Marin Luther King Jr. is known by everyone for giving rights to blacks.He began his career as a Baptist preacher. He went on to lead the civil rights movement, and he also made history.
Jim Crow laws were terrible. They did not let blacks sit in the front of the bus and they had to give up their seats if a white person was standing. They had to eat in separate restaurants, go to separate public restrooms, and even separate public schools. But in 1954 Jim Crow lost to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court declared separate schools for blacks and whites was unequal. The case was called "Brown v. Board of Education."
Black people were tired of the racism, so they boycotted the bus system because a woman named Rosa Park in Montgomery, Alabama, was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white person. Thirteen months later the bus gave in because of the cash flow problems with no one riding the bus.
The Montgomery boycott inspired more people to join him. In 1963 Dr. King and other civil right leaders organized the march in Washington. More than two hundred thousand people came to for demand equality for blacks.
The Civil Rights movement was changing the nation. In 1964 Congress passed the Civil Rights act which made racial discrimination in public places legal. He also got the Nobel Peace Prize.
On April 4, 1998 Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, by James Earl Ray. But, still Dr. King's words, speeches and his legacy lives on with us. He inspired Hispanics, women, and even the disabled.
Below is an interview with Martin Luther King and several journalists on the television show Meet the Press, which ran on national TV, in the mid-1950s. Meet the Press is a news show that still airs on regular TV today.
Hillwood Herald readers: Don't forget school is closed on Monday in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King day.
