MLK Holiday CelebratesLate Civil Rights Leader
Martin Luther King Jr.'s rise as a civil rights leader
began in 1955 when he spearheaded the drive
to desegregate public buses in Montgomery, Alabama.
By August 1963, Reverend King's push for equal rights
had become a national movement.
That month, more than 250,000 people
took part in the March on Washington led by King,
it was designed to pressure lawmakers
to pass a civil rights bill that would end racial discrimination.
Former civil rights activist Roger Wilkins was there
on the day marchers gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
"It was a glorious warm summer day
in which people were rejuvenated.
And (there was) just a good feeling of a country coming together.
You really felt, I did for the first time in my life,
the weight of America's conscience."
"I have a dream that my four little children
will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character."
It was these non-violent protests and his speeches
that drove the civil rights movement forward,
and kept the nation focused on the issue of equality.
Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964,
and that same year President Lyndon Johnson
signed the Civil Rights Act
and the following year the Voting Rights Act.
The measures outlawed racial segregation in public places
and discriminatory practices
that prevented blacks from voting.
Martin Luther King's final campaign
was in Memphis, Tennessee in March and April of 1968.
He led a march in support of striking sanitation workers.
But the protest turned violent
when young militants began looting stores.
King was distraught
and vowed to return to Memphis to lead a peaceful march.
On the night of April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel,
King was assassinated.
Forty years later,
King's life is celebrated with many of his dreams realized,
including the election of Barack Obama
as the nation's first African American president.