Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States in
1929. At that time in America, black people didn't have equal rights with white
people. Black people had to sit in the back of busses. The schools were segregated
and there were even separate public restrooms for black people and white people.
Black people's lives were not very good.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a minister in the Baptist Church. He fought against
racial segregation. He wanted equal rights for all people. But he didn't use violence
in his fight. He asked people to fight peacefully. For example, he asked black people to ride in the front of the
bus. More than 200,000 people went to Washington D.C. to listen to him speak and ask the government to
change unfair laws.

Because of Martin Luther King, Jr., many laws began to change in the United States. But many white people
disagreed with him and his ways. In 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated by a white man.

Every year on the third Monday of January, Americans remember Martin Luther King, Jr. They try to
remember how much America has changed. And they think about how much more America should change in
the future.

I have a dream

"I Have a Dream" is a very eloquent speech by Martin Luther King Jr. It is a 17-minute
public speech delivered on August 28, 1963, in which King called for racial equality and an
end to discrimination. The speech, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March
on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights
Movement.

Extract of the speech

Here is an extract of the speech:

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 one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and
the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of
brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the
heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis
of freedom and justice.

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.

I have a dream today!

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