One of the greatest civil rights leaders, MLK receives commemoration on yearly holiday.
Artwork by Mia Nogueira
More than four decades after his death, Martin Luther King Jr. is still remembered for many positive outcomes he accomplished for his community. A proud advocator for civil rights, Dr. King was always looking for a way to better the life of African American people. Assigned a holiday by President Ronald Regan in 1983, citizens from all over the United States continue to honor Dr. King every January.
Born on January 15, 1929, Dr. King was always a well-guided man thanks to the help of his grandfather and father, both pastors at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. King attended segregated public schools in Georgia, obtaining his GED at the age of fifteen. He received a B.A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from where both his father and grandfather graduated. He later enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, who later gave birth to their two sons and two daughters.
In 1954, Dr. King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama as well as a member of the executive committee of the National association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In early December of 1955 he began the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of the United States: the bus boycott. The boycott lasted 382 days.
On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United states had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, African Americans and Whites were finally able to ride a bus as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested and his home was bombed, but at the same time he showed that he was willing to take these and many more risks to protect his people. In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization that provided new leadership for the civil rights movement. In the years between 1957 and 1968, Dr. King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action, and at the same time he wrote five books as well as many newspaper articles.
At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King Jr. was the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He used his power and resources to advance the civil rights movement and get more people to become involved. He led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world and inspired his letter from a Birmingham jail, a manifesto for African American rights. King also directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people, to whom he delivered his I have a Dream speech. During these years he was arrested at least twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees, was named Man of the Year by Time Magazine in 1963, and became not only the leader of African Americans but also a world figure.
On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, he was assassinated. Today we continue to hold memorials for Dr. King all over the United States. His legacy brings large events to the Denver-Metro area, including the “Marade” on Monday, January 18th. Starting in the MLK memorial site in City Park at 9:00 a.m., the Marade begins at 10:00 a.m. with participants marching together to Civic Park, where food and desserts will be served until 1:00 p.m. At the National Western Stock Show, the Martin Luther King Jr. African-American Rodeo of Champions aims to show how cowboys and cowgirls impacted the West throughout history. The Rodeo will take place on January 18, 2010 at 6 p.m. at the Denver Coliseum, (reserved seating for this event costs between $13 – $35).
Martin Luther King Jr. will continue to be commemorated for many years to come. Everyone loves his sense of community leadership and the inspiration his memory provides.
