It's Martin Luther King Day, do you know much about what he did and who he was?

I’ll admit to knowing very little about him. I even grew up in a school system that was mostly black. I know what he stood for and what he did but I would not be able to tell you all much about it. I’m going to read a book on him today in his memory.

The only thing I remember is “I Have a Dream” and that he fought for the rights of black people. Other than that, and without using the internet, I admit I don’t know much about him.

I was at the Lincoln Memorial when he made his “I Have a Dream” speech. I’m happy to join the celebration for his contributions to race relations.

Yar
Not only did he want civil rights through non-violent actions, but he wanted to end racism in general.
That’s what I learned

Yes. He wasn’t for black supremacy or anything. He wanted equality for all humans. He championed the human race.

He was an extraordinary orator, he led the first non-violent march (in Alabama,) he was assassinated in 1968, the same year as RFK.

This probably belongs in the other thread about people’s falls from grace, but he was a bit of a womanizer.

That does not detract from what he did which was give his life to spread the word about racial equality. He had received death threats. He knew the risks, but he carried on.

@Marina Yes, he was! Yes, he was a womanizer, but in his fight for equality, he faced death, and he knew it. (O, wait. You just said that @marina! I must learn to read the WHOLE COMMENT before I start posting!) Anyway, he was a brave, brave man. Once he got stabbed with a letter opener while he was at a book signing. It came within less than an inch of his heart. He stayed amazingly calm. If he hadn’t, it would have killed him. There is a picture of this in Coretta Scott King’s autobiography of him. (That’s a really good book.)

I went to school in the 1970’s when all of this stuff was really new and raw; Martin Luther King Jr. and his crusade were among the topics that were totally ignored (along with the war in Viet Nam, John F. Kennedy’s murder, Watergate, etc.). I knew next to nothing about King until I watched the amazing PBS documentary Eyes on the Prize. My children were taught in school about his movement and his legacy.

@SuperMouse I remember writing in my diary, “The war in Vietnam is over!!!!!....but nobody is cheering or saying anything about it.” With the fuss the protesters made, to just…ignore the fact that it was over?

There is a movie I’ve seen a couple of times. Good movie. True story. It’s about a black preacher in a black baptist church in a southern town in Georgia (I think). He’s really “radical,” really focused on equality for his people. He was just rockin’ the boat, creating “problems” in the community.
The church leaders finally fired him and said, “We’re bringing in new blood. A young man who can be molded to our way of thinking! A man who will continue to do things the way they’ve always been done, the way we want them done!”
The story ends with a shot of the back of the new young preacher shaking the elder’s hands and introducing himself. Last words of the movie were, “Hello. I’m Martin Luther King Jr.” I just rolled the first time I heard it!!

Mods: thank you for removing my answer, at my request.

@YARNLADY That was nice of them!

My Father told me that neither JFK and Martin Luther King Jr. would be so revered had they not been shot. Both had woman problems/addictions (ala Mr Clinton) and personal problems that would have destroyed them had they lived. While they spoke of lofty and admirable ideals their foundations were on shifting sand. That is my understanding of these men, both of whom I admire.