The King Center
Today is Martin Luther King Day, a US holiday which celebrates the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr - leader of the American civil rights movement, political activist and at 35 the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner.
He was assassinated in 1968 and his remains are now held at the King Center, located just beside his childhood home. The white rectangle within a circle is Dr. King’s tomb, where there is also an eternal flame.
Probably the greatest speech of all time, Dr. King’s “I have a dream” was made to 200,000 demonstrators outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Links: The Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site and Martin Luther King Jr (Wikipedia).
Thanks: Trina
MARTIN LUTHER KING, WOO! Seriously, he’s probably the best thing to come out of America since, like, the steam engine.
I dunno if I would call the “I Have A Dream” speech the best speech ever, though. It’s up there, but King himself has written some better speeches. For example, at Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965:
“I know you are asking today, “How long will it take?”…I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because “truth crushed to earth will rise again.” How long? Not long, because “no lie can live forever.” How long? Not long, because “you shall reap what you sow.” How long? Not long.”
YES, SUH! I also like how he spoke out against the Vietnam War:
“We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and the suffering poor in Vietnam. … I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and dealt death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken.”
PS I’m just kidding about the steam engine; calm down, ya Brits.
This is REALLY Robert E. Lee Day in Alabama!!!
I’ve visited the King Center (I’m a Brit). It’s in a quite scary area of Atlanta, and I had to walk miles from the tube (MARTA), or perhaps I was just young and stupid, but it’s a very impressive site.
Uh, JFTR: Tim, the steam engine did not come our of america.
The national civil rights museum in memphis, TN is where King was killed.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
It was a hotel when he was killed there. The museum is very impressive documenting everything from slaves dying for equal rights to the greensboro sit-ins to the recent marches on washington d.c. For all that are interested in Dr. King’s life and the civil rights struggle in america, this museum is a must see
Um, yeah, Fleudeu, that’s supposed to be the joke.
Just a little wider angle on that would reveal a fascinating (to me) detail: Ebenezer Baptist Church, the new sanctuary built across the street to replace the crumbling (but still extant) original Ebenezer next to the burial site, was sited so that you can look out its front window directly to the burial site.
Placemark: Here’s the link in Google Maps / Google Earth
Dear Anybody,
Hey, does anyone know what’s up with the King Center website? Their main website is awfully flawed, and has been so for quite some time. Their latest annual progress report as published on the website is for 2001-2002, and a great many of their links are dead. I tried writing their information and webmaster emails, and both were returned. I then tried writing their donations email, and it was not returned, but it was never answered.
I know Coretta Scott King, the King Center founder, died in 2006, and at least two of their children were supposed to be on the Board of Directors of the King Center, so somebody real should be taking better care of their website. But they aren’t.
They have more than a dozen dead links and several dead email addresse also. This is not good. Help them, somebody, please. I tried to, and couldn’t.
Sincerely,
Karen Peralta
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kcp