St Peter’s Review – Autumn 2013 Edition – Page 8
www.stpeters-streatham.org
FIFTY
YEARS AGO MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. SAID
“I HAVE A DREAM”
by
Madalyn
Morgan
Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister, a
social activist, and the leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the United
States of America from the mid-1950s until his death in 1968. For tens of millions of African Americans he was
the leader of their crusade for racial equality. His was the educated voice needed to end discrimination
and humiliation, and bring black Americans human dignity.
Martin
Luther King’s dream was for racial equality
In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. led a nonviolent
demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama. Thousands
of African American families, marching peacefully, were met with violence when police
set dogs on them; turned fire hoses on the children, and kicked young black men
to the ground. By the end of the march,
Martin Luther King and many of his supporters were in jail. After Birmingham, Dr King and his supporters organised
a bigger, but still peaceful, demonstration.
On August 28, 1963, the historic March on Washington drew more than 200,000
black and white people to the Lincoln Memorial. 
