Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am helping my son (4th grader) finish his report on Martin Luther King Jr. for Black History Month. I knew that Dr. King was a great man, but after going through his life with my son, I myself have learned a lot more about the man from our research.

You can view the timeline from his life by clicking here: Martin Luther King, Jr. TIMELINE. He was arrested several times as he fought for civil rights; Lunch counter sit-ins began in Greensboro, North Carolina. In Atlanta, King is arrested during a sit-in waiting to be served at a restaurant. In 1960 he was sentenced to four months in jail, but after intervention by John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, he was released. It is easy to take for granted what Dr. King did for civil rights, from joing the bus boycott in Montgomery, AL to lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, NC to his many speeches he gave during his life. Dr. King once said-

Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase.

Dr. King was a man of great faith, he lived what he spoke and preached. No, he didn't see the whole staircase, he didn't need to, he just knew it was there; a staircase that he would have used in his "I've been to the Mountaintop speech"
To this day we are taking up his battle, still step by step, it has been a long, slow battle and the top of the staircase is getting closer and closer.

I am glad my son picked Dr. King as his topic for his report, I learned a lot and my son did also. I will try never to take for granted what any man has done in his lifetime, especially when that lifetime is cut tragically short because of his strong convictions to make right what is obviously wrong.