Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist Minister and Activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. King is best known for advancing Civil Rights through Nonviolence and civil disobedience, inspired by his Christian beliefs and the example of Mahatma Gandhi.
MLK participated in and led marches for blacks people’s right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other basic civil rights. King led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and later became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
On October 14, 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. In 1965, he helped organize two of the three Selma to Montgomery marches. In his final years, he expanded his focus to include opposition towards poverty, capitalism, and the Vietnam War. In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C. to be called the Poor People’s Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4th in Memphis, Tennessee.
King was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established as a holiday in cities and states throughout the United States beginning in 1971; the holiday was enacted at the federal level by legislation signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986. Hundreds of streets in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor, & the most populous county in Washington State was dedicated to him. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. was dedicated in 2011. Martin Luther King believed that all people are the Children Of God and should be treated with empathy, equity & equality. Do you agree? If yes, please spread the word and try to serve Our Human Family.
Martin Luther King! Written and performed by Pato Banton
Keyboards, Bass & Vocals: Antoinette Rootsdawtah
Acoustic Guitar & Vocals: David Gomez
Backing Vocals: Nichelle Monroe Childrens
Vocals: Nathan Andreas, Ryder Webb and Holland Webb
Music & Video Production: Pato Banton