[6:51] A Brief Biography of Martin Luther King Jr.: The Nonviolent Journey of a Dreamer

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Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. by Ted Gottfried. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. told the rally that spring night in Memphis, Tennessee. But I'm not concerned about that now. His face glowed as if lit by an inner fire. I have been to the mountaintop, and I've looked over, and I have seen the promised land. His deep voice swelled. I may not get there with you. It was as if he knew. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.

In the spring of 1963, he was in Birmingham, Alabama, leading a struggle for jobs for blacks and for African Americans to be served at quietly only lunch counters. When the police turned vicious dogs and fire hoses on the protesters, they were seen on TV screens all over the country. There was outrage. It grew when the police arrested King along with many children shown being beaten as they were dragged off to jail.

In his cell, King wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail. He pointed out that there was a duty to obey just laws. But there was also a duty not to obey unjust laws. He quoted the Roman Catholic St. Augustine: An unjust law is no law at all. He added that peaceful protest was needed because we know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given. It must be demanded.

Letter from Birmingham Jail drew wide attention. Civil rights leaders agreed that there should be a protest march on Washington, D.C. to demand a federal law that would end the role of blacks as second-class citizens. They named Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. the main speaker at the rally to follow. And so it was that 250,000 people gathered under the hot August sun in front of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 to hear him.

"I have a dream," he told the quiet crowd, straining to hear his words, that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners, will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. "I have a dream." He went on that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

He ended by praying for that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty we are free at last."

On the afternoon of April 4 at the Lorraine Motel, he held a meeting to discuss ways to ensure that the upcoming march would stay nonviolent. A Memphis district court judge, fearing trouble, had forbidden it to take place. But by mid-afternoon Andrew Young arrived to say that the judge's mind had been changed and the march could go forward.

This was good news. Dr. King grabbed Andrew Young and the two of them wrestled, laughing. Then he went to his room to dress for dinner. At six o'clock he walked out onto the Motel balcony. He was standing there alone when the fatal bullet struck him.

Dr. King was thirty-eight years old, had won the Nobel Prize, and was the most famous civil rights leader in the world. He had many followers. But an increasing number of people who shared his goals had turned away from his methods. He was admired and criticized, loved and hated. As he had preached nonviolence and now violence had taken his life.

"I have a dream." The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. had said on that greatest of days in Washington in 1963. "I have a dream." And now, not five years later, Dr. King was dead. But his dream was not. His dream lives on. His dream will never die.

The above is the content about Episode 11 of Season 2: A Brief Biography of Martin Luther King Jr., compiled by Qicaiwang. We hope it has been helpful to you!