Celebrating MLK and What It Has Meant for the Cleveland Area

1/18/2021 (Permalink)

Marked as the third Monday in January, MLK Day is a day to remember activist and Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King Jr., who fought for integration among races and advocated for nonviolent methods of protest. This day was first observed in 1986; however, it was not celebrated in all 50 states until the year 2000. Dr. King’s speech took place on August 28^th, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1964.

Even before this, according to Britannica.com, he was prominent in “a bus boycott by African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, …founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, …led the 1963 March on Washington, …[and was] the most influential of African American civil rights leaders during the 1960s.” For more information, check out: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Martin-Luther-King-Jr-Day.

He was assassinated on April 4^th, 1968 at the age of 39. He was in Memphis, TN supporting a sanitation worker strike and was shot on a motel balcony. To this day, we remember the remarkable impact he has had on all of us. MLK is most known for his “I Have A Dream Speech, which can be heard in its entirety at the following link: https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety.

This holiday is celebrated in areas including, but not limited to Euclid, Beachwood, and Mayfield Heights.