MLK remembered

Martin Luther King remembered
Monday, 19 January 2009 12:08

Barack Obama is today paying homage to slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King as he vows to revive the spirit of sacrifice to overcome war and economic crisis during his upcoming presidency.

As Americans celebrate Martin Luther King, the US President elect planned to spend the day highlighting community service.

39-year-old Dr King was shot dead at around 6pm as he stood on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, while trying to mediate a strike on 4 April 1968.

Dr King was hit by one bullet and died in hospital, triggering race riots in dozens of US cities.

Last year on the 40th anniversary of his death, Dr King’s son, Martin Luther King III, and civil rights campaigner Reverend Al Sharpton led a recommitment march through the city, highlighting Dr King’s ideals of social justice.

On the eve of the anniversary, leaders of the US Senate and House of Representatives paid tribute to Dr King’s memory in a series of speeches on Capitol Hill.

Nobel prize winner

Born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr King was a Baptist minister who became a civil rights activist early in his career.

He led the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56 after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, and his work led to the 1963 march on Washington, where he delivered his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech on August 28, 1963.

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