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In addition to
the quotes and speeches by Martin Luther King himself, which you will
find on the quotes
page, this page features some texts about the Nobel Prize
Laureate. |
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The beginning
of Robert F. Kennedy's address after King's assassination:
"I have bad news for
you, for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace
all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot
and killed tonight. Martin Luther King dedicated his life to
love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died
because of that effort..."
[April 4, 1968,
Indianapolis, Indiana] |
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The following material is
available:
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[Neue
Züricher Zeitung v. 07.03.00]
Commemoration of the
march of civil rights activists in Alabama
R. St. Washington, 6.
March |
A commemoration took place today in Selma,
Alabama, in remembrance of the march over the bridge 35 years ago. On 7th March
1965, 600 mainly black Americans led by Martin Luther King held a protest march
against the refusal of the white-run authorities to enter their names in the
voting register. They were driven back in a bloody attack by the state police
wielding batons.
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[A stamp released in 1979 by the U.S. Postal
Service to honour Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.] |
The brutal images shown on
TV shocked the population and led to Congress passing the Voting Rights
Act in the same year along with other laws outlawing racial segregation
practices. President Johnson compared the civil rights march with the
battle of Appomatox, which had resulted in the surrender of the
Confederates in the American Civil War a century before.
President Clinton paid tribute to the victims on its 35th anniversary. The
civil right activists had chosen a direct route to freedom. According to
Clinton, however, other bridges remained to be crossed before all of
America's minorities enjoyed equal status in society.
Please note: A helpful user has told us that there is a minor
mistake in the press article above. Here is what he wrote:
"You
say that Martin Luther King, Jr., on March 7, 1965, led a march on Selma
that ended in a bloody attack by the police wielding batons. In fact,
the March 7th march that ended with such violence was led by John Lewis
(now a U.S. Congressman representing Atlanta) and the late Hosea
Williams. MLK was originally slated to lead the march, but he decided at
the last minute that he couldn't leave Atlanta to come to Selma. (He
said that he had missed too many Sundays at his church.)
You can see a picture of the march at
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/mar07.html
There is also an outstanding account of this march in John
Lewis's autobiography, "Walking with the Wind."
A few days later, after the nation had witnessed the horror of the
police crackdown, MLK led a march across the same bridge. They met the
troopers, prayed, and then turned around. The
purpose was simply to draw attention to the
"Bloody Sunday" march of March 7th."
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