Martin Luther King, one of the greatest man to walk on this earth, started the defence force, with which the American Blacks got their right and gained freedom from the distressing racial discrimination.
Martin was born on January 15, 1929. His family lived in the outskirts of Atlanta.
The fact that he could not pray with White children, or that he had to offer a seat in the bus to a White, disturbed him.
When he was eight year old his father a Baptist pastor, told the family a sad story. ‘Bessie Smith, a great singer met with an accident. An ambulance rushed her to the nearest hospital, but she was not admitted because she was black.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The ambulance took her from one hospital to another, but she could not find a place for herself because these hospitals were only for the Whites. She died for want of blood.’ From that day, Martin Luther King dreamt of becoming a liberator of the Blacks.
King completed his studies at More House College, and then earned a doctor’s degree in theology at Boston University. In 1935 King married Alabama Saprano Coretta Scott. That very year he became a pastor and preached his first sermon in the Baptist Church of Atlanta.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
As a young man, he was greatly impressed by Mahatma Gandhi’s success in the political field and the power of Ahimsa. King decided to follow the path of non-violence and get millions of Black their due. He felt that the Blacks had immensely contributed towards the building of America, and there was no reason why they should not be treated with respect.
King drew national attention in 1956. Since the Blacks were not permitted to sit in the same buses as the Whites, he led a boycott of public buses in Montgomery. A year later, after many arrests and threats, the US Supreme Court gave a ruling that racial segregation of public transport was unlawful.
The victory taught the Blacks the power of non-violence. After 1957 King began visiting various places to deliver lectures. Soon he became a powerful orator, drawing the attention of the people the world over.
King continued the fight, a peaceful fight, demanding the rights of the Blacks. In 1964 he was awarded the Noble Peace Prize. In 1967, King led many peaceful demonstrations against the Vietnam War and in 1968 he declared a Poor People’s Campaign. On April 4, of that very year, while planning a demonstration of striking sanitation workers, he was shot dead by an assassin.