05 April 2018 - 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King's Assassination
Rally honors MLK’s legacy, pledges fight to end oppression
Julia Lerner (The Washington Post, 04/04/2018)
On the 50th anniversary of his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy was honored by hundreds in the nation’s capital with a rally to end what participants said was systemic racism in the United States.
Organized by the National Council of the Churches of Christ, the Rally to End Racism drew hundreds to the National Mall for interfaith prayer services for speeches on racial inequality. Though advertised as a non-denominational event, it was predominantly attended by Christians.
“Everything Dr. King dreamed for us is in the realm of human possibility,” actor Donald Glover told the crowd. “Our humanity was enough in the world for Dr. King.”
50 years After MLK Assasination, What Comes Next?
Debbie Elliott (NPR, 04/04/2018)
In Memphis and across the nation, thousands are gathering — and some are protesting — to mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The day honors King's work, looks at his legacy and raises the question: What comes next?
When Martin Luther King Jr. Became a Leader
Louis Menand (The New Yorker, 04/04/2018)
Martin Luther King, Jr., or “Little Mike,” as he was called until his father, Michael Luther King, Sr., changed both their names to Martin, had no ambition to become the leader of a movement. When Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery city bus, on December 1, 1955, King was a twenty-six-year-old minister just a year into his job at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, in Montgomery, who imagined that he might one day become a professor. The legendary boycott that followed Parks’s arrest was not King’s idea, and, when he was informed of the plan, he did not immediately endorse it. He did after some reflection, though, and offered a room in the basement of his church for the organizers to meet.
On December 5th, a mass meeting was called, to be held in the building of another African-American congregation, the Holt Street Baptist Church. That afternoon, the boycott organizers met in King’s church basement and voted to call themselves the Montgomery Improvement Association. Then, to his surprise, and probably because he was not well known, and no one else was eager to accept the risk of white reprisal, King was elected the group’s president. It was after six o’clock. The mass meeting was scheduled for seven. King rushed home to tell his wife and to write a speech.
D.C. faith leaders gather on National Mall to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s life
Julia Airey (The Washington Times, 04/04/2018)
About 1,000 people on the National Mall joined thousands of others across the country Wednesday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and reflect on the civil rights leader’s life and legacy.
D.C. religious leaders led a sizable crowd early Wednesday in a silent march from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in West Potomac Park to the center of the Mall, where they held a rally to end racism.
Organized by the National Council of Churches, the rally gathered leaders from various faiths to speak about ending systemic racism, beginning in houses of worship.