Martin Luther King
Everybody
knows this man as a revolutionist and a rebel character, who made a big change in the U.S.A connected with segregation of
African-American citizens in the South and other areas of the nation. We will
take a closer look at this person.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on
January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. As a Baptist minister and civil rights activist,
he made a big change and played a pivotal role in ending segregation. King received the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1964.
Even in his early years, he
believed racism and segregation to be an affront to God's will. In creating his
later opinions a big influence had pleasant atmosphere
in his house and strong relationship with family members. He had met
with the effects of racism on himself. His faith also wasn’t always as strong
as in later years – he renewed his faith and began to envision a career in the
ministry by taking Bible classes.
Photograph by Donald
Uhrbrock, Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Early years
Young Martin had an older sister
Willie and a younger brother Alfred. The King children grew
up in a secure and loving environment. Martin Sr. (their father) was
very demanding and disciplinarian, while their mother was gentle, tender and
solicitous what easily balanced out the father’s more strict hand. They tried
to protect their children, but as a parents they couldn’t shield them
completely from racism. Martin Luther King Sr. strongly discouraged any sense
of class superiority in his children, which left a lasting impression on Martin
Jr.
Martin was 12 years old when his
grandmother died of heart attack. It was traumatic for Martin, more so because
he was out watching a parade against his parents’ wishes when it happened. Distraught
at the news, young King jumped from a second story window at the
| family home, allegedly attempting suicide. |
Education and
Spiritual Growth
In 1948,
Martin Luther King Jr. earned a sociology degree from Morehouse College and
attended the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. He
earned a fellowship for graduate school. But he also rebelled against his
father’s rules by drinking beer and playing pool while at college. Martin had a
relationship with a white-skinned woman and went through a difficult time
before he could break off the affair.
During the work on his doctorate in Boston he met the woman of his life, an aspiring singer and musician, Coretta Scott. They got married in June 1953 and had four children.  |
On March 2,
1955, a 15-year-old girl refused to give up her seat to a white man on a
Montgomery city bus in violation of local law. She was arrested and taken to
jail.
On December 1, 1955, 42-year-old Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue
bus to go home from an exhausting day at work. She sat in the “coloured”
section. All seats were filled up and then severalwhite passengers boarded the
bus. The driver noticed that they were standing while the “black people” were
sitting. Three other
African American passengers reluctantly gave up their places, but Parks
remained seated. She was arrested for breaking the laws.
 |
| Rosa Parks |
Martin
Luther King made his first speech in connection with this incident. He
declared:
"We have no
alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown an amazing patience.
We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we
were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience
that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice."
The
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
In February 1960, a group of African-American students began what became
known as the "sit-in" movement in Greensboro, North Carolina. The
students would sit at racially segregated lunch counters in the city's stores.
When asked to leave or sit in the coloured section, they just remained seated.
“I have a Dream”
"I
have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they
will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their
character." — Martin Luther King, Jr.
/
"I Have A Dream" speech, August 28, 1963
From 1965 to 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. expanded his Civil Rights
Movement into other larger American cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles. Unfortunately,
he met with increasing criticism and public challenges from young black-power
leaders. But he didn’t give up, he continued fighting for their rights.
Assassination
By 1968 he was tired of marches, going to jail and living under constant
pressure of the death. He became discouraged at the slow progress of civil
rights in America and increasing criticism. He had a lots of plans. On April 3, in what proved to be an
eerily prophetic speech, he told supporters, "I've seen the promised land.
I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a
people, will get to the promised land.”
The next day, while standing
on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel, Martin Luther King Jr. was
struck by a sniper's bullet. The shooter pleaded guilty and was sent to jail
for 99 years. He died in prison.
Martin
Luther King had a strong impact on race relations in the United States. Years
after his death he is regarded as the one of the most influential
African-American leader of his time. His life and work have been honoured with
a national holiday, schools and public buildings named after him, and a
memorial on Independence Mall in Washington, D.C. But he and his methods are
still controversial as well.
Americans honour the civil rights activist on the third Monday of
January each year, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Martin Luther King QUOTES:
But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that
makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.”
“Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades
human personality is unjust.”
“Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the
cup of bitterness and hatred."
“Darkness
cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate:
only love can do that.”
“We
must all learn to live together as brothers, or we will all perish together as
fools.”
“A man
who won't die for something is not fit to live.”
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
Photos from http://kids.nationalgeographic.com
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
Nelson was born in 1918 in an
African village, his father was a chief, so you can say that Mandela was a
prince. When he turned seven and started at school, he was a clever student and
later in his life, he went to university to become a lawyer, but at that
moment, was there very few Africans who got opportunity of going to university.
Rolihlalhla is Mandela’s middle name, which means “the troublemaker” and he do
also really caused trouble. One day, when he came home from school, his family
told him, that he had to marry a girl they did found for him, but he would
rather find his own wife, and ran away to Johannesburg, because he didn’t think
that his family got right to say who he had to marry with. Then he arrive to
Johannesburg, met he some people who were against the apartheid, they worked in
an organisation called ANC (African National Congress) political party in South
Africa were the point was to get the same rights alike for black as withes an
anti-apartheid movement. Therefore, he joined the ANC. After short of time in
the organization, he became the leader of the ANC, because everybody like him,
Africans, Indians, coloured and a few withes who hated the apartheid system.
They did anything he said, because he was a brilliant and kind leader. In 1961
said Mandela that peaceful demonstrations were not enough to change the
government opinion. Therefore, ANC began to build an army to fight against
apartheid with weapons rather than demonstrations. After that began the
government to be worried and wanted to arrest Mandela and put him in prison. In
1962, the police caught him and sent him to prison on an island called Robben
Island. Mandela was kept in prison for 28 years. Outside the freedom struggle
continued. Finally, in 1990, the government gave up, caused by all that
protesting against apartheid, and Nelson Mandela was set free, in 1994 all
people in South African could vote, and they elected Mandela as the first black
president, Mandela didn’t hate whites people for what they had done to him.
Today, thanks to the self-sacrifice from Nelson Mandela, apartheid has been
outlawed. Everyone in South Africa now has an equal opportunity at home and at
work to live comfortable and productive lives. The flag was change in
proportion to before; the old flag symbolized “Apartheid” and the new flag
symbolized a “Rainbow nation” the flag got alot of colours who symbolized a lot
things:
Yellow = a symbol of natural resources like gold and so on white = a
symbol of the white skin Red = a symbol of blood, because they fight for the
apartheid to get equal. Blue = a symbol of justice after a hard work to get the
same rights. Green = a symbol of hope to hold the nation good and save and to
retain it Black = a symbol of the black people Y sign = symbolise united
nationalities, that means that it doesn’t matter what colour you are, you will
always be a part of the nation.
We think that he is an unusual man, because he
shows no bitterness towards the people, who treated him, unfair. He said that
everybody must forgive each other and build a new country together. Moreover,
there is no doubt that, it had been an extreme “mission”, try to get the nation
in South Africa, to be one nation. In our opinion is Nelson Mandela a real hero
Nevertheless, it is not only us, who think Mandela is a hero because In 2009
decided FN’s general assembly, at 18. July, who was Nelson Mandela’s birthday,
should be a memory of him, he stand for equal rights and justice, today he is
dead, he died on 5 December 2013 I Johannesburg.
Made by
Klaudia Byczyńska
Aleksandra Władyka
Jonas Andersen
Asbjørn Klitgaard
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