Happy MLK Day!

For those of you living in the US, today happens to be Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and this offers a chance to reflect on how precious or own freedoms and rights happen to be.  If your lucky enough such as myself, you may even have the day off to reflect on these topics.

With that in mind, it also makes sense to learn a little more about this famous and important character in American history.

First, check out the Wikipedia article.

Next, here are some additional interesting facts I found.

1.) King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama when he was twenty-five years old in 1954.

2.) Inspired by Gandhi’s success with non-violent activism, King visited Gandhi’s birthplace in India in 1959. The trip to India affected King in a profound way, deepening his understanding of non-violent resistance and his commitment to America’s struggle for civil rights.

3.) King was also said to be influenced by Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Mays, Hosea Williams, Bayard Rustin, Henry David Thoreau, Howard Thurman and Leo Tolstoy.

4.) King’s “I Have a Dream” speech electrified the crowd. It is regarded, along with Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Infamy Speech, as one of the finest speeches in the history of American oratory. Link

5.) King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10,1964.

6.) King’s autopsy revealed that although he was only thirty-nine years old, he had the heart of a sixty-year-old man, perhaps a result of the stress of thirteen years in the civil rights movement.

However you decide to enjoy your day today, know what the purpose of today represents, and that the ideas of freedom and equality are important to all.

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