More than a hundred years after slavery…a black person’s holiday

One hundred years after slavery ended, legal segregation was challenged in the United States. It has not ended racism, however it got us a step closer to equality of the races. Here is a look at Martin Luther King Jr.

From Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner

Today, after many racist white people hung on kicking and screaming, we have a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

Since the 1980s Martin Luther King Day has been a federal holiday. In some states it goes back even further. King, who was born Jan. 15, 1929, was killed at age 39.

In his short life, he is known mainly for leading civil rights unrest that lead to complete integration of the United States. Separate but equal are gone. So are the lynchings that lasted clear up to 1968 and usually targeted black people.

King and his people defied mad dogs and fire hoses by the police to struggle for an end to segregation in the South US. Today the country is fully integrated. There is still racism in the US, but it is no longer legal.

King was more than just a US symbol. He met with Mohandas Gandhi (मोहनदास करमचंद गांधी). He and Gandhi held many of the same beliefs including the use of non-violence for social change. He also met with Kwame Nkrumah, the one time leader of Ghana and a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and was the winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1963.

He was originally criticized by Malcolm X and other black leaders who considered him too white or didn’t like his non-violent opposition. Malcolm X later reached out to him and was willing to work with him. Some never did, but King is known world wide as an important leader of both integration of races and an advocate of non-violence.

 King

 Nkrumah

Gandhi