By SAMI MCGUIRE
Student Reporter
Ten Northwestern students were asked what they knew about Martin Luther King Jr., and 10 students didn’t know much.
Many answers included “he said he had a dream’, “he was shot”, “I think he did some march on Washington”, “he wanted to bring black and white people together” and etcetera.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day was Monday. It is held the third Monday of January every year.
King Jr. was primarily an American civil rights leader. He was a Baptist minister and a social activist. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968 by James Earl Ray, a career criminal. Below is a list of facts about Martin Luther King Jr. and why he is so important to America.
1. According to America’s Story on America’s Library, Martin Luther King Jr. was the most important voice of the American civil rights movement.
2. King Jr. was famous for using nonviolent resistance to overcome injustice.
3. His main mission was to end the Jim Crow laws, which were segregation laws.
4. King received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He is the youngest person ever to receive this honor.
5. King gave many speeches besides the “I have a dream speech.”
6. King led the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. It started when Rosa Parks wouldn’t give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger and was arrested.
7. “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” is King Jr.’s final speech. It was given on April 3, 1968. The speech referred to his death and the need to continue the fight after he is gone.
8. He was assassinated while standing on the balcony of his hotel room in Tennessee.
9. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a day honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
10. According to interexchange.org, “It is a day for all people to remember that whatever differences we may have in terms of ethnicity or culture, they can and should be overcome for the benefit of society.”
Next year Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be on January 21, but it is never to late to celebrate this historic man if you didn’t get to on Monday.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that,” Martin Luther King Jr.