U.S. Civil Rights Commission Commemorates 41st Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Death

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U.S. Civil Rights Commission Commemorates 41st Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Death
PR Newswire



WASHINGTON, April 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights urged all Americans to reflect on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by recalling the legacy of the civil rights leader on the anniversary of his death 41 years ago tomorrow. On April 4, 1968, Dr. King was shot and killed as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had gone to support black sanitary public works employees who had been on strike for better wages and working conditions. His murder happened the day after his famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" sermon, in which he revealed that he was not afraid to die.

"Dr. King's 1963 leadership of a peaceful demonstration of more than 250,000 people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., is considered by many to be a defining moment of the twentieth century," said Gerald A. Reynolds, Commission Chairman. Only five years later, Dr. King's life was brutally cut short, setting off mourning across the nation. But his assassin's bullet could not extinguish King's vision of a color-blind society and message of equality before the law and dignity for all persons, which transcended his death. Because of Dr. King's inspiring leadership, our nation has made extraordinary progress in eradicating discrimination and promoting equal opportunity for all its citizens.

Dr. King was a founder and President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). His strategy of nonviolent resistance in the face of inequity and systemic institutional discrimination led to numerous arrests in the 1950s and 1960s for his civil rights activities. In 1964, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The nation celebrates his birthday as a national holiday every third Monday in January.

"Dr. King voiced the hope that his four children would one day live in a nation where they would be judged not by the color of their skin but the content of their character," Reynolds said. "He inspired us to stand together against discrimination and oppression that had for years limited freedom for many Americans. We reflect on his life and contributions on the 41st anniversary of his untimely death."

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is an independent, bipartisan agency charged with monitoring federal civil rights enforcement. Members include Chairman Gerald A. Reynolds, Vice Chair Abigail Thernstrom, Commissioners Todd Gaziano, Gail Heriot, Peter N. Kirsanow, Arlan D. Melendez, Ashley L. Taylor, Jr., and Michael Yaki. Martin Dannenfelser is the Staff Director. Commission meetings are open to the general public. The Commission's website is http://www.usccr.gov.

SOURCE U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20090403/pl_usnw/u_s__civil_rights_commission_commemorates41st_anniversary_of_dr__martin_luther_king__jr__s_death

http://www.seneweb.com/news/artimages/Martin-Luther-King,-Jr.jpg






















No one can ever take you away from us, Martin.

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1. HUNDREDS ATTEND MLK CELEBRATION IN LITTLE ROCK

HUNDREDS ATTEND MLK CELEBRATION IN LITTLE ROCK

By Deborah Horn/SPECIAL TO THE COMMERCIAL
Friday, April 3, 2009 11:57 PM CDT

LITTLE ROCK — As the three-man R&B group Ment 2B sang the last notes of the Star-Spangled Banner into a microphone set up on the state Capitol’s front steps, the crowd roared.

The Pine Bluff music group was among several organizations to participate in the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission's “MLK Commemorative Vigil: 2009.” The remembrance celebration marked the 41st anniversary of the death of the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.


Many at Friday morning’s celebration expressed that King’s dream of equality had come true at least in part. Approximately 500 attended.

http://www.pbcommercial.com/articles/2009/04/04/news/news4.txt

[midnight]

2. What a true patriot this man is. Sadly there is still so much work

left to do. Thank you Dr. King for teaching us not to remain silent.

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3. Life Web site offers unpublished photographs

Life Web site offers unpublished photographs from hours after Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination
Posted by Associated Press April 02, 2009 9:33 PM

ATLANTA -- Almost 41 years to the day after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, newly published photographs of the aftermath of his shooting at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., are on a magazine's Web site.


About a dozen black-and-white pictures published on www.life.com today include scenes of King's associates meeting solemnly in the civil rights leader's motel room, standing on the balcony where he stood for the last time, and workers cleaning the last of the blood.

They were taken April 4, 1968, by "Life" photographer Henry Groskinsky, who was on assignment in Alabama with writer Mike Silva when they learned that King had been shot in Memphis and rushed to the scene.

To their surprise, they had access not just to the motel but to King's room.

"I was very discreet. I shot just enough to document what was going on. I didn't want to make a nuisance of myself," the 75-year-old Groskinsky said in the caption to a photo showing a group of King's associates, including Andrew Young and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, assembled inside the room.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/04/life_web_site_offers_unpublish.html

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4. Civil Rights Leaders Urge Passage of Employee Free Choice

Arlene Holt Baker
Posted April 2, 2009 | 07:17 PM (EST)

Martin Luther King Jr. often drew the parallels and connections between the civil rights and union movements. Today, on the eve of the anniversary of King's assassination, national civil rights leaders called for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would give workers the choice of how to form a union.

During a telephone press conference, Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), a coalition of some 200 organizations, pointed out that unions have been one of the main vehicles for African Americans to move into the middle class.

The Employee Free Choice Act has been largely written about as a labor bill but those of us in the civil rights community know it is so much more...workers' rights are civil rights; and that the right to organize is a civil and human rights issue of the first magnitude.

From generation to generation, by organizing unions, working Americans have turned entire industries and occupations into sources of middle class incomes, secure benefits, and opportunities for upward mobility. This is true for Americans from every background--but especially for African Americans.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arlene-holt/civil-rights-leaders-urge_b_182449.html

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5. New exhibit at Civil Rights Museum honors mediators

April 3, 2009 06:05 PM
New exhibit at Civil Rights Museum honors mediators
Hernando deploys portable defibrillator units

By Nick Kenney - bio | email | Follow us on Twitter

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC-TV) - Saturday marks the 41st anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and people from all over the country are expected to come to Memphis to mark the occasion.

The National Civil Rights Museum and the Department of Justice Community Relations Service unveiled a new exhibit Friday honoring the work of Community Relation Service staff members during the civil rights movement.

One of the staff members honored, Ozell Sutton, was sent to Memphis in April of 1968 to mediate racial tensions between sanitation workers and the city.

Sutton was in his room at the Lorraine Motel the day King was shot and killed.

http://www.wmctv.com/global/story.asp?s=10127782

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6. Equal Time: Bring an end to ‘triple evils’ by abandoning war

Equal Time: Bring an end to ‘triple evils’ by abandoning war

By KEVIN MARTIN and LESLIE CAGAN
Sunday, April 05, 2009

Saturday marked the tragic anniversary of the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., but also the anniversary of his “Beyond Vietnam” speech one year earlier. In that 1967 speech at the historic Riverside Church in New York City, one of the most inspiring anti-war speeches ever delivered, King decried the “triple evils” plaguing our country — “racism, extreme materialism and militarism.”

Were he alive, we believe King would urge President Obama to use his political and rhetorical skills to call on our people to cure these ills still so prevalent in our society. A first step would be ending the U.S. occupation of Iraq and, instead of sending an additional 21,000 troops, begin bringing home the troops in Afghanistan.

And we humbly suspect that King would have been with us Saturday in Manhattan when we and other peace advocates marched to Wall Street to call for an end to war and corporate bailouts and for investing in our communities and human needs, environmental restoration and a green economy for all. Or as King so concisely phrased it, to “rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.”

Most of the people of this country, and around the world, want Obama to succeed. However, his escalation of the war in Afghanistan, as well as the ongoing occupation of Iraq, threaten to make a shambles of his domestic economic agenda, as well as his presidency, as the Vietnam War did to President Lyndon Johnson’s presidency.

http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/04/05/equaled_0405.html

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7. Museum of Tolerance celebrates lives of Chavez, King

Museum of Tolerance celebrates lives of Chavez, King
Posted: 03/31/2009 11:32:31 PM PDT



The Museum of Tolerance celebrated the lives of Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr. on Tuesday, showcasing the work of Los Angeles County students and their teachers who took part in a three-month service learning project in their communities. The program included a keynote address from Maria Elena Chavez, above, the niece of the late civil rights and labor leader.

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_12041895?source=rss

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8. Martin Luther King Jr. has now been dead longer than he lived. But what an extraordinary life it was

Martin Luther King Jr. has now been dead longer than he lived. But what an extraordinary life it was.

At 33, he was pressing the case of civil rights with President John Kennedy. At 34, he galvanized the nation with his "I Have a Dream" speech. At 35, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. At 39, he was assassinated, but he left a legacy of hope and inspiration that continues today.

This Web site, first created by The Seattle Times in 1996, contains the story of a remarkable man, images of a tumultuous time, and perspectives of politicians, academics, students and the many, ordinary citizens whose lives he touched. We invite you to explore it.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/mlk/

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9. National Historic Site

Just past noon on January 15, 1929, a son was born to the Reverend and Mrs. Martin Luther King, Sr., in an upstairs bedroom of 501 Auburn Avenue, in Atlanta, Georgia. It was in these surroundings of home, church (Ebenezer Baptist Church), and neighborhood (Sweet Auburn) that "M.L." experienced family and Christian love, segregation in the days of "Jim Crow" laws, diligence and tolerance.

http://www.nps.gov/malu

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10. The Time 100 Leaders and Revolutionaries

King announces on April 25, 1967, that he would not be a candidate for the president of the United States

http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/king.html

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11. MLK Online Quotations Page

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam.
I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak
for the poor in America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I
speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the
leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.

Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience, 1967.


A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching
spiritual death.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967.


The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not
revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of
futility.

Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience, 1967.


Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and
violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge,
aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Stockholm, Sweden, December 11, 1964.

(more . . .)

http://www.mlkonline.net/quotes.html

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12. King Institute (Stanford): The Drum Major's Instinct

Martin Luther King, Jr.,The Drum Major Instinct, 4 February 1968

King's "Drum Major Instinct" sermon, given on 4 February 1968, was an adaptation of the 1952 homily ‘‘Drum-Major Instincts’’ by J. Wallace Hamilton, a well-known, liberal, white Methodist preacher. King encouraged his congregation to seek greatness, but to do so through service and love. King concluded the sermon by imagining his own funeral, downplaying his famous achievements and emphasizing his heart to do right.

(Video at link)

http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/resources/article/video_the_drum_major_instinct/

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13. Time Magazine Archive Collection: Martin Luther King, Jr.

TIME first wrote about Martin Luther King Jr. in 1956 during the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama: "Said the Rev. Martin Luther King, 27: 'This is not a tension between the Negro and whites. This is only a conflict between justice and injustice.'" Since then King has appeared on four TIME covers, was named Man of the Year for 1963 and numbered among TIME's 100 Persons of the 20th Century.
Here are some excerpts from TIME's coverage of King's lifelong demand for justice and his 1968 assassination:

http://www.time.com/time/archive/collections/0,21428,c_mlk,00.shtml

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14. Life Magazine King Gallery:

http://www.life.com/image/last/in-gallery/24651

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15. kick

[CBR]

16. Thanks for this thread.

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17. My pleasure. There's a bunch of stuff on the net

I'd never even seen or heard before. :hi:

[omega minimo]

18. Kick and Rec, fools! -- erm, friends!!

:yoiks:

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19. LOL! I figured out putting these links together that I don't know if MLK is handsome or not.

No idea at all. I just love his face. Maybe I'll try to find some more pics tonight. :hi:

[omega minimo]

20. his whole persona, the eyes, the voice.... I don't understand the lack of enthios on DU for MLK