DOCSLIB.ORG

VA Foundation for the Humanities | PPY2303043228

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
VA Foundation for the Humanities | PPY2303043228 VA Foundation for the Humanities | PPY2303043228 ED: Everyone knows Spotify is the place to go to stream the latest and greatest in music. But you can now also stream podcasts. JOANNE: It's easy. Open the app on your mobile device or desktop. Click on the Browse channel. Then click on the Podcast section. You can also stream on your smart speaker. They have all your favorites across news, entertainment, sports, and culture. Start streaming now. BRIAN: Major funding for BackStory is provided by an anonymous donor, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the University of Virginia, The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. From Virginia Humanities, this is BackStory. [MUSIC PLAYING] On the 3rd of April, 1968, one of the most controversial political leaders in American history flew into Memphis, Tennessee. He was there to offer his support to a strike, which had just entered its 52nd day. The Sanitation Workers' Strike had become a source of bitter tension between black activists and city officials. It also marked a key stage in the development of Martin Luther King's Poor People's Campaign, intended to culminate with another march on Washington, DC. MICHAEL HONEY: The work was very physical at the time. They'd ride on the back of these sanitation trucks. They'd go out in people's yards, pick up tubs full of maggots and garbage, and carry it on their heads, take it to the back of a truck, and push it up to a higher level. And someone else would pick it up and throw it in a waste bin in the truck. BRIAN: That's Michael Honey, author of The Promised Land-- Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice. MICHAEL HONEY: The people who did this kind of work that I'm describing were all African American. There were about 1,300 of them. The supervisors were almost all white. The truck drivers were mostly white. I think some black. But the people who did the pick-up work and so forth were all black. And it was considered not something a white worker would ever do. BRIAN: What did King say to these sanitation workers that night? MICHAEL HONEY: There were a lot of painful things that had already happened. So two workers were killed in the back of a sanitation truck because of faulty equipment. The workers went on strike. When they held a demonstration downtown, the police attacked them with mace. By the time King got there, it was six weeks into this, and the black ministers and churches had joined hands with the black workers. And it's one of the few times in the South where you see white trade union people joining with black workers in a situation that's as much about civil rights as it is about labor rights. People were also hungry and their families were going hungry. They didn't have a strike fund. So when King got there, the magic of King was his ability to take a local situation that was quite pragmatic and even mundane, and then amplifying that into a campaign for human rights, and explaining to the people in that situation the full meaning of what they were doing. And one of the phrases from that great speech is "all labor has dignity." And he was able without notes, without really being briefed on the situation to just understand right away what this was all about, and put it in language that workers and the middle class, the preachers and the teachers and the students, would understand. [MUSIC - JAHZZAR, "WELCOME"] JEANNE Part of why we have this mistaken assumption that King only turns to economic justice in the THEOHARIS: last year of his life is in part because of the way that the media often covered Dr. King. BRIAN: Jeanne Theoharis is the author of A More Beautiful and Terrible History-- The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History. JEANNE I think we have to remember how relentlessly King is attacked for being a communist, how THEOHARIS: much sort of the federal government surveils the Kings in part because-- and using the justification that he is potentially affiliated with communists. And so I think we have to contextualize that reluctance in the climate that constantly questioned sort of King as a possible subversive, as a possible extremist, as a possible communist sympathizer. We can't forget the climate and the ways that King's push for racial justice, social justice is constantly being attacked and maligned as subversive, as potentially communist or anti-American. THOMAS The Poor People's Campaign was kind of go-for-broke strategy that King initiated namely in JACKSON: response to summer after summer of urban rioting and the election of a conservative Congress in 1966 that was pulling back on commitments to the war on poverty. BRIAN: Thomas Jackson is the author of From Civil Rights to Human Rights-- Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Struggle for Economic Justice. THOMAS Well, the point was to bring about 3,000 poor people to Washington, DC, to camp to make JACKSON: their conditions visible and to engage in massive civil disobedience on a scale that it had not been engaged in before. By 1967, King sees that you really need to give poor people hope, and you need to galvanize a movement that would have as much of a shock impact as a major riot. So he is talking about what he called dislocating the functions of a city, trying to shut, as they had in Birmingham, that was probably what he had most in mind, those days, seven days where business just came to a halt in Birmingham because of the mass protests and arrests. So that's the scale of things. It's very different from anything he had contemplated earlier. BRIAN: Now we think of King today as really a unifying figure. Yet during the Poor People's Campaign, a liberal newspaper like The New York Times called it a "formula for discord." Can you give us a sense of the opposition to King's Poor People's Campaign? THOMAS You can see it in a disinformation campaign coordinated by the FBI. You can see it in news JACKSON: editorials. You see it in a flood of panicked letters from ordinary Americans. King in February had enlisted the promise of Stokely Carmichael and the Washington, DC, Black United Front that they would support a nonviolent march. But prominent newspapers-- as you suggest, New York Times, Washington Post-- doubted that anything other than violence could occur. The FBI put editorials in local newspapers. Here's a quote. "Reverend King is more dangerous than Stokely Carmichael because of his nonviolent masquerade. He continues to talk nonviolence even as it erupts all around him." So if you look at these letters to Lyndon Johnson, in the Johnson Library one man from Kirtland, Ohio writes, "If you do nothing as in the past to stop the King, then you may as well set the torch to Washington, DC, yourself. Please stop them before it's too late." A woman writes from Temple, Texas, quote, "Just pouring millions of our tax money into projects to help the Negroes won't prevent their rioting since the cause is not poverty of the Negro but communist plans to weaken, divide, and destroy our country." King's PhD dissertation advisor picks up on this, L. Howard DeWolf, and he writes, "Dr. King, nonviolent protests would probably lead to disorder and lawlessness, and possibly a fascist- type revolution under military leaders which might put the country under the direct rule of the military industrial complex, ending civil liberties and civil rights and precipitating World War III." This is one of his lifetime liberal supporters picking up on a kind of panic. The great irony is that it was not the Poor People's march that fomented riots. It was the King assassination. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hate is a dangerous force, and it is an injurious force, because it engines the object of hate as well as the subject of hate. It injures the hater as well as the hated. And it's very interesting that many of the psychiatrists are saying to us now that the strange things that happen in the subconscience and many of the inner conflicts are rooted in hate. And this is why many are saying, love a parish. FEMALE Today on BackStory, the legacy of Martin Luther King on the 50th anniversary of his death. SPEAKER: MALE SPEAKER: King spent most of April 4, 1968, resting. Though he did not know it, the plane which had carried King from Atlanta to Memphis had been subject to a bomb threat which came in the form of a phone call to Eastern Airlines. At 5 o'clock that day, King began gathering the staff of his Southern Christian Leadership Conference to visit the home of the Reverend Billy Kyles. FEMALE Unbeknownst to King and his staff, a drifter had checked into a flophouse across the road SPEAKER: under the false name of Eric Gault. James Earl Ray had bought a .30-06 Remington Gamemaster rifle while passing through Birmingham, Alabama, and a pair of Bushnell binoculars in Memphis. He was watching everyone who arrived and left King's hotel room, room number 306. MALE SPEAKER: By all accounts, King was in a good mood that afternoon. He'd come out on the balcony to say hello to saxophonist Ben Branch. King said, "Ben, make sure you play "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" in the meeting tonight.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Table of Contents
    TABLE OF CONTENTS Mission Statement ........................................................................................ 2 Board of Trustees/ ........................................................................................ 3 Officers of the Community College District Compliance Statement ................................................................................. 4 History of City Colleges of Chicago .............................................................. 5 Map of Campuses ........................................................................................ 6 Campus Information ............................................................................. 7 – 14 Students Services............................................................................... 15 – 22 Programs of Study ............................................................................ 23 – 148 Other Programs of Study ................................................................ 149 – 166 Course Descriptions ....................................................................... 167 – 312 index ............................................................................................... 313 – 323 MISSION STATEMENT The City Colleges of Chicago delivers exceptional learning opportunities and educational services for diverse student populations in Chicago. We enhance knowledge, understanding, skills, collaboration, community service and life-long learning by providing a broad range of quality, affordable courses, programs, and services
    [Show full text]
  • How Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'S Birthday Became a Holiday
    How Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday became a holiday The fight to make Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a holiday took 32 years, a lot of campaigning, and guest appearances including Stevie Wonder, Ted Kennedy, and the National Football League. Officially, Dr. King’s birthday was approved as a federal holiday in 1983. By 2000, all 50 states recognized the King birthday as a government holiday. It wasn’t an easy task for holiday supporters, who had to push hard in Congress to get the federal holiday created. A second battle took place to get individual states to also recognize the holiday, with often emotional disagreements. Representative John Conyers introduced the first motion to make Dr. King’s birthday a federal holiday in 1968, just four days after Dr. King’s assassination in Memphis. It took another 11 years to the federal holiday to come up for a vote on the House of Representative’s floor in 1979. The bill needed a two-thirds majority to pass, but it fell five votes short with a 252-133 count. The holiday’s supporters regrouped and intensified their efforts. Musician Stevie Wonder helped in 1981 by releasing the song “Happy Birthday” to promote the holiday. Holiday supporters organized a march on Washington that included an estimated 500,000 people. Coretta Scott King, along with Stevie Wonder, presented a petition signed by 6 million people to House leader Tip O’Neill. The House took up the bill in 1983 and it passed by 53 votes. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill in November 1983.
    [Show full text]
  • Martin Luther King Jr
    Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who The Reverend became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the American civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. King Martin Luther King Jr. advanced civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, inspired by his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. He was the son of early civil rights activist Martin Luther King Sr. King participated in and led marches for blacks' right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other basic civil rights.[1] King led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and later became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As president of the SCLC, he led the unsuccessful Albany Movement in Albany, Georgia, and helped organize some of the nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama. 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. The SCLC put into practice the tactics of nonviolent protest with some success by strategically choosing the methods and places in which protests were carried out. There were several dramatic stand-offs with segregationist authorities, who sometimes turned violent.[2] FBI King in 1964 Director J. Edgar Hoover considered King a radical and made him an 1st President of the Southern Christian object of the FBI's COINTELPRO from 1963, forward. FBI agents investigated him for possible communist ties, recorded his extramarital Leadership Conference affairs and reported on them to government officials, and, in 1964, In office mailed King a threatening anonymous letter, which he interpreted as an attempt to make him commit suicide.[3] January 10, 1957 – April 4, 1968 On October 14, 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating Preceded by Position established racial inequality through nonviolent resistance.
    [Show full text]
  • Making Martin Luther King Jr. Day “Local”: the African American Struggle for Inclusion in Hawaiian Society ࣁ࣡࢖࡛ࡢ࢟ࣥࢢࢹ࣮ᕞ⚃᪥໬̿̿࢔ࣇࣜ࢝⣔ ఫẸࡢࣁ࣡࢖♫఍࡬ࡢෆໟ࡬ྥࡅ࡚
    Yumi Saito Making Martin Luther King Jr. Day “Local”: The African American Struggle for Inclusion in Hawaiian Society ࣁ࣡࢖࡛ࡢ࢟ࣥࢢࢹ࣮ᕞ⚃᪥໬̿̿࢔ࣇࣜ࢝⣔ ఫẸࡢࣁ࣡࢖♫఍࡬ࡢෆໟ࡬ྥࡅ࡚ Yumi Saito* ࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉ SUMMARY IN JAPANESE: ᮏ✏ࡣබẸᶒ㐠ືࡢ୺せ࡞ᣦᑟ ⪅࡛࠶ࡿ Martin Luther King Jr. ࡢ⏕ㄌࢆグᛕࡋ࡚ 1986 ᖺ࡟㐃 㑥࡛ࣞ࣋ࣝไᐃࡉࢀࡓ⚃᪥ࠊMartin Luther King Jr. Day ࢟ࣥ ࢢࢹ࣮ ࡟↔Ⅼࢆᙜ࡚ࡿࠋ 1986 ᖺ࡟ࣁ࣡࢖ᕞࡣ࢟ࣥࢢࢹ࣮ ࢆᕞ⚃᪥࡜ࡋ࡚ไᐃࡋ࡞࠿ࡗࡓࡢ࡛ࠊ࢔ࣇࣜ࢝⣔࢔࣓ࣜ࢝ே ࢆ୰ᚰ࡜ࡍࡿ࢟ࣥࢢࢹ࣮᥎㐍ὴࡢఫẸࡣࠊᕞ⚃᪥໬ᐇ⌧ࡢࡓ ࡵ࡟ࣟࣅ࣮άືࢆ⾜࠸ࠊᙼࡽᙼዪࡽࡢ㐠ືࡢ࠾࠿ࡆ࡛ࣁ࣡࢖ ᕞ࡛ࡶ 1989 ᖺ࡟ไᐃࡉࢀࡿ࡟⮳ࡗࡓࠋᮏ✏࡛ࡣࣁ࣡࢖࡛ࡢ ࢟ࣥࢢࢹ࣮ࡢᕞ⚃᪥໬ࢆࡵࡄࡿ 2 ᖺ༙ࡢ㆟ㄽࢆ⪃ᐹࡋࠊࣁ࣡ ࢖࡟ఫࡴ࢔ࣇࣜ࢝⣔ࢥ࣑ࣗࢽࢸ࢕ࡢ୺య໬ࢆⓑே࣭㯮ே࡜࠸ ࠺஧㡯ᑐ❧ⓗ࡞ே✀㛵ಀ࡛ࡣ࡞ࡃࠊࣁ࣡࢖ࡢఫẸෆ࡛ࡢࠕ࣮ࣟ ࢝ࣝ㸭㠀࣮ࣟ࢝ࣝࠖ࡜࠸࠺༊ศ࠿ࡽศᯒࡋࠊ࢔ࣇࣜ࢝⣔࢔࣓ ࣜ࢝ேࡢ⤒㦂ࢆ᫂ࡽ࠿࡟ࡍࡿࡇ࡜ࠊࡲࡓࣁ࣡࢖ࡢࠕே✀ࡢ⼥ ྜࠖ࢖࣓࣮ࢪࢆᢈุⓗ࡟ㄽࡌࡿࡇ࡜ࢆ┠ⓗ࡜ࡋ࡚࠸ࡿࠋ 㰻⸨ ♸ᐇࠉ Doctoral Student of the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. 31 Making Martin Luther King Jr. Day “Local”: The African American Struggle for Inclusion in Hawaiian Society Introduction This study examines the historical politics that led to the recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day (hereinafter MLK Day) in Hawai‘i by bringing new attention to the experiences of African Americans in Hawai‘i. MLK Day is a federal holiday that celebrates the birth of Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most well-known leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States. It has been celebrated on the third Monday in January as an offi cially recognized federal holiday since 1986. Federal recognition in this case did not translate into nationwide adoption of the holiday; instead, Congress provided each state with the option of adopting it as a state holiday.
    [Show full text]
  • The Contemporary Rhetoric About Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X in the Post-Reagan Era
    ABSTRACT THE CONTEMPORARY RHETORIC ABOUT MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., AND MALCOLM X IN THE POST-REAGAN ERA by Cedric Dewayne Burrows This thesis explores the rhetoric about Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X in the late 1980s and early 1990s, specifically looking at how King is transformed into a messiah figure while Malcolm X is transformed into a figure suitable for the hip-hop generation. Among the works included in this analysis are the young adult biographies Martin Luther King: Civil Rights Leader and Malcolm X: Militant Black Leader, Episode 4 of Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads, and Spike Lee’s 1992 film Malcolm X. THE CONTEMPORARY RHETORIC ABOUT MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., AND MALCOLM X IN THE POST-REAGAN ERA A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of English by Cedric Dewayne Burrows Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2005 Advisor_____________________ Morris Young Reader_____________________ Cynthia Leweicki-Wison Reader_____________________ Cheryl L. Johnson © Cedric D. Burrows 2005 Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One A Dead Man’s Dream: Martin Luther King’s Representation as a 10 Messiah and Prophet Figure in the Black American’s of Achievement Series and Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads Chapter Two Do the Right Thing by Any Means Necessary: The Revival of Malcolm X 24 in the Reagan-Bush Era Conclusion 39 iii THE CONTEMPORARY RHETORIC ABOUT MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., AND MALCOLM X IN THE POST-REAGAN ERA Introduction “What was Martin Luther King known for?” asked Mrs.
    [Show full text]
  • Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Program
    DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. COMMEMORATIVE PROGRAM MLK50 FORWARD Together We Win With Love For Humanity January 25, 2018, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Mistress of Ceremonies Ann Augustyn Principal Deputy Director Office of Economic Impact and Diversity National Anthem Virginia Union University Choir Virginia Union University Welcome Remarks Dan Brouillette Deputy Secretary, Department of Energy Introduction of Dan Brouillette Keynote Speaker Deputy Secretary, Department of Energy Keynote Speaker Dr. Alveda King Alveda King Ministries Musical Performance Virginia Union University Choir Virginia Union University Video MLK50: Reflections from the Mountaintop Video Closing Remarks Patricia Zarate Acting Deputy Director Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING (James Weldon Johnson, 1871 – 1938) Lift ev’ry voice and sing, Till Earth and Heaven ring. Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise, High as the list’ning skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won. Stony the road we trod, Bitter the chast’ning rod, Felt in the day that hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat, Have not our weary feet, Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come, over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out from the gloomy past, Here now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
    [Show full text]
  • Mission Statement Goals
    City Colleges of Chicago Martin Cabrera Jr., Chairman Cheryl L. Hyman, Chancellor 226 West Jackson Chicago, IL 60606 (312) 553-2510 MISSION STATEMENT Through our seven colleges, we deliver exceptional learning opportunities and educational services for diverse student populations in Chicago. We enhance knowledge, understanding, skills, collaboration, community service and life-long learning by providing a broad range of quality, affordable courses, programs, and services to prepare students for success in a technologically advanced and increasingly interdependent global society. We work to eliminate barriers to employment and to address and overcome inequality of access and graduation in higher education. • Drastically improve outcomes for students requiring The City Colleges is governed by a Board of Trustees of remediation. • seven members; Seven appointed by the Mayor of the Increase the number and share of ABE/GED/ESL City of Chicago and one non-voting student Trustee. students who advance to and succeed in college- level courses. GOALS To achieve these goals, CCC has launched a highly- In November 2010, Mayor Daley and City Colleges of collaborative, multi-staged process, involving CCC faculty, Chicago (CCC) launched a top-to-bottom reinvention of the 99-year old community college system, focused on the staff, and students and external advisory councils. These goal of ensuring that CCC students have the skills that teams will develop and then implement solutions in eight make them ready to compete for the jobs of the 21st key areas of CCC’s educational and operational practices century and are better prepared to enter four-year that require improvement in order to ensure students are universities.
    [Show full text]
  • The Martin Luther King We Remember
    RECONSIDERATIONS The Martin Luther King we remember ADAM WOLFSON A day committed to the honor of Dr. Martin Luther King is a day committed to the celebration and honor of the American Constitution and those who believed in it and lived by it. --Daniel Patrick Moynihan IT now seems like ancient history. Forty years ago this summer, Martin Luther King, Jr., stood at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial and deliv- ered his "I Have a Dream" oration. Jim Crow still reigned supreme, the country was seething with racial tensions, and it was not yet clear whether the federal government would act. Into this morass stepped King, who pointed a way toward racial equality and national unity. Twenty years later, in 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed leg- islation naming a federal holiday for King. But despite the holiday and the passage of time, King's significance remains a point of contention. Do we really know what we are celebrating on the third Monday of every January? During the congressional debates in 1983 over the pro- 39 40 THE PUBLIC INTEREST / SUMMER 2003 posed holiday, a strange convergence in opinion occurred between liberals and conservatives. Democrats extolled King for his commitment to "social justice" and "applied equal- ity," and for his condemnation of the war in Vietnam. One Democrat called him "a native Gandhi" while another praised him for giving us "a new understanding of equality and justice." They portrayed him more as a New Age guru than the Baptist preacher that he was. Many Republicans seemed to share this image of King as countercultural rebel, but in turn condemned him for it.
    [Show full text]
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service SERVICE-LEARNING CURRICULUM a Guidebook for Schools, Organizations & Parents
    Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service SERVICE-LEARNING CURRICULUM A Guidebook for Schools, Organizations & Parents Created and Authored by: Davida Hopkins-Parham, Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Academic Affairs, CSUF Jeannie Kim-Han, Acting Director, CSUF Center for Internships & Service-Learning Marcina Riley, Student Assistant, CSUF Center for Internships & Service-Learning Melissa Runcie, Senior Program Coordinator, Orange County AmeriCorps Alliance Julie Stokes, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director of the CSUF African American Resource Center California State University, Fullerton SERVICE-LEARNING CURRICULUM TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Why We Serve 1 Curriculum Guide Overview 1 Suggestions for Making the Curriculum Work For You 2 Quotes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 3 Values and Vocabulary Words 4 Timeline of the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 5 Section I: Historical Sketches Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. 10 Upbringing 14 Ideas and Philosophy 16 Youth Edition: Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. 17 Youth Edition: Childhood and Upbringing 20 Youth Edition: Ideas of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 22 Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 23 Actions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 31 Section II: MLK Learning Toolkit Coloring Worksheets 34 Drawing Activities 37 Writing Activities 39 Comprehension Activities 43 Puzzles and Mazes 78 Discussion Questions 60 Section III: MLK Reflection Toolkit A Few Words About Reflection 61 Facilitating Reflection Activities 61 Reflecting on Service 62 Reflecting on MLK Values 63 Section IV: Resources Bibliography 64 Children’s Books 64 Websites 64 California Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service Grants Program SERVICE-LEARNING CURRICULUM INTRODUCTION Why We Serve On Monday, January 20, 1986, the first national celebration took place in honor of Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Indian Pride January 17Th, 2020
    Volume 10. Issue 19 Indian Pride January 17th, 2020 Minooka Intermediate School Newsletter Inside this Issue: Martin Luther King Jr. Day Martin Luther King Jr. Day PRIDE Arrow Winners/ Staff Celebrations Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist minister and social activist PTO Portillo’s Fundraiser who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid- 1950s until his assassination in 1968. Inspired by advocates of nonviolence 5Essential Survey such as Mahatma Gandhi, King sought equality for African Americans, the MIS Sports Page economically disadvantaged and victims of injustice through peaceful protest. He was the driving force behind watershed events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the March on Washington, which helped bring about such landmark legislation as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the January Events Voting Rights Act of 1965. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 1/17/20- 5 Hour Day: Dismissal and is remembered each year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a U.S. federal around 12:30 PM holiday since 1986. 1/20/20– Martin Luther King Jr. Day: No School Every year, federal facilities, schools, and banks across the country observe 1/23/20– Portillo’s Fundraiser the third Monday in January as a holiday in memory of the life and works of 5:00-8:00 PM Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It took 15 years, millions upon millions of February Events signatures, and the committed efforts of many dedicated people to turn 2/6/20– 5th Grade Band Concert 5:30 PM King’s birthday into a national holiday.
    [Show full text]
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. Day a Day to Serve Others
    Embassy of the United States of America U.S. HOLIDAYS Martin Luther King, Jr. Day A Day To Serve Others In 1965 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (center) led a 50-mile march in Alabama to protest discriminatory voter registration laws. AP Photo artin Luther King Jr. other minorities. King’s work In 1964 Dr. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize once said: “Life’s most caught the attention of the entire for promoting the principle of nonviolence in the civil Mpersistent and urgent world, creating what he called a rights movement. AP Photo question is: ‘What are you doing “coalition of conscience,” which for others?’” Each year, on Martin helped change American society Luther King Jr. Day, Americans and create new U.S. laws protect- attempt to answer that question by ing civil rights. performing community service. King fought for the rights of Born on January 15, 1929, King African Americans in all aspects became a Baptist minister and of American life. For example, devoted his life to ensuring equal he protested laws that required rights for African Americans and blacks to give up their seats to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day whites on public buses. In 1955, he led a boycott of the public bus system in Montgomery, Alabama, that lasted 385 days. It ended with a U.S. district court ruling that ended racial segregation on all Montgomery public buses. And in August 1963, King led hundreds of thousands of civil rights support- ers in a march on Washington. It was at this event that King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered his celebrated I Have a Dream speech in which he said, “I have a dream that one day this President Barack Obama encourages Americans to observe Martin Luther King Jr.
    [Show full text]
  • Celebrate! Act! a Day On…Not a Day Off Martin Luther King Jr
    Remember! Celebrate! Act! A Day On…Not A Day Off Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday January 20, 2014 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important. —Martin Luther King, Jr. 2 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Martin Luther King Jr. was a fundamental force behind the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Still, establishing his January 15th birthday as a national holiday required great persistence. 3 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday 4 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Coretta Scott King led the long-fought campaign to recognize her late husband’s contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. 5 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine motel in Memphis, Tennessee. 6 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Channeling her grief, Coretta Scott King concentrated her energies on continuing her husband's work. Years of planning, fundraising, and lobbying lay ahead, but she would not be deterred, nor did she neglect continuing to fight for the causes her husband had championed. This presentation chronicles the uphill struggle to establish the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. 7 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday April 1968 Coretta Scott King led a silent march of 50,000 people through the streets of Memphis. The next day, she made a televised speech at her husband’s funeral. 8 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday On the same day, Congressman John Conyers introduced the first legislation for establishing Martin Luther King’s birthday as a federal holiday.
    [Show full text]