| January
17, 2005 Martin Luther King Jr. Day Observance
“World
peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor
unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus
we must begin anew. Nonviolence is a good starting
point. Those of us who believe in this method can
be voices of reason, sanity, and understanding amid
the voices of violence, hatred, and emotion. We can
very well set a mood of peace out of which a system
of peace can be built."
--Martin
Luther King, Jr., December 1964
Martin Luther
King Jr., was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15,
1929. A civil-rights leader and international hero,
King is one of the 20th Century’s most visible
advocates of non-violence and direct action as methods
of social change.
Inspired by Gandhi’s achievements
through non-violent resistance, King played a vital
role in achieving significant gains for humanity ranging
from the desegregation of schools and other public facilities
to the acceleration of civil rights as a government
priority.
Martin Luther King delivered
one of the most passionate addresses of his career,
his “I Have a Dream”
speech on August 28, 1963 at the March on Washington
for Jobs and Freedom. Later in 1963, King was designated
Person of the Year by TIME Magazine.
In 1964, at the age of 35, King
was awarded a Nobel Peace
Prize for his unyielding efforts. In
his Nobel Lecture, King spoke of war and nuclear destruction:
"I refuse to accept
the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral
down a militaristic stairway into the hell of nuclear
annihilation... I believe that even amid today's mortar
bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for
a brighter tomorrow... I still believe that one day
mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned
triumphant over war and bloodshed."
In his speech “Remaining
Awake Through a Great Revolution,”
delivered at the National Cathedral, Washington, DC,
on March 31, 1968, King stated:
"It is no longer a
choice, my friends, between violence and nonviolence.
It is either nonviolence or nonexistence. And the
alternative to disarmament, the alternative to a greater
suspension of nuclear tests, the alternative to strengthening
the United Nations and thereby disarming the whole
world, may well be a civilization plunged into the
abyss of annihilation, and our earthly habitat would
be transformed into an inferno that even the mind
of Dante could not imagine.”
King was assassinated four days
later on April 4, 1968. |
