Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Monument

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Monument. January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968. , (front) , Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. King, a Baptist minister and civil rights activist, had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States beginning in the mid-1950’s. Among his many efforts, King headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference through his activism and inspirational speeches, he played a pivotal role in ending the legal segregation of African American citizens in the United States, as well as the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1965. King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, among several other honors. He was assassinated in April, 1968, and he continues to be remembered as one of the most influential and inspirational African American leaders in the history of the United States. , , (right side) , A National Legacy , “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final say in reality. Right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.” Nobel Peace Prize Speech, December 10, 1964., “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Letter from Birmingham Jail April 16, 1963, “We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. So, I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord". “I’ve been to the mountain top” April 3, 1968 , (left side) , Emancipation Day Address , Savannah, Georgia January 2, 1961 , "Now I urge you today in Savannah, I urge our fellow voters of Georgia all over the South, all over, the United States to go out with a determined effort to achieve the ballot.” “we must go our now and remind America that we want to be free. We are not making excessive demands, we just want to be free.”, “…in order to gain freedom there must be a willingness to suffer and sacrifice. And I think there are too many among us who want the fruits of integration, but who are not willing to go through the sacrifice necessary to challenge the roots of segregation.”, “I am convinced my friends, that the problem we face down here in the South is not only tension between black men and white men. That isn't it. It is the tension between justice and injustice.” , Excerpts Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , Savannah Municipal Auditorium , Courtesy of the Georgia Historical Society, (rear) , "So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee Let freedom ring from every hill, and every molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, when we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city we will be able to speed up 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! Great God a-mighty, we are free at last!” , Martin Luther King Jr , "I Have a Dream Speech" , August 28th 1963