Free at last!
Birthday of
Martin Luther King
January 15
Martin Luther King, Jr., was a famous American civil rights leader. A
Baptist minister, he was stoned and put in jail for practicing what he
preached.
Dr. King preached that people must learn to live together. He preached
that people should not judge others by the color of their skin. He
preached that violence is bad.
In 1964, he and his family traveled to Norway. He was at that time the
youngest person ever to receive one of the highest of honors—the Nobel
Peace Prize.
Four years later, on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was shot and
killed by a hidden rifleman. Lyndon Johnson, the President of the United
States, declared a national day of mourning. At Dr. King’s funeral, the
casket was placed on an open farm wagon. A team of mules pulled the
wagon through the streets of Atlanta, Georgia, where Dr. King was born
in 1929.
Carved on Martin Luther King’s gravestone are words from a spiritual,
similar to the words Dr. King used in a speech he made in Washington,
D.C., in 1963. More than two hundred thousand people had gathered at the
Lincoln Memorial to show their belief that all people have the same
rights.
Speaking to the huge crowd, Martin Luther King said, “Free at last! Free
at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
