Property of Henry Robert Burke

Photo by Anne T. Burke

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, GA and died on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN. Dr. King was one of the main leaders of the modern American Civil Rights Movement. A Baptist minister by training, Dr. King became a civil rights activist early in his career, leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott and helping to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, raising public consciousness of the civil rights movement and establishing King as one of the greatest orators in American history.

In 1964, Dr. King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.

Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1977.

Dr. Martin Luther King Day was established as a national holiday in the United States in 1986. In 2004, Dr. King was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.

Birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King

Why do we need a Civil Rights Movement for African American people living in the United States.

I am sure that some of our brilliant scholars have figured out the answer to this question, but they have not been able to explain their findings in a way that educates common people. Here are some facts that may help show the meaning of Dr. Martin Luther King Day.

IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES and THE UNITED STATES 1607-1865 – Millions of African Americans were enslaved in a (legal) system called Chattel Slavery.

•The enslavement of Africans and African Americans was legal in every English Colony in North America for their duration from 1619 until after the American Revolutionary began1776.

• After the America Revolutionary War ended in 1776, the enslavement of African Americans remained legal in States south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

•After legal slavery was Abolished in the United States by the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, another form of slavery called “Share Cropping” was instituted in Southern States and the Jim Crow form of discrimination was set up and operated for one hundred years.

• All the States in the United States had various forms of “Jim Crow Laws” that discriminated against African Americans until 1965, even though the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution, enacted in 1870, was supposed to guarantee the Civil Rights of all American Citizens.

Reconstruction Amendments

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (Amendment XIII) officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery, plus (with limited exceptions, such as those convicted of a crime), prohibits involuntary servitude. Secretary of State William Seward issued a statement verifying the ratification of the 13th Amendment on December 18, 1865.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (Amendment XIV) is one of the post-Civil War amendments intended to secure rights for former slaves. It includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses among others. It was proposed on June 13, 1866, and ratified on July 9, 1868

The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (Amendment XV) provides that governments in the United States may not prevent a citizen from voting based on that citizen's race, color, or previous condition of servitude (i.e. slavery). It was ratified on February 3, 1870. But it was not until the Voting Rights Act in 1965, almost a century later, that the full promise of the fifteenth amendment was actually achieved in all states.

Dismantling early Civil Rights Laws

Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875, legislation introduced by Charles Sumner and Benjamin F. Butler in 1870, and passed March 1, 1875. It guaranteed that everyone, regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, was entitled to the same treatment in "public accommodations" (inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement).In 1883, the Supreme Court restricted the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to actions by state and local government. It ruled Congress could not control private persons or corporations. After Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875, it did not pass another civil rights law until 1957.

In 1890, Louisiana passed a law requiring separate accommodations for colored and white passengers on railroads. Louisiana law distinguished between "white," "black" and "colored" (that is, people of mixed white and black ancestry). The law already had provided that blacks could not ride with white people, but colored people could ride with whites prior to 1890. A group of concerned black, colored and white citizens in New Orleans formed an association dedicated to the repeal of that law. They persuaded Homer Plessy, a "Negro" of fair complexion, to test it. In 1892, Plessy purchased a first-class ticket from New Orleans on the . Once he had boarded the train, he informed the train conductor of his racial lineage and took a seat in the whites-only car. He was directed to leave that car and sit instead in the "coloreds only" car. Plessy refused and was immediately arrested. The Citizens Committee of New Orleans fought the case all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. They lost in 1896, and Plessy v. Ferguson resulted in 58 more years of legal discrimination against black and colored people in the United States.

When black soldiers returning from World War II refused to put up with segregation, the movement for Civil Rights was renewed. In 1953 the NAACP Legal Defense Committee (a group independent of the NAACP), and its lawyer Thurgood Marshal brought the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka before the Supreme Court. In 1954, the court unanimously overturned the 1896 Plessy decision in its ruling; Thurgood Marshall later became the first black Supreme Court Justice.

Example of segregation in

West Virginia SchoolsFrom 1864 to 1957

"White and colored persons shall not be taught in the same school." This point-blank requirement for segregated schools was proclaimed in West Virginia's State Constitution as Article XII, Section 8.In a persistence of segregationist attitudes extending to the highest levels of state government, numerous attempts to remove this article from West Virginia’s Constitution were defeated in the state legislature until it was finally repealed on Nov 8, 1994.

During the Reconstruction period, 1865-76, federal law provided civil rights protection for former slaves. Reconstruction ended by 1877, and was followed in each Southern state by Southern Redeemer governments that passed “Jim Crow laws” to separate the races. Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted in Southern and border states of the United States and enforced between 1876 and 1965. The Jim Crow period refers to the time during which this practice occurred. During the Progressive Era these restrictions were formalized, and segregation was extended to the federal government by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913.

Jim Crow laws were named for "Jump Jim Crow", a false and derogatory song-and-dance caricature about African Americans.. Jim Crow laws mandated "separate but equal" status for black Americans, but in reality, Jim Crow laws almost always led to inferior accommodations for black Americans compared to those provided for white Americans. The most important Jim Crow laws required that public schools, public places and public transportation have separate buildings, toilets, and restaurants for whites and blacks. (Jim Crow laws were separate from the 1800-66 Black Codes that had restricted Civil Rights for millions of enslaved African Americans.) State-sponsored school segregation was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case. Generally, the remaining Jim Crow laws were overruled by the Voting Rights Act. Thanks to people who thought like Dr. Martin Luther King, no Jim Crow laws were in effect at the end of the 1960s.

A depiction of Thomas D. Rice's "Jim Crow"

Some Events in the Modern Civil Rights Era.  1954 - U.S. Supreme Court held racial segregation of schools violates 14th Amendment.1955 - Alabama bus segregation ordinance held unconstitutional after boycott and NAACP protest.1956 - Massive resistance to Supreme Court desegregation ruling called for by 101 Southern congressmen.1957 - Congress approved first civil rights law for blacks. Governor of Arkansas ordered National Guard troops to prevent nine blacks from entering all-white high school in Little Rock; President Eisenhower sent Federal Military Troops to enforce the court order and the National Guards were removed.1960 - Sit-ins began February 1 when four black college students in Greensboro, N.C., refused to move from a lunch counter after being denied service; by 1961, more than 700,000 students, black and white, had participated in sit-ins.1962 - 3,000 troops were required to quell riots after University of Mississippi accepted first black student.1963 - 200,000 people participated in March on Washington, at which Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.1963 - President John F. Kennedy assassinated in November.1964 - Omnibus civil rights bill barring discrimination in voting, jobs, discrimination, etc.; three civil rights workers reported missing in Mississippi, found buried two months later, 21 white men arrested, seven of whom an all-white federal court jury convicted of conspiracy only.1965 - 34 dead in race riot in Watts area of Los Angeles.1966 - First black U.S. senator in 85 years elected (Edward Brook, R-MA)1967 - Race riots in Newark, N.J., kill 26, injure 1,500, with over 1,000 arrested. Race riots in Detroit killed at least 40, injured 2,000 and left 5,000 homeless; quelled by 4,700 federal paratroopers and 8,000 National Guardsmen. Thurgood Marshall sworn in Oct. 2 as first black justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.1968 – Dr. Martin Luther King assassinated in April. Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in June.

Dr. King is perhaps most famous for his "I Have a Dream" speech, given in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

The Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where Dr. King was assassinated.

From the Gallery of 20th Century Martyrs

at Westminster Abbey

in

London, England.

Left to right:

• Mother Elizabeth of Russia

• Dr. Martin Luther King

• Archbishop Oscar Romero

• Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The struggle continues today, but not only by and for Black people. People of all races are being held in various forms of slavery all around the World. Yes even right here in the United States!

QUESTION: What is a slave?

ANSWER: A slave is a person who is involuntarily owned by and works for another person or group and receives no pay beyond minimum subsistence.

QUESTION: Who are the people enslaved today?

ANSWER: Children, foreign men and women, drug addicts and debt slaves.

QUESTION: Who can become a slave?

ANSWER: Basically anyone can become enslaved when adverse circumstances prevail.

QUESTION: What can I do as an individual?

ANSWER:

• Become educated!

• Stay alert and observe!

• Protect your Rights and the Rights of every American!