On January 18th, our nation is commemorating one of our most influential and amazing figures, Martin Luther King Jr. His vision is one we continue, as Americans, to live up to and work towards. At Aspire Charter Academy, we would like to honor the great reverend by highlighting a few moments from his life.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15th, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the son of a pastor and a former schoolteacher. King led many famous and influential movements. As the spearhead of the Civil Rights movement, he was the spokesman of the Montgomery bus boycott, which protested racially segregated bus seating.
King was also heavily inspired by nonviolent means of protest and change. Even when he had violent attacks against him and his family, his devotion to peaceful change only grew stronger. Over the course of his life and after, his vision of real productive change through nonviolent methods proved to be true.
In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr., along with other groups, organized the March on Washington, to protest racial injustice and shed light on its evil. It was at this event that he gave his most famous and pivotal “I have a dream” speech. He spoke, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream 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 argued that the founding and liberty of America was an amazing feat, and that African Americans should be included in the American experiment that they were sadly and wrongfully denied. “Let freedom ring!” the revered proclaimed.
From his speech in Washington, D.C. to his letter from the Birmingham jail, Martin Luther King Jr. is a hero of freedom and racial equality. Aspire Charter Academy wishes to honor his vision. For more information, visit https://thekingcenter.org/.
