Social Studies Spark #43: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today, January 18th of 2021, is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Celebrated on the third Monday in January, Martin Luther King Day is a national holiday that honors the United States’ most famous civil-rights activist.

King was an influential civil rights leader – best known for his work on racial equality and ending racial segregation in the United States. His life and achievements are remembered and celebrated on this day.

Dr. King’s peaceful struggle against racial discrimination came to national attention in 1955, when he led a boycott protesting laws that required blacks and whites to sit in separate sections on buses. In 1956 the Supreme Court declared such laws unconstitutional.

In 1963, King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech before a quarter million people during the peaceful March on Washington, D.C. The next year he became the youngest man, at 35, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He continued fighting for civil rights and against poverty until an assassin’s bullet ended his life on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Lorraine Motel, in Memphis, Tennessee, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, is now the National Civil Rights Museum.

Click on the video below to take a virtual tour of this museum. In the comments please state how you can honor Dr. King on this day. What small act of kindness can you share?

 

 

 

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