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=Martin Luther King Jr.=


 * Eleonore's Profile** | **Scroll Down the Page for Sydney's Profile**

My friends, today I have come to speak of some of the most challenging issues facing our nation. We all know of these problems, and we have felt some of them every day.

Firstly, I will speak of a problem I believe is a terrible mistake: The Vietnam War. We are sending citizens of this great country that have not been granted the rights they have earned, the rights they deserve, to fight for the rights of the people of another country. This is wrong. Our government cannot force those it does not respect in its laws to fight for it. It is unjust that our black soldiers die with our white soldiers and they cannot both sit together in a restaurant. This war also fights against the American poor. The United States government spends almost ten thousand times as many dollars on killing an enemy soldier as an impoverished American. One cannot sit in silence and not speak out against this war that has left the Poverty Program in shambles, has decimated the small steps our country had taken to healing those wounds of impoverishment. But as one speaks out against this war, retaliation from those who must support it comes back double. There was a time when acting upon your beliefs against the greater power was admired—this was the time when our nation was founded. Do not think me disloyal. Do not think that I do not love my country. Unquestioning loyalty in times of crisis is not what we as the people of the United States of America should bind ourselves to. A patriot should not be weighed by how blindly he follows his leaders, but by how far he will go to challenge his leaders.

I will now speak of something vitally important to the Civil Rights Movement. We have come so far and yet we have so far to go. But I know we will make it there, to the other side, because we are doing God’s will and He will help us cross this battlefield as he helped Moses and his people cross the Red Sea. So fear not, my brothers, for He is with this movement, and it is our faith in His power that will get us through these times of fear and pain and injustice—together, we will break the shackles that bind us and equality will rain down and we will be free.

But today, I have not come here to speak to you of just the freedom of the African American. I have come to speak of this movement. This movement that has fought the most difficult of battles—battles in a war for justice, and for peace—in the darkest of nights—a night smothered by hatred and dimmed with prejudice—against the mightiest of opponents—our brothers and sisters. Today, I come to speak to you of them. It is not enough to simply fight those who chain us, it is not enough to protest peacefully and rebel non-violently. While key to this revolution and necessary for true change, we must go a step further. We must move even deeper into God’s message and we must love our enemies. The true weapon we wield in this dark, difficult battle is love. Many of our white brothers are blinded. They are blinded with the darkness of hate and arrogance, with the thorns of intolerance and the blades of prejudice. I know many of you know this blindness, have seen it and felt its cruelty. However, there is one thing many have not done, one thing we can achieve together. Together, we can heal this blindness. Together, we will all join hands with our white brothers, and in that moment, when we all realize that liberation of standing next to another being created by our Lord and loving them, only then, will that rain of equality fall upon our heads and wash away that blindness. So I must ask you, each and every one, white and black; I must ask you, stand together as a family and love one another as God intended. We must have the courage to come together so we can see together—see the other side of the battlefield, the promised land that lays just over that mountain—and only then can we truly call ourselves God’s children, when we have stood together in the rain with our family and helped them to see. Only then will we see, and only then will we be free.

** Sydney’s Profile **
**__ Opening Statement __** **People are people no matter what color their skin is, there is no difference. So, why are we segregated? It says in the constitution (the 14th amendment) that “ ** No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”  **So why can the white men do so much more than the black and are not at all treated as equals. When Rosa Parks didn’t want to get up to give the white man her seat she got sent to jail, now if a black man or women ever did that they would probably get shot. We need to resolve this issue; we need to make everyman and ever woman equal no matter what the color of their skin. Also, this war that we are facing ** needs to be stopped, we are using up all of our precious resources toward people that don’t even want us there, while back here at home there are many poor people that need the money much more than South Vietnam. Therefore I am here today to try to peaceful persuade you to try to make thing equal, “all for one and one for all”, and to stop this very unnecessary war that we are in right now.

** Birth ** He was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia.

** Vietnam War  ** Martin Luther King was all but for the war. He first started with his “Beyond Vietnam” speech where he criticized the United States saying that we just wanted it for the land and power and how we had better things to spend money on. He thought that it took the American’s money and resources that could be used to help solve the issue of poverty. He took part in many anti-war rallies, was one of the leaders of them, and he also gave speeches in effort to spread anti-war efforts.

** Montgomery **** Bus Boycott ** The Boycott took place in Montgomery, Alabama in the year 1955. It all started when Rosa Parks wouldn’t move back a row for a white man. This started a movement. Martin Luther King wanted a “dividing line” for the buses, so that if there were not enough seats in the white sections then they would have to stand and the blacks would not have to give up their seats to them. It was passed. But the blacks were not convinced; they still didn’t want to ride to buses. So Martin Luther King held a meeting to see if they would still support the protest, but they didn’t want to ride buses, so they decided they would carpool. There started to be black taxi drivers that would charge the price of the bus, but the government didn’t like that so they stopped sending buses to black communities. The white people got angry and started to get violent. They bombed Martin Luther King’s house. Then he was sent to prison and spent two weeks there. But, in the end the government decided that the Alabama segregation laws for buses were unconstitutional and took the restrictions off of the buses, so that blacks and whites could mix on the bus.

** Southern Christian Leadership Conference  ** Martin Luther King was president of the SCLC. The main purpose of the conference was to further the civil rights movement under the values of the Christian religion. It was first started after the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and was first named the Negro Leadership Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration. The focus of the conference was education and voter registration. The March on Washington was one of the main things that they did along with the Freedom Rides and the sit-ins.

** Nobel Peace Prize  ** Martin Luther King was the youngest person to ever receive a Nobel Peace Prize, at the young age of 35. He won for his extensive purpose and life’s work to end the separation of black and white and for both to be equal on all aspects, without using violence. He also received prize money of the value of 54,123 dollars, but he put it all towards the civil rights movement.

** March on Washington  ** August 28, 1963 would bring Martin Luther King to a heavenly figure. In Washington D.C., he gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. The main purpose of the speech was to try to make black and white equal. The speech would go down in history as “ a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement”. The march itself had 200,000 police and over 300,000 supporters. But not all of the supporters were black 20 percent of them were white. There were over “2,000 buses, 21 special trains, 10 chartered airliners”, and many many cars. And even Bob Dylan performed songs. The march as a whole was credited with helping create the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the National Voting Rights Act of 1965.

** The Poor People’s Campaign  ** The Poor People’s March was a product of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It started on December 4, 1968. They created this march because of the black rioting that took place in the summer of 1967 and in about 180 cities. Some of the main goals of the movement were to get economic equality and not to use violence, to “fight” with a non violent army. Martin Luther King was one of the main leaders of the march, he said, "Find a way to put pressure on them”. He wanted the movement to be powerful and appealing to everyone. He wanted to make a difference. So he headed the Memphis strike to help sanitation workers that were on strike. But while there things got bad, and he was assassinated.

** Assassination  ** Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel, in Memphis while he was standing on the second floor balcony.