by Roger Crain

Created on: January 17, 2009   Last Updated: February 05, 2009

Even when sitting in that Birmingham (Alabama) City Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr didn't allow any bitterness to infuse his pattern of thinking: He kept himself abreast of his agenda of making sure that the lives of black people; particularly the poor, was free from the tyrannies and indignities in the south. It wasn't until he had adopted the nonviolent strategies of Mahatma Gandhi that the Civil Rights Movement took on a new fervor to eradicate racism from the very fabric of American society. Thus, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is unquestionably the most admired, honored and respected human being who has ever lived.

Martin Luther King, Jr was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. Even though his family was middleclass, he identified with the poor and sought to do what he could to alleviate their suffering. He learned character through hard work and discipline: He spent his summers working on a farm in Connecticutt. Also, his prodigious academic talents got him accepted to Morehouse College when he was only 15. Yet it took until he had attained his PhD when he knew for a certainty what path his life must take.

Thus, it was in Montgomery, Alabama where he was pastoring at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church that fate and destiny met: On November 11, 1955 picking up on the efforts of a lone, black woman, Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr spearheaded an economic boycott that lasted for 11 months. The Montgomery Bus Boycott put that city at an economic standstill; also, it catapulted the young minister into national prominence. But avowed segregationists refused to budge; the deliberate killing of those four, young black girls in Birmingham in '63 follow by Dr. King's arrest on trumped up charges were neither an indicator that the Civil Rights Movement had played out its' better days.

However, it infused the young minister all the more to make sure that social equality would reign supreme in America. Thus, it was in adopting the nonviolent strategies of Mahatma Gandhi that would ensure future progress for black Americans, and an equal society for all.

Finally, standing at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D C, before a crowd of 250,000, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr immortalized the hopes and dreams of all Americans when he gave his 1963 "I have a dream" speech. It was a date that was etched in the American mind for all eternity, never to be forgotten.

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