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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 16, 2012 by · Comments Off on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Although he was assassinated more than four decades ago, the nonviolent movement supported by slain civil rights leader, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., continues to have a profound impact on life in America,

“I have followed, and have been a part of the NAACP through my entire adult life,” Ellis Ray Williams, 90, of Welch said. Williams served in combat during World War II, and survived the Battle of the Bulge. When he returned home, he became an educator in McDowell County and served as principal of the vocational school that served African American students in the McDowell County public school system.

“Of course, I followed Dr. King’s career,” Williams said. “He was such a stirring speaker and a representative, not only of black people, but a representative of people of all races. I’ve been from one end of this country to the other, and can say that our minds were changed by the message Dr. King carried.”

Delegate John Frazier, D-Mercer, was serving in the U.S. Army and stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas on April 4, 1968 when Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.

“The entire base was put on alert,” Frazier said. “There was a fear that rioting might break out in the city, and I think that’s why we were on alert, although I don’t know what I could have done. All I had then was a typewriter.”

Frazier saw the profound impact that King’s death had on several of the black soldiers he was serving with. “I had grown up with young people whose parents were active in the civil rights movement,” Frazier said. “I knew that Martin Luther King had a great impact in the lives of many people. I think it’s great that we have a day set aside to remember him and celebrate his life.”

Dr. Tom Blevins, interim president of Bluefield State College, was a student when King died, and he studied his philosophy as a student would. “As a student, I looked to the philosophies of Dr. King and Bertrand Russell,” Blevins said. “Their words are so profound. In their own way, each has moved mountains.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

January 13, 2012 by · Comments Off on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr 

Dr. Martin Luther King JrDr. Martin Luther King Jr, The list of so-called supporters of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will swell to questionable proportions this weekend. These individuals will quote small and select portions of Dr. King’s many sermons and speeches in an attempt to claim their religious, political or philosophical positions would be right in line with his. Some will even amass a small fortune and live in royal accommodations by going around the country telling crowds what Dr. King would be doing were he still living. At the same time, they will fail to do anything for Dr. King’s cause unless it brings them more fame and gain.

Dr. King delivered his last sermon on Sunday, March 31, 1968 at the National Cathedral here in Washington, D.C. He took as his sermon title, “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.” I have listened to it over and over since it was first brought to my attention by my mentor, Marian Wright Edelman, President and Founder of the Children’s Defense Fund. At the time of the speech, Dr. King and others were involved with putting together the Poor People’s Campaign.

In his sermon, Dr. King took inventory of our abundance of material and financial resources and warned about the consequences of overlooking the needs of the poor in our midst. “This is America’s opportunity to help bridge the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. The question is whether America will do it,” King said. “There is nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the techniques and the resources to get rid of poverty. The real question is whether we have the will.”

I believe when it comes to our celebration of the life of the Dr. King we are prone to making an error suggested by the late Rev. Peter Gomes. During a lecture I attended at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, Rev. Gomes, then Pusey Minister at Harvard’s Memorial Church said too often we merely celebrate and highlight the life of Jesus of the Scripture and what he did, but fail to truly follow him. “We ought to go the text, depart from the text and never return to the text, because we should find ourselves headed in the direction that Jesus was going,” the Rev. Gomes said. I still owe him tuition for his words.

His lecture was one that has forever changed my approach to reading and interpreting the New Testament as well as my understanding of what it means to be a Christian.

Like many, who can recite large portions of Dr. King’s speeches from memory, I will attend various worship services and prayer breakfasts honoring him this weekend. And I will begin a tradition of visiting the newly erected Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Still, this is not enough. This weekend is not about how we will celebrate his life. It is about whether we have the will to work to end poverty in the world in our lifetime.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr

January 10, 2012 by · Comments Off on Dr Martin Luther King Jr 

Dr Martin Luther King Jr, January 15, 1929: Michael King Jr. (later known as Martin Luther King Jr.) is born in Atlanta to the Rev. Michael King Sr. (later known as Martin Luther King Sr.) and Alberta King.

January 1934: After King’s teacher discovers that he is only five-years-old, he is expelled from grade school until he comes of age.

1944: Graduates from Booker T. Washington High School and at age 15 begins college studies at Morehouse College.

February 25, 1948: Appointed to serve as the assistant pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta.

June 8, 1948: Graduates from Morehouse College with a B.A. in sociology.

September 14, 1948: Begins attending Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Penn.

May 1951: Graduates from Crozer with a bachelor of divinity.

September 1951: Begins studying systematic theology as a graduate student at Boston University.

June 18, 1953: Marries Coretta Scott at her parent’s home in Marion, Ala.

September 1, 1954: Appointed pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery.

June 5, 1955: Receives doctorate of Philosophy in Systematic Theology from Boston University.

December 1955: Joins the bus boycott after Rosa Parks was arrested on Dec. 1.

December 5, 1955: He is elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, making him the boycott’s spokesman.

May 20, 1956: King speaks to the media about his arrest for leading the Montgomery bus boycott.

November 13, 1956: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that bus segregation is illegal, ensuring victory for the boycott.

January 30, 1956: King’s house is bombed.

March 22, 1956: King is found guilty of conspiracy to boycott Montgomery city buses in a campaign to desegregate the bus system, but a judge suspends his $500 fine pending appeal.

January 1957: Black ministers form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King is named president one month later.

January 15, 1957: King collapses after praying in Montgomery over bus-integration violence.

February 18, 1957: King is on the cover of Time magazine.

May 17, 1957: At the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial, King delivers his first national adress, entitled “Give Us The Ballot,” to a crowd of 15,000.

1958: King is arrested after a protest in Montgomery.

June 23, 1958: President Eisenhower meets with civil rights leaders the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., E. Frederic Morrow, A. Philip Randolph, William Rogers and Roy Wilkins.

September 1958: King publishes his first book, “Stride Toward Freedom,” which relates his recollections of the Montgomery bus boycott.

September 23, 1958: New York Governor Averell Hariman talks with King and Coretta in a Harlem hospital where King iss recovering from a stab wound. He had been attacked by an African American woman while promoting his book in a Harlem bookstore.

1959: Resigns from the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church to concentrate on civil rights full time.

February 1959: Visits India to study Mohandas K. Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence.

February 1960: King and his family move to Atlanta where he serves as assistant pastor to his father’s church, Ebenezer Baptist Church.

October 20, 1960: King is arrested and taken to jail through a picket line in front of an Atlanta department store where people staged a sit-in demonstration. The trespassing charges are dropped the following week. All jailed demonstrators are released except Dr. King, who is held on a charge of violating a probated sentence in a traffic arrest case. He is transferred to the Dekalb County Jail in Decatur, Ga., and is then transferred to the Reidsville State Prison. He is released from the prison on a $2 million bond.

October 25, 1960: Officers escort King from jail to the county courthouse in Atlanta for a hearing.

October 16, 1961: King meets with President Kennedy to gain his support for the civil rights movement.

November1961: King speaks during his visit to Seattle as part of a lecture series presented by the Brotherhood of Mount Zion Baptist Church.

December 16, 1961: King and other protestors are arrested in Albany, Ga.

July 27, 1962: During the unsuccessful Albany, Ga., movement, King is arrested and jailed.

April 12, 1963: King is arrested with Ralph Abernathy by Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor for demonstrating without a permit.

April 13, 1963: The campaign in Birmingham, Ala., is launched. This would prove to be the turning point in the war to end desegregation in the South. During the 11? days he spent in jail, King writes his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

May 10, 1963: The Birmingham agreement is announced. The stores, restaurants and schools will be desegregated, the hiring of blacks implemented, and the charges against King dropped.

June 23, 1963: King leads 125,000 people on a Freedom Walk in Detroit.

August 28, 1963: King gives his famous “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial to nearly 250,000 people who attended the March on Washington, the largest civil rights demonstration in history.

1964: King leaves FBI headquarters after a 1964 meeting with then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. The FBI continually harasses the civil rights leader.

January 3, 1964: King appears on the cover of “Time” magazine as Man of the Year.

January 18, 1964: King meets with President Lyndon B. Johnson.

June 5, 1964: A bullet is shot through the glass door of King’s rented beach cottage in St. Augustine, Fla.. No one was in the house at the time of the shooting. King was in St. Augustine to meet with other integration leaders.

June 11, 1964: King is arrested in St. Augustine, for attempting to eat in a white-only restaurant.

July 2, 1964: King attends the signing ceremony of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 at the White House.

Summer 1964: King experiences his first hurtful rejection by black people when he is stoned by Black Muslims in Harlem.

December 10, 1964: King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He is the youngest person to be awarded the prize at age 35.

January 18, 1965: King successfully registers to vote at the Hotel Albert in Selma, Ala., and is assautled by James George Robinson of Birmingham.

February 1965: King continues to protest discrimination in voter registration, is arrested and jailed.

February 9, 1965: King meets with President Johnson and other American leaders about voting rights for African Americans.

March 16-21, 1965: King and 3,200 people march from Selma to Montgomery. King is joined by singers Harry Bellafonte and Tony Bennett during the Selma March.

March 19, 1965: An image of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is displayed on the cover of “Time” magazine.

August 18, 1965: King addresses a public gathering in the riottorn areas of Los Angeles. King attended many meetings in an attempt to solve problems connected with the uprising.

January 22, 1966: King moves into a Chicago slum tenement to attract attention to the living conditions of the poor.

June 8, 1966: Mississippi patrolmen shove King and other marchers during the 220-mile “March Against Fear” from Memphis to Jackson, Miss.

August 6, 1966: King is struck by a rock as he leads 600 demonstrators on a civil rights march through crowds of angry whites in the Gage Park section of Chicago’s southwest side.

1967: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds a conviction of King by a Birmingham court for demonstrating without a permit. He spends four days in Birmingham jail.

April 25, 1967: King announces he would not be a candidate for the president of the United States.

April 30, 1967: King urges America to repent and abandon what he called its “tragic, reckless adventure in Vietnam” in a sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church

November 27, 1967: King announces the inception of the Poor People’s Campaign focusing on jobs and freedom for the poor of all races.

1968: King announces that the Poor People’s campaign will culminate in a March on Washington demanding a $12 billion Economic Bill of Rights guaranteeing employment to the ablebodied, incomes to those unable to work and an end to housing discrimination.

February 1968: The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stands with other religious leaders and members of the group “Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam” at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery during a silent vigil.

March 1968: A protest led by King in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis erupts into a riot, setting the stage for his death a week later.

April 3, 1968: At a rally at Mason Temple in Memphis, King delivers his last speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”

April 4, 1968: At sunset, King is fatally shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.

April 1968: Riots and disturbances erupt in 130 American cities. There are 20,000 arrests.

April 9, 1968: King’s funeral in Atlanta is an international event.

April 14, 1968: Mourners keep an all-night vigil outside the Ebenezer Baptist Church waiting to view the body of King. Later, thousands filed past the bier where he was buried in a cemetery on the South Side.

April 4, 1969: On the anniversay of the event, the country mourns his death en masse with marches and memorial services.

November 2, 1986: A national holiday is procalimed in King’s honor after a long public campaign lead by black politicians such as Senator Edmund Burke and Representative John Conyers. Celebrities, notably Stevie Wonder, also join in the crusade along the way.

October 16, 2011: MLK memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., after an 11-year process to bring the dream to reality.

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