By Sainey Faye
JANUARY 15th, 1929 ……On This Date Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Was Born.
Dr. King was one of the most well known African Americans of the Civil Rights era of the 1960’s. He eaded the SCLC and was in the forefront of the struggle against racism and segregation, which was legal in the U.S.A. at the time. He was amongst those leaders, who helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
and also the Voting Rights Acts of 1965. He received the Nobel Peace Price in 1964. He was assassinated in April 4, 1968 at the young age of 39. He is being memorialized nationwide annually, on M.L.King Day; as a nationwide Federal holiday. The only African American to be given such an honor – a true African Freedom fighter. Below are some words of wisdom from some of his many speeches and books :-
“We will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”– MLK
“Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind.I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to
leave behind.But I just want to leave a committed life behind.And that’s all I wanted to say. If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody that he’s traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain.”—MLK
Some famous quotes from Dr. King : –
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability. but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable…Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”