MARTIN LUTHER KING


Martin Luther King was born on January 15th 1929 in the city of Atlanta, in the South of the United States. His parents were rich. His father couldn't accept injustice. He thought that black and black man were equal. And so did Martin LK.
One day, Martin was only a little boy, and was going to buy new shoes with his father. In those days, about 1935, the merchants had separate places for black and white people in their shops. Martins father sat down on a chair for whites. But he was a black man! He was asked to go to the back of the shop. Martins father did as if he didn't understand the question. He said: I have already find a chair. Then he was asked to leave, but before he leaved, he said: I'll never accept this. Martin LK was very impressed of his words.



When Martin was a little boy, he red a lot and he thought religion was interesting. He studied for vicar. But actually he wanted to become more than a vicar; he wanted to let people realize, how unfair black people were treated.
When he finished his study in the year 1955, when he was 26 years old. He became a vicar in Montgomery, that's in the State Alabama. His wife Coretta Scott actually wanted to move away from the South, but Martin thought it was his obligation to stay, in order to help the black people and give them a better future.

The motive for the first big action of MLK was an event of a black woman, ms Parks. Once, she was sitting down in a bus, after a day of shopping. In that time it was normal that black people gave up their places for whites. But mrs. Parks didn't.
The police came and she had to pay a fine of 10 dollar. The black people protested. They thought that it was unfair. The blacks , and among them MLK, called a meeting, and they made plans for a protest. As a result, the next monday, december 5th 1955 there were only a few black people in the busses and trains. The transport companies lost hereby a lot of money.
The whites were very angry about that and they marched into the quarters of the black people and damaged their belongings. MartinLK went to the police to protest, but he was arrested. This action was meant to be tot be held for 24 hours, but eventually it has been a action of a year.

In october 1956, a year after the action had begun, the supreme court decided to abolish the racial segregation in coaches. This made MLK very famous, because many black Americans saw MLK as the man whose victory this was.


Martin preached to use no force. Once he spoke in Chicago, and he said that a peaceful man not only refuses to kill his opponent, he also refuses to hate him. These words were new for the Americans. They were brought up, with the idea: if you are hitten, you hit back!
But Martin Luther King didn't believe that. He wrote various books about his ideas, for example : Why we can't wait, The force of love and The revolution without violence.


Martin made a lot of trips abroad. The mayor of Berlin, Willy Brandt, invited him to speak for a huge crowd, Pope Paul 4th welcomed him in the |Vatican in Rome. In the year 1965 he was in Amsterdam, where he got a special title, because of the admiration of the people for his work. He became doctor in the Social sciences.


His trip to India was also of great inportance. In India, Mahatma Gandhi helped the local people to stand up against the English without violence. Gandhi was killed on january 30th 1948.

Martin Luthers most famous march was the March to Washington. Martin Luther was the leader of that march, on august 28th 1963. He asked men and women, black and whites to join him. There were more than 250 000 man, of which 60 000 were whites.

They gathered at the monument of president Lincolm. It was there Martin speeched about having a dream. He told about a dream, in which all people were equal. This is Martins most famous speech.

There were critics as well. The whites did not want their students to be present at his speeches. There was also critics from the black people, who wanted to use force. But martin hold on to his ideas of non-violent resistance.

At the year 1964, when martin was 35 years old, he won the Nobelprice for peace. He was the youngest one that was nominated ever.

More then once there was an attack on Martin.
On april 4th 1968 he was killed by a pistolshot. The murderer was a white man. He was buried in Atlanta.
The words on his gravestone are: Free at last.Free at last.Thanks god almighty I am free at last. In het nederlands: eindelijk vrij. Eindelijk vrij. Dank u almachtige god, eindelijk ben ik vrij.`