製作：賴亦歆老師
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Jan 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968
Timeline
Opposition to the
Vietnam war
Montgomery
Bus Boycott
MLK Jr. Day
Segregation
1861~1865
the American
Civil War
1929
1954 1955
1963
1967 1968
Early life &
Education
Assassination
Pastor King
March to Washington
1986
Segregation Laws
Confederate Flag
Largely because of Plessy vs. Ferguson, racial segregation
prevailed in the South from the 1890's until the 1950's.
Segregation Laws
Confederate Flag
Under segregation, laws kept blacks and whites apart.
They were not allowed to
attend the same schools or churches,
eat in the same restaurants,
drink from the same water fountains,
or even use the same restaurants.
The Ku Klux Klan, a supposedly secret society dedicated
to maintaining white supremacy in America, regularly
committed acts of terrorism throughout 20th century. Their
masks, hooded robes, and terrifying symbol—a burning
cross—were among many devices used to frighten anyone
who favored integration or spoke out against the abuse of
black people’s rights.
One terrorism practiced by whites to assert
their authority over blacks was lynching—
racially motivated execution without a trial.
The victim was typically a black person who
had been accused (but not found guilty) of an
offense, or one who had angered whites by
asserting his/her own individuality. Torture
was often inflicted before killing. Some white
townspeople treat lynching as entertainment.
The power of the segregation system was
evident in the fact that white murderers were
almost never convicted. Historians believe
that more than 10,000 black Americans died
this way between the Civil War and civil
rights movement.
Martin’s Childhood
Michael Luther King, Jr. was born on January
15, 1929, to a school teacher, Alberta King,
and a Baptist minister, Rev. Michael Luther
King, Sr. in Atlanta, Georgia. His father later
changed both their names to Martin Luther
King.
Martin and his big
sister Christine.
Education
In 19444, King entered Morehouse College at age fifteen without
formally graduating from high school. In 1948, he graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology, and enrolled in Crozer
Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, from which he
graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1951. In 1955, he
received a Doctorate of Philosophy in Systematic Theology from
Boston University.
Influenced by Gandhi
…Nonviolent Disobedience
Dr. King & his wife Coretta
In the Crozer Theological Seminary, King heard a preach on the
life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. He began to study
Gandhi seriously.
Pastor King
King began his ministry
in 1954 as the pastor of
Dexter Avenue Baptist
Church in Montgomery,
Alabama.
Rosa Parks—
The Voice of Montgomery in 1955
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat
on the bus to a white - she was arrested.
•
The NAACP, with the
help of Rev. Ralph
Abernathy and Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.,
organized a bus boycott
in Montgomery, which
lasted 381 days.
Listen to Dr. King and Ralph
Abernathy discuss the importance
of the boycott (1:53)
• Black economic power:
Without black riders,
white-owned bus
companies were pushed
to the brink of
bankruptcy.
The Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
from left, at a press conference.
The success of the boycott demanded
inconvenience and complications in the
lives of Montgomery blacks. Getting to
work by foot, by thumb (hitchhikers),
and by car pool, through a hot summer
and a rainy winter, thousands made a
daily commitment not to take the bus.
One day, MLK saw an old woman
called Mother Pollard walking slowly
down the road,. “Aren’t your feet tired?”
Martin asked her.
“Yes,” said Mother Pollard. “My feets is
tired, but my soul is rested.” She meant
that she knew she was doing the right
thing.
An empty bus passed by during the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Dr. King was Arrested
For travelling 30 mph in a 25 mph zone
• Police started harassing the car pool, threatening to
arrest drivers, revoke their licenses, and cancel their
insurance policies.
• On January 26, King was arrested for speeding and
taken to jail. A few days later, his house was bombed.
It wasn’t long before King was receiving dozens of hate
letters and threatening phone calls every day.
• In February, an all-white grand jury indicted 89 people,
including 24 ministers and all drivers in the car pool,
for violating an obscure anti-labor law that prohibited
boycotts. King was the first to be tried. The judge
found him guilty and sentenced him a year of hard
labor or a fine of $500 plus court costs.
MLK Jr. was photographed by
Alabama cops following his
February 1956 arrest during the
Montgomery bus boycott. The
historic mug shot, taken when
King was 27, was discovered in
July 2004 by a deputy cleaning
out a Montgomery County
Sheriff's Department storage
room. It is unclear when the
notations 'DEAD' and '4-4-68'
were written on the picture.
A hard-won battle
• In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses
was unconstitutional, sealing the success of the boycott.
• Therefore, the Montgomery bus company agreed to integrate
their buses and hire black bus drivers.
Dr. King &
Rev. Ralph Abernathy
riding a bus on the first
day for desegregated
buses
in Montgomery,
Dr. King
and his wife,
Alabama.
Coretta, at the
(December
1956)
conclusion21,
of the
boycott.
March for Civil Rights
March on Washington in 1963
Opposition to the Vietnam War
During the
Vietnam War,
King began to rethink
his mission and
turned his focus from
racial discrimination
to problems of
poverty and
economic injustice.
King expressed his disenchantment with
President Johnson’s Vietnam policies.
Lorraine Hotel
Memphis, Tennessee
April 4, 1968, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated.
MLK’s Last March
MLK Day is Signed Into Law
President Ronald Reagan signs a law making MLK day,
the 3rd Monday of January, near the time of King’s birthday.
Martin Luther King Jr. vs. Malcolm X
I Have A Dream Today
Every man must decide whether he will walk in
the light of creative altruism or the darkness of
destructive selfishness. This is the judgment.
Life's most persistent and urgent question is:
What are you doing for others?
-- Martin L. King
"Violence as a way of achieving racial
justice is both impractical and
immoral. It is impractical because it is
a descending spiral ending in
destruction for all. The old law of an
eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.
It is immoral because it seeks to
humiliate the opponent rather than
win his understanding; it seeks to
annihilate rather than to convert.
Violence is immoral because it thrives
on hatred rather than love. It destroys
community and makes brotherhood
impossible. It leaves society in
monologue rather than dialogue.
Violence ends by defeating itself. It
creates bitterness in the survivors and
brutality in the destroyers."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"I think there are plenty of good
people in America, but there
are also plenty of bad people in
America and the bad ones are
the ones who seem to have all
the power and be in these
positions to block things that
you and I need. Because this is
the situation, you and I have to
preserve the right to do what is
necessary to bring an end to
that situation, and it doesn't
mean that I advocate violence,
but at the same time I am not
against using violence in selfdefense. I don't even call it
violence when it's self-defense,
I call it intelligence."
Malcolm X
Nonviolent Resistance
“…this is not a method for cowards; it does
resist. The nonviolent resister is…nonaggressive in the
sense that he is not physically aggressive toward his
opponent. But his mind and emotions are always
active, constantly seeking to persuade the opponent
that he is mistaken. This method is passive
physically…but spiritually it is dynamically aggressive…
This great weapon, which we first tried out in
Montgomery in the bus boycott…has become
instrumental in the greatest mass-action crusade for
freedom that has occurred in America since the
Revolutionary War.”
Nonviolent Resistance
“It was routine for us to collect hundreds of
knives from our own ranks before the demonstrations,
in case of momentary weakness….There were lots of
provocations, not only the screaming white
hoodlums(無賴) lining the sidewalks, but also groups of
Negro militants talking about guerrilla warfare. We had
some gang leaders and members marching with us. I
remember walking with the Blackstone Rangers while
bottles were flying from the sidelines, and I saw their
noses being broken and blood flowing from their
wounds; and I saw them continue and not retaliate(報
復), not one of them, with violence.”