Martin Luther King Jr and His Life

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“Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say that I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will be as one.” This quote is by John Lennon. I think it refers to what happened on August 28th 1963, a hot summer day when a quarter of a million people showed up on the steps of the Lincoln memorial. That day was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, brought together by civil rights groups and religious groups at the time, king gave a speech to try and open the countries eyes about it. Just a year earlier, only 6.7% of African Americans were able to vote in the state of Mississippi. The goal of this event was to shed light on the political and social challenges that these people faced throughout the country. There were a ton of events happening in the 1960’s, such as the first televised presidential debates. On September 26, 1960, 70 million American viewers watched the first of four televised presidential debated between candidates Richard Nixon and John F Kennedy. They were the first debated ever to be held between the presidential nominees of the two major parties during the election season, of course we know John F Kennedy won that year. The lunch counter sit-in’s at the Woolworth’s in Greensboro, NC. The sit-ins played a big role in racial inequality throughout the south. On February 1, 1960, four African American college students sat down at a lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina and politely asked for service. Their request was refused. When they were asked to leave, they remained in their sears. In Greensboro, hundreds of students, civil rights or... ... middle of paper ... ... voters. He directed the peaceful march on Washington D.C. of 250.000 people to whom he delivered his address, “I Have a Dream” he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B Jonson. He was also arrested upwards of twenty time and assaulted at least four times, he was awarded five honorary degrees, was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963, and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure. King was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize at twenty five, and announced the he would turn over the prize money of 54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement. On the evening of April 4 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis Tennessee where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage working of the city he was assassinated.

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