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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,on Equality and Change

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DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, Jr. ,on equality and change.

I HAVE A DREAM

This is the day we commemorate the short life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  While he is adored and respected today, when he was alive he was feared and hated because he was working for radical change. He called for people to alter the structure of society, and to do so would require individuals to change from the inside.

 

“We have moved from the era of civil rights to the era of human rights, an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society.”

The call for Change

The message he brought to the world, and to the cause he championed, was far larger than segregation. He worked for justice, equality and peace. He opposed militarism and violence of any kind, yet he believed it takes action – nonviolent action – to bring about change.

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Waiting vs. Action

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led an extraordinary life. At 33, he met with President John F. Kennedy to advocate for civil rights. When he was 34, he stirred the nation with his “I Have a Dream” speech. At 35, he won the Nobel Peace Prize, and at 39, he was assassinated.

The same year he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, he also led a non-violent march in Birmingham, Alabama. He was arrested, and from his jail cell wrote the famous and inspiring, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

The Movie

The movie Selma tells the story of Dr. King’s historic journey to attain voting rights for all people. In the movie, he meets with President Lyndon Johnson, and is told that the voting rights issue must wait. There are those who say the film takes liberties with the facts, but what we know for certain is this: Dr. King was told on many occasions to wait for voting rights, and was criticized for taking action. He wrote “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” to address a statement by clergymen that called his activities “unwise and untimely.” Dr. King believed after years of waiting, many broken promises, and laws unheeded*, that it was no longer time to wait. He said,

“Wait, has almost always meant never…We know through painful experience that freedom is never given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

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