Name _____________________
Class___________
KING
America is essentially a dream. It is a dream of a land where men of all races, of all nationalities,
and of all creeds can live together as brothers. The substances of the dream is expressed in these
profound words... " We hold these _________________________ to be self evident, that all
men are created ____________________________."
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA (1955)
1. In September of 1955, a weary _____________________________________________ decided that she
would rather go to jail, than give up her seat on the bus.
2. How old was King when he got involved with the Montgomery bus boycott? ___________________
3. What form of protest did King adopt from Gandhi? __________________________________________
Geo question: Which country did Gandhi help to liberate India from? ___________________________
4. What happened to King during the bus boycott? ____________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________.
5. MLK Jr. was one of the first black men to appear on the cover of _______________________________
6. His journey began on… January _____________ , 19 _________ (What is his birthday?)
7. MLK Jr. went to ______ College (in Atlanta.)
a. Harvard
c. St. John’s
b. Moorehouse
d. Georgetown
8. Which historic figure did MLK Jr. begin to read and study while in college? ____________________
9. Who did King meet in 1952?
a. The President
b. Rosa Parks
c. His wife.
d. Jackie Robinson.
10. Where did King and his new wife move to, to become a pastor?
a. Montgomery, AL
b. Atlanta, GA
b. New Orleans, LA
d. Birmingham, AL
11. What happened to King while attending his own book signing in Harlem? ____________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
The 1960s
12. In February, black college students in Nashville and other southern cities staged
“________________________” at whites only lunch counters.
13. In the spring of 1961, idealistic Whites and Blacks from all over the country decided to challenge
segregation laws by riding through the deep South together. The young volunteers came to be
known as ________________________________________.
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA (1963)
14. In 1963 Birmingham, Alabama was known as “______________________________.”
15. What new form of media did King and his followers use to help his spread the word of his cause?
___________________________________________
16. Dr. King and his followers choose to lead a march on which day? ____________________________
Taken from an open letter, written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King, Jr while in jail, referred to as
The Letter from Birmingham Jail.
Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dart of segregation to say,
"Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and
drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick
and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty
million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent
society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to
explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has
just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that
Funtown is closed to colored children.
When you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the
uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are
humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first
name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last
name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs.";
when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living
constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner
fears and outer resentments; when you go forever fighting a degenerating sense of
"nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to “Wait.”
17. Who was President of the U.S. at this time? ________________________________________________
18. President ________________________________________ (speaking) - “Race has no place in American
_____________________________ or ____________________________.”
He could call out the state militia. He could call out the National Guard... and kill hundreds &
hundreds of innocent people... and argue that they are inciting a riot. They know how to handle
violence, but they proved over and over again that they don't know how to handle non-violence.
MARCH ON WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 28th, 1963)
1. The focus of the March on Washington was to encourage _____________________________ to pass
Civil Rights legislation.
2. An estimated _________________________________ marchers attended the March on Washington.
Taken from Martin Luther King’s famous I Have A Dream speech, given on Aug. 28th, 1963:
No we are not satisfied! And we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water; and
righteousness like a mighty stream.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a
dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
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. - I have a dream!
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow 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!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, Birmingham (September 15th, 1963)
a. Who was killed and how old were they?_____________________________________________
b. Who sadly gave the eulogy at the funerals? __________________________________________
c. Why did this bombing especially sadden King so? ____________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
Kennedy Assassination (November 22nd, 1963)
a. King feared that if they can kill a president, then _____________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
b. Who became president after Kennedy? ______________________________________________
c. Was President Johnson for, or against Civil Rights? ___________________________________
Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere.
Yes, we shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
d. Dr. King was awarded the 1964 ____________________________________ Prize at the age of _________.
The March From Selma to Montgomery, Alabama - March, 1965
1. The purpose of the march was to encourage federal support for black ___________________ rights.
1. What were King and his friends concerned about while marching to Montgomery, Alabama?
_________________________________________________________________________
2. King’s first attempt to march to from Selma to Montgomery, AL was met with __________________
3. King made a deal with ___________________________________________ to cut the 2nd march short.
4. What words did President Lyndon Johnson use during his nationally televised civil rights address
to the nation that inspired King to continue his march to Selma? _______________________________
5. How many people followed King in his march to Selma? __________________________________
6. How many days was the march? _________________________________
7. The march was just over _______________ miles.
8. How many people ended up in Montgomery by the end of the march?
____________ thousand.
Chicago - July, 1966
1. King moved into an apartment building in _____________________________________________
Memphis, Tennessee (April, 1968)
Taken from his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" address at Mason Temple, the world headquarters of the
Church of God in Christ, delivered on April 3, 1968.
We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't really matter to me now, because I've
been to the mountaintop. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place.
But I'm not concerned about that now. I just wanna do God's will. And he's allowed me to go
up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I have seen the Promise Land! I may not get
there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promise
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!"
9. Why was King in Memphis? ____________________________________________________________
10. Who shot King? _______________________________________________________________________
11. What was the name of the motel where King was slain? _____________________________________
Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty; I'm Free at Last!
- Inscribed on the tombstone of Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 -1968)
Other MLK Quotes
2. It is trite but urgently true, that if America is to remain a____________ class nation, she
can no longer have ______________ class citizens.
3. ...it is the love of God operating in the human heart. And when one rises to love on this
level he ___________________ men not because he likes them, but he loves every man
because __________________ loves them.
4. He loves the persons, but _____________________ the evil deed
5. This is the way we will get out of this dark night of oppression. And make of this nation a
better nation.
Allow the opposition to know that we will not accept ___________________________.
We will never stoop down to the level of ____________________________ and hatred.