It can’t be stressed enough how important the Civil Rights Movement was, not just for African-Americans, but for anyone else. The movement during the 50s and 60s was a series of trials and tribulations, sometimes literally in which innocent people suffered because of some of the wide-spread beliefs about race back then.
As the leading figure for the right for equality in voting and for integration, Martin Luther King, Jr. is probably the most recognizable face of the Civil Rights Movement. He led various marches from Selma to Montgomery to demand those rights and was an orator, delivering speeches throughout his campaign, the most famous of which is the “I Have a Dream” speech, made in 1968. See the ending of that speech below:
“And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”
Martin Luther King, Jr. died on April 4th, 1968 when he was killed by an assassin’s bullet in Memphis, Tennessee.
On January 14th, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy will be commemorated with the “MLK Day 5K Drum Run” in Birmingham. Registration will begin at 7 a.m., followed by a warm-up at 7:45 a.m. The race begins at 8 a.m. at the 4th Avenue Historic District of the Civil Rights District. Prices for admission will vary by date, with the first being $35 before December 31st and $40 after January 1st. Registration can be done online here.