Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech calling for equality between all races in the USA; It was one of the most inspiring, influential and famous speeches to date.
But today these ideals need to be worked on. The new electoral constraints that particularly affect black and poor voters, Dr. It points out that King’s dream still hasn’t come true.
Who is Martin Luther King?
On August 28, 1963, more than 250 thousand people stood at the famous Lincoln Memorial in the capital, Washington, by Dr. Had gathered to listen to Martin Luther King Jr.
Born to a clergyman in the southern US state of Georgia, King imagined how his children’s lives might be different from his own.
racial discrimination
Racial discrimination was still practiced and encouraged in the south of the USA.
Blacks and whites were segregated, living in different areas, eating at different restaurants, drinking water from different fountains, and sitting in different parts of the buses.
During this period, laws that dictated many aspects of blacks’ lives meant that they were paid less, lived in worse conditions, and received a worse education.
electoral laws
More importantly, discriminatory laws made it difficult for black voters to send representatives who could change those laws.
However, Dr. If you think King’s dream is from the distant past, think again.
According to his own family, the past few months Dr. It reminded me that King’s dream still hasn’t come true.
In the same states that were once segregated, Republican-led state legislatures passed legislation that was said to prevent minorities, especially black voters, from voting.
These include a strict identification requirement and a ban on water and food for people waiting in line to vote during hours.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump
After President Joe Biden was elected in 2020, 19 states have passed such laws, including Florida, Texas, and Arizona.
His predecessor, Donald Trump, claimed in the lawsuits that Biden stole the election, although he could not provide any evidence to change the election outcome.
So, as the country commemorates Martin Luther King day on January 17, 2022, his sons and daughters are asking people not only to remember their father, but to follow in their footsteps and take action to support laws that support blacks’ freedom to vote.
Bernice King and Peaceful Social Change
https://twitter.com/BerniceKing/status/1471862529282424832
“We celebrated the King holiday and encourage you to continue the commemoration,” said Bernice King, King’s daughter and CEO of the Martin Lutler King Jr Center for Peaceful Social Change, in the video she shared on Twitter.
However, Bernice King continued as follows;
“But if the right to choose is still at stake…then we, all of us collectively, should use our different commemorations and platforms to do what Dr. King would do that day.”
“My father used to speak and act in a way that put pressure on the U.S. Senate to keep this country’s promise of democracy…
civil rights movement
Reverend Al Sharpton, the leading Civil Rights Leader, said the debate was a “decisive moment” for American democracy.
Speaking on January 11 in Atlanta, Martin Luther King’s former hometown, Biden also said the voting rights issue was “a battle for the soul of America.”
“Do you want to be with Martin Luther King or with George Wallace?” Biden referred to the apartheid former Governor of Alabama. she asked.
Rosa Parks
One of the pivotal moments in the fight to end racial discrimination came in 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give a white passenger a seat on the bus in Alabama.
Professor at Edinburgh University. Katucho Bento told the BBC: “Blacks did not accept slavery, lynchings, all this violence, without any resistance. So the era of apartheid would not have been any different.”
Montgomery Bus Boycott
After Park’s arrest, the black community began boycotting buses and continued for a year. The protest was supported across the country. Dr. When he joined and led the King Montgomery Bus Boycott, his speeches encouraged people to fight apartheid.
prof. “The civil rights movement was a movement that fought for social justice in the 50s and 60s,” says Bento.
“The movement had a complex agenda. They were creating projects and strategies for education, access to food, community building as a step towards freedom.
“The fight against discrimination on this agenda was part of a far-reaching battle to reshape US society.”
What did Martin Luther King do?
Dr. King’s speeches encouraged people to fight racial discrimination. But the reaction of the white supremacists was appalling. King’s family received threatening calls and their home was bombed.
King continued to fight with the weapons he believed in, the power of speech and mobilization. He believed in nonviolent resistance and refused to act out of hatred.
prof. Bento, Dr. King’s nonviolent struggle “often interpreted as simplistic and passive acceptance,” she says. But he believes this is wrong:
“Dr. King’s strategy was to have a radical nonviolence concept as the way of life he envisioned for the United States: an equal, free society, anti-racist.”
March to Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The 1963 March for Work and Freedom on Washington was a major turning point for the civil rights movement.
Crowds gathered in the hot, humid summer air of the capital Washington, Dr. He listened to King explain his nonviolent strategies and his call for racial harmony.
He was speaking in front of the giant statue of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln who declared all slaves in the United States free in 1863, and in 1964 Dr. King and the civic movement achieved a historic victory.
Civil Rights Act (1964)
The Citizenship Act formally ended racial discrimination in public spaces and discrimination in employment.
But the struggle was not over, and the enemies of racial equality resorted to deception to continue their racist policies.
Montgomery from Selma Y**his walk‘What**
Laws across Southern states continued to violate the rights of black voters by making it difficult for blacks to register to vote.
In 1965, Dr. King led the historic march from the town of Selma, Alabama, to the state capital, Montgomery, to protest such laws.
Activists faced deadly violence from local authorities and groups taking charge of the situation as they drove along the 87-kilometer road. However, Dr. King adhered to the principle of nonviolent protest.
How did Martin Luther King die?
King was arrested and imprisoned 29 times. On April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Arizona, he was killed by the bullets of a white man’s rifle.
Assassination, Dr. King’s role in American history, or his influence on contemporary movements fighting for racial equality.
Impact on the present
A number of civil rights movements, Dr. He followed in King’s footsteps.
prof. “His legacy stands at the roots of contemporary anti-apartheid movements fighting for social justice,” says Bento.
Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luthen King, said: “Peaceful action was not just about voting rights. It also addressed the fundamental social and economic issues that threaten our democracy and humanity. A livable salary and decent housing, health and quality education were the main goals of the civil rights movement. ‘ he speaks.
Martin Luther King’s speeches are considered among the most thought-provoking and inspiring speeches in contemporary history.
His continuing to speak out for equality, at great personal risk, is considered by many historians to be a cornerstone of democracy and freedom of expression in the United States.
Black Lives Matter N**ayat D**valued)
Meanwhile, in recent years the Black Lives Matter movement has helped shape the debate over institutional racism, particularly police violence.
Why is Martin Luther King Day on January 17, 2022?
Martin Luther King’s great eloquence and power of “dream” is celebrated across the country on the Monday closest to King’s birthday, January 15, 1929.
However, even today’s acceptance shows how divisive the issue was and continues to be.
Such a holiday, Dr. Although proposed days after King’s death, resistance to commemorating the civil rights movement icon in the US Congress took years to overcome.
Martin Luther King Day was first commemorated in 1986.
It takes many more years to be commemorated in the south of the USA. This is another sign of how much division there is in the country.
