The Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr
When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said “I have a dream,” we all nodded and shouted sharing our feelings because his dream was the same as all those who lived under oppression. When he appealed to our nation, “We cannot walk alone,” many other people came along and merged with the black marching protestors. When he rang a bell of freedom from Washington D.C., on the step of the Lincoln Memorial, though in front of a limited number of protestors, it echoed throughout the country. Therefore, all of the world’s good conscience minds heard and responded to the report of the bell.
Before this inspiring speech was delivered to some 250,000 people in Washington Square on one hot summer day. He underwent a great many trying ordeals. He was compelled to accept unbearable mockeries. He walked on the path of humility, he had to learn what was meant by indignity.
In the mid-fifties: after Mrs. Rosa Parks’ refusal to yield her seat to the demanding whites as a protest against Montgomery’s unjust Segregation Policy. Dr. King’s participation in the Bus Boycott Rally proved the oneness of African-Americans, and showed the feelings of the oppressed ones. When he was elected leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association, was threatened and his home was terrorized by ruthless mobs, he advised angry protestors with words of love. He said, “We must learn to meet hate with love,” and sent them home without enacting violence.
In the early sixties: in Birmingham, Dr. King was attacked by a vicious police dog, but he did not stop his protest. He was mercilessly beaten with a baton, but he did not bend his will. He was grassed with teargas shells, but he did not withdraw his belief. He was thrown in jail, but he did not surrender. He consistently protested with passive resistance against violent oppression.
April 4, 1968, though, he was assassinated, he saw the Promised Land from the top of a mountain, and therefore, he proclaimed “I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man.”
He was a man really worth of admiration, one of the twentieth century’s greatest figures. He is the man who stands both legs spread wide on the banks of the river named the current of blacks today. One foot on the distasteful past and another foot on the promised future gazing a yonder horizon with a dream no one can destroy, as Colossus once stood astride the harbor mouth of Rhodes.
Copyright © Su Ben | Year Posted 2015
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