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<table align="right"><tr><td align=center>]<br>''King speaking at the DC Civil Rights March.''</td></tr></table> | |||
The Reverend Dr. '''Martin Luther King Jr.''' (], ] - ], ]) was a ] minister and ] ] activist. | |||
He organized and led marches for the right to vote, ], fair hiring, and other basic civil rights. Most of these rights were successfully enacted into ] law with the passage of the ] and the ]. He is perhaps most famous for his "]" speech, given in front of the ] during the ] March on ]. | |||
King graduated from ] with a B. A. degree in ] and from ] with a B.D. in ]. He received his PhD from ] in ]. | |||
In ], Martin Luther King Jr. became the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in ]. He was a leader of the 1955 ], which began when ] refused to cede her seat to a white person. Dr. King was arrested during this campaign, which ended with a ] decision outlawing segregation on intrastate buses. | |||
Following the campaign, King was instrumental in the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, a group created to organise Civil Rights activism. He continued to dominate the organisation to his death, a position criticised by the more radical and democratic Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The SCLC derived its membership principally from black communities associated with Baptist churches. King was an adherent of the philosophies of nonviolent ] used successfully in ] by ], and he applied this philosophy to the protests organised by the SCLC. King correctly identified that organised, non-violent protest against the racist system of Southern separation known as ], when violently attacked by racist authorities and covered extensively by the media, would create a wave of pro-Civil Rights public opinion, and this was the key relationship which brought Civil Rights to the forefront of American politics in the early 1960s. King and the SCLC applied the principles of nonviolent protest with astonishing success by choosing the method of protest, and the places in which protests were carried out, in order to provoke the harshest and most shocking retaliation from racist authorities. King and the SCLC were instrumental in the unsuccessful protest movement in Albany in 1961-2, where splits within the black community and the canny, low-key response by local government defeated the movement, in the Birmingham protests in the summer of 1963, and in the protest in Augustine, Florida in 1964. King and SCLC joined SNCC in the city of ] in December 1964; SNCC had already been there working on voter registration for a number of months. | |||
King and SCLC, in partial collaboration with SNCC, then attempted to organise a march which was intended to go from Selma to the state capital ] starting on ], ]. The first attempt to march, on ], was aborted due to mob and police violence against the demonstrators. The day has since become known as ]. Bloody Sunday was a major turning point in the effort to gain public support for the Civil Rights movement, the clearest demonstration so far of the dramatic potential of King's techniques of nonviolence. King, however, was not present; after meeting with President ], he had attempted to delay the march until March 8, and the march was carried out against his wishes and without his presence by local civil rights workers. The footage of the police brutality against the protestors was broadcast extensively across the nation, and aroused a national sense of public outrage. | |||
The second attempt at the march, on March 9, was ended when King stopped the march at the Pettus bridge on the outskirts of Selma, an action which he seems to have negotiated with city leaders beforehand. This unexpected action aroused the surprise and anger of many within the local movement. The march finally went ahead fully on March 25, with the agreement and support of President Johnson, and it was during this march that ] coined the phrase "]". | |||
King was instrumental in the organisation of the March on Washington in 1963. This role was another which courted controversy, as King was one of the key figures who helped President ] change the intent of the march. Conceived as a further part of the Civil Rights protest, it became more of a celebration of the achievements of the movement - and the government - so far, a development which angered activists who were more radical than King. | |||
King wrote and spoke frequently, drawing on his long experience as a preacher. His "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", written in 1963, is a passionate statement of his crusade for justice. | |||
In ], King won the ]. Starting in 1965, King began to express doubts about the United States' role in the ]. In February and again in April of 1967, King spoke out strongly against the US's role in the war. In 1968, King and the SCLC organized the "Poor People's Campaign" to address issues of economic justice. The campaign culminated in a march on Washington, D.C. demanding economic aid to the poorest communities of the United States. | |||
King was assassinated before the march on ], ], in a ] hotel room, while preparing to lead a local march in support of the heavily-black Memphis sanitation workers' union. ] confessed to the shooting and was convicted, though he later recanted his confession. ], King's widow and also a civil rights leader, along with the rest of King's family won a wrongful death ] against ], who claimed to have received $100,000 to arrange King's assassination. | |||
In 1986, a U.S. national ] was established in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., which is called ]. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year, around the time of King's birthday. On ], ], for the first time, Martin Luther King Day was officially observed in all 50 ]. | |||
== King and the FBI == | |||
King had a mutually antagonistic relationship with the ] (FBI), especially its director, ]. The FBI began tracking King and the SCLC in 1961. Its investigations were largely superficial, howerver, until 1962, when it learned that one of King's most trusted advisers was Stanley Levison, a man whom the bureau suspected of involvement with the ]. The bureau placed wiretaps on Levison and King's home and office phones, and bugged King's rooms in hotel rooms as he traveled across the country. The bureau also informed then-Attorney General ] and then-President ], both of whom unsuccessfully tried to persuade King to dissociate himself from Levison. | |||
Later, the focus of the bureau's investigations changed from King's relationship with Levison to "discrediting" King through revelations regarding his private life. The bureau distributed reports regarding King's extramarital sexual affairs to the executive branch, friendly reporters, potential coalition partners and funding sources of the SCLC, and King's family. The Bureau also sent anonymous letters to King threatening to reveal information if he didn't cease his civil rights work. Finally, the Bureau's investigation shifted away from King's personal life to intelligence and ] work on the direction of the SCLC and the "racial" movement. | |||
== Views on anti-Zionism == | == Views on anti-Zionism == |
Revision as of 09:07, 3 April 2003
Views on anti-Zionism
- ".. You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely 'anti-Zionist.' And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews - this is God's own truth. Anti-Semitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind....And what is anti-Zionist? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the Globe....The anti-Semite rejoices at any opportunity to vent his malice. The times have made it unpopular, in the West, to proclaim openly a hatred of the Jews. This being the case, the anti-Semite must constantly seek new forms and forums for his poison. How he must revel in the new masquerade! He does not hate the Jews, he is just 'anti-Zionist'! ...Let my words echo in the depths of your soul: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews - make no mistake about it."
Although, the basic message of the above "quote" was indeed, without question, spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr. in a 1968 appearance at Harvard, where he said: "When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews, You are talking anti-Semitism." , Dr. King's purported "Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend," quoted above, appears to be a hoax, according to the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), a media-monitoring, research and membership organization devoted to promoting accurate and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East. The CAMERA communique , while exposing the "letter" as a hoax nonetheless persuasively articulates that Dr. King strongly condemned anti-Semitism and unequivocally supported the right of the Jewish People to self-determination, the basic tenet of Zionism.
Additional Quotes
- Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
See also race, racism, racial segregation, discrimination
Reference
- The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr., David Garrow, Penguin Books: New York, New York, 1981. ISBN 0140064869
External link
- the e-text of I Have A Dream, Martin Luther King