Every year, on the third Monday in January, the United States commemorates Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day honoring the most influential leader of the civil rights movement. His tireless fight against racial segregation and his defense of non-violence made him a symbol of justice and equality. Established as a federal holiday in 1983, this day not only remembers his legacy, but also invites community action for social justice.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgiawithin a deeply religious family. His father, Martin Luther King Sr., was a pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Churchwhere the young King grew up watching his father’s activism against racial injustice. Since he was a child, he experienced the weight of segregation: when he was six years old, his best white friend stopped playing with him because his parents did not want him to associate with black children, narrates the story. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, for its acronym in English).
King was a brilliant student. At the age of 15 he entered Morehouse Collegea historically black institution, where he became interested in social activism. Later, he studied at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania and obtained his doctorate in theology at Boston University in 1955. It was in Boston where he met Coretta Scott Kingwho would become his wife and ally in the fight for civil rights.
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus. In response, King organized the Montgomery Bus Boycotta 381-day peaceful protest that paralyzed the city’s public transportation system. The boycott ended in 1956, when the Supreme Court declared segregation on public buses unconstitutional.
This triumph turned King into a national figure and led him to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)an organization dedicated to coordinating the fight for civil rights across the country. Under his leadership, the SCLC promoted demonstrations and campaigns of peaceful resistance against segregation and discrimination.
In 1963, King and the SCLC led a campaign in Birmingham, Alabamaone of the most racist cities in the south. The police, then led by Bull Connor, used high pressure water hoses and police dogs against the protesters, images that were televised throughout the country and caused outrage, the US Government recalls on its official website. During the campaign, King was arrested and, from his cell, wrote the historic “Letter from Birmingham Jail”in which he defended civil disobedience as a moral duty in the face of unjust laws. In it, he expressed:
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Freedom is never given voluntarily by the oppressor; It must be demanded by the oppressed.”
He August 28, 1963King led the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedomwhere more than 250,000 people They gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial to demand civil and economic rights for African Americans. The march contributed to the approval of the Civil Rights Act of 1964which prohibited segregation in public spaces and discrimination in employment. There, he gave his famous speech “I Have a Dream”in which he expressed his vision of a future without racial discrimination:
“I dream of a day when my four children live in a nation where they are not judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
He October 14, 1964Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prizebecoming the youngest person to receive it up to that time, with only 35 years. The Nobel Committee awarded him for his leadership in the fight against racial segregation and his unwavering commitment to nonviolence as a method of protest. During the award ceremony in Oslo, Norway, King reaffirmed his hope for a world without discrimination and oppression. His international recognition further cemented his position as the leading leader of the civil rights movement in the United States.
However, despite the Civil Rights Act, many African Americans in the South remained unable to vote due to legal obstacles and violence. In 1965, King led the Selma to Montgomery Marchin which protesters were brutally attacked by police in the event known as Bloody Sunday. National outrage led to the approval of the Voting Rights Act of 1965which guaranteed suffrage for all citizens.
In his later years, King expanded his fight beyond civil rights. In 1967, he gave a speech against vietnam wardenouncing that the conflict disproportionately affected African Americans and diverted resources from social programs. He also launched the Poor People’s Campaignwith which he planned a great mobilization in Washington to demand economic justice.
He April 4, 1968King was assassinated in the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennesseewhere he had traveled to support a strike by African-American sanitation workers. His death sparked riots in more than 100 cities and marked a turning point in the history of civil rights. Posthumously, King received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977) and the Congressional Gold Medal (1994). In 1983, Congress established the Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday, although some states such as South Carolina took until 2000 to recognize it.
The commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day It not only remembers its role in history, but also puts into perspective the pending challenges regarding social justice and equity. Since his recognition with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 until his assassination in 1968, King consolidated a model of activism based on nonviolence that has influenced movements for justice in different parts of the world. His impact is visible in legislation, politics and citizen mobilization, which reinforces his relevance more than five decades after his death.
