for justice.

    • Finally, here is the man himself, and his 1963 address at the March on Washington: