by Ann Johnstone

Created on: August 29, 2008

Yesterday was the forty-fifth anniversary of "I have a dream", one of the most acclaimed and moving speeches in recent history. On August 28, 1963 American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr brought business to a virtual standstill in the nations capital as he described his dream of justice and racial equality. He delivered this history-making speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the end of a massive protest march of approximately 250,000 participants through the streets of Washington D.C.

Few of his hearers that day could deny the truth of King's argument that, 100 years after the abolition of slavery, African-Americans were still "crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination." Detailing the suffering caused by racism in America, he warned that times were changing. No longer were African-Americans prepared to tolerate inequality.

Vowing never to give up hope, King declared that "one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed", that all people are created equal. The huge audience listened to speeches by civil rights leaders and performances by musicians such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, well-known activists during the 60s. One year later, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting segregation and re-affirming African-American voting rights

Like Queen Esther of Persia in ancient times, it would seem that Martin Luther King Jr was born "for such a time as this". Although his life was cut tragically short by an assassin's bullet, his thirty-nine years on this earth did much to help change the course of history.

Born on January 15, 1929, and originally named Michael Luther King Jr., he later had his name changed to Martin (no doubt with the original reformer Martin Luther in mind). He attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen. In 1948 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehouse College, a prominent Negro institution in Atlanta.

Then for the first time he attended a non-segregated place of learning, Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he was elected president of a mainly white senior class. His studies there led to a Bachelor of Divinity in 1951, after which he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, receiving his doctorate degree in 1955. While in Boston he also met and married the talented and artistic Coretta Scott. They had two sons and two daughters.

During the 50s, King became a member

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