Special: MARTIN LUTHER KING — learn more about this important historical figure!

Exactly today, forty years ago, Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest person to date to receive such an honor. Because of his fight for civil rights in the United States, defending Black people who suffered daily racism in the country, Martin became a martyr in human history — a warrior, a visionary, a preacher of justice in the name of unity between Black and white people. Now, Surforeggae pays this tribute to the great Luther King, who to this day serves as an example for all who want a fairer, united and better world.

"I HAVE A DREAM"

Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. The eldest son of a middle-class African American family. His father was a Baptist pastor and his mother a teacher. At 19, Luther King became a Baptist pastor and later graduated in theology from Crozer Seminary. He also did postgraduate studies at Boston University, where he met Coretta Scott, a music student whom he married. In his studies he devoted himself to nonviolent protest philosophy, inspired by the ideas of Indian leader Mohandas K. Gandhi. In 1954 he became pastor of the Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1955, there was a boycott of the city's transportation as a form of protest against a discriminatory act toward a Black passenger; Luther King, as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, organized the movement, which lasted a year; King's house was bombed. That is how he began the fight for civil rights in the United States. In 1957 Luther King helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization of Black churches and clergy. King became the organization's leader, whose goal was to end segregation laws through peaceful demonstrations and boycotts. He went to India in 1959 to study more about Gandhi's forms of peaceful protest. At the beginning of the 1960s, King led a series of protests in various American cities. He organized demonstrations to protest racial segregation in hotels, restaurants and other public places. During one demonstration, King was arrested, accused of causing public disorder. In 1963 he led a massive movement, "The March on Washington," for civil rights in Alabama, organizing campaigns for Black voters; it was a protest with the participation of more than 200,000 people demonstrating for the civil rights of all U.S. citizens. Nonviolence became his way of demonstrating resistance. He was arrested again several times. That same year he led the historic march in Washington where he delivered his famous speech "I have a dream." On October 14, 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The movements continued; in 1965 he led a new march. One consequence of that march was the approval of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which abolished the use of tests aimed at preventing the Black population from voting. In 1967, King joined the Movement for Peace in Vietnam, which caused a negative impact among Black people. Other Black leaders did not agree with this shift in priorities from civil rights to the peace movement. On April 4, 1968, King was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee, by a white man who was arrested and sentenced to 99 years in prison. In 1983, the third Monday in January was declared a national holiday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.

QUOTES & TEACHINGS

 "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 my four children will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." "We must face difficulties, but that does not matter to me, because I have been to the mountaintop. That does not matter. I would like to live a long life, like everyone else, but I am not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will, and He has allowed me to go up the mountain. I looked over and saw the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know today that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. That is why I am happy tonight. Nothing worries me, I fear no one. I have seen with my own eyes the glory of the Lord's coming." "All men are equal" "What concerns me is not the cry of the violent. It is the silence of the good." "One day my children will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." "That is why I am happy today. Nothing worries me, I fear no one. I have seen with my own eyes the coming of the Lord." These were Martin Luther King's last words. "He fought with all his strength to save society from itself." Mrs. Coretta, wife of Martin Luther King Jr.  Source: The King Center  Translation, Adaptation: RICHARDSON ROBERTO SANTOS