Tag Archive for ‘Martin Luther King’
“Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution” –MLK and OWS
On Monday, the nation will celebrate Martin Luther King Day, honoring the birth of the slain civil rights leader. But Dr. King’s life was about more than one speech –or one issue.
Don’t Know Much About the “Negro Riots” in Watts
The recent urban riots in London that spread to other parts of England beg an obvious question: Can it happen in America? Of course, it has already happened in America, more than once
MLK Day-2011
Thinking about Martin Luther King, Jr. –on the eve of his actual birthday on January 15, 1929– I came across the presentation speech given when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. In it, Gunnar Jahn, Chairman of the Nobel Committee, said of Dr, King: He is the first person in the Western [...]
Today In History: Don’t Ride the Bus
Fifty-five years ago, on December 1, 1955, an African-American seamstress would not budge. And all America shook. At the top of my short list of alternative national holidays, I would propose December 1st as Rosa Parks Day. History is taught as the record of presidents, kings and generals. But sometimes it is the extraordinary story [...]
Today in History: Murder in Mississippi
Did Mississippi Burning really happen? On June 21, 1964, three young civil rights workers were murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Their bodies were discovered a few weeks later. Here’s is the original New York Times story about the crime: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0621.html#article If Hollywood gets its way, the civil rights movement was saved when Gene Hackman and Willem [...]
Ordering Coffee Changes the World
Never underestimate the power of four teenagers.
Fifty years ago, a deliberate act of disobedience by four college kids shook America.
Don’t Know Much About the Birmingham Bombings
September 15, like September 11, deserves to be remembered. On this day in 1963, a murderous bombing took the lives of innocent Americans –four children. The terrorist bombers were also Americans –members of the Ku Klux Klan. In recording the bombing 20 years later, Howell Raines once wrote, In the mindlessness of its evil, the [...]
TODAY IN HISTORY: “Dream Day”
I know there is a Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, honoring the civil rights leader on his birthday. But maybe that honor should have been set on this date instead. On August 28, 1963, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the “I Have a Dream Speech” to a crowd of more than 200,000 people [...]
