"We will not resort to violence. We will not degrade ourselves with hatred.

Love will not be returned with hate." --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a black clergyman who is ranked among the greatest of black Americans because of his crusade to win full civil rights for his people. Preaching nonviolence, much in the same way as had Mahatma Gandhi of India, Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke and campaigned tirelessly to rid the United States of traditions and laws that forced on black Americans the status of second-class citizens.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, African Americans, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., used boycotts, marches, and other forms of nonviolent protest to demand equal treatment under the law and an end to racial prejudice. A high point of this civil rights movement came on August 28, 1963, when more than 200,000 people of all races gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to hear King say: "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveholders will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood....I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Not long afterwards the U.S. Congress passed laws prohibiting discrimination in voting, education, employment, housing, and public accommodations. The world was shocked when Dr. King was assassinated in 1968. Ever since, special memorial services have marked his birthday on January 15. By vote of Congress, the third Monday of every January, beginning in 1986, is now a federal holiday in Dr. King's honor.

Did you know?

Kings father was born Michael King, and Martin Luther King, Jr., was originally named Michael King, Jr., until the family traveled to Europe in 1934 and visited Germany. His father soon changed both of their names to Martin Luther in honor of the German Protestant leader Martin Luther. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a vegetarian and a fan of the original Star Trek television series from 1966. He skipped both the ninth and the twelfth grade and entered Morehouse College at age fifteen without formally graduating from high school. He travelled over 6 million miles in his lifetime. He was the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize at age 35. The speech is known as I Have a Dream but those words were never in the original draft, they were ad libbed on the day. He was the first African-American to be named Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1964, just one year after delivering his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. In the Fall of 1963, under written directive from Robert F. Kennedy, the FBI began telephone tapping King. Kings last words on the balcony prior to his assassination were spoken to musician Ben Branch, who was scheduled to perform that night at an event King was attending: Ben, make sure you play Take My Hand, Precious Lord in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty. The Lorraine Motel, where King was assassinated, is now the site of the National Civil Rights Museum. Kings autopsy revealed that although he was only thirty-nine years old, he had the heart of a sixty-year-old man, perhaps a result of the stress of thirteen years in the civil rights movement. He himself had verbally predicted he would not live past the age of 40.

 Today, there are over 1,000 streets in the world named after Martin Luther King Jr.

The Student's dream

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in this American Civilization class. I say to you today, my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the Romanian dream. One hundred years later, the Student still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Student is still sadly dominated by the evil glare of our dirig, and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Student lives on a lonely island full of books and sadness, in the midst of a vast ocean of gangnam style and Chuck Norris movies. One hundred years later, the Student is still forced to run away from crazy gypsies, and finds himself surrounded by pi ipoance and shaworma. So we have come here today to highlight a shameful condition. I have a dream that one day these Students will rise up and live out the true meaning of their destiny: That all teenagers and adults are created equal. I have a dream, that one day, on the 44 bus going to Malu Rou, the lonely humans we call babe and the poor Students who have to face their smell every day will be able to sit down together for the first time in history and not fight for empty seats. I have a dream that one day even the awful hour we call ora de sport, a class filled with the heat of injustice, filled with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and relaxation. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a country where they will not be judged by how much Latin they know and by how long their hair is, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day, when entering a classroom, with its gum stuck on its benches, with its trash around every corner, with tanti Lenu a screaming after little children; one day right there in school, boys and girls will be able to join hands with teachers and destroy the scary cataloage cu note. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to my house with. Let freedom ring from every corridor and bathroom of Ion Luca Caragiale Highschool. From every classroom, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every class and every laboratory, from every street and every city, we will be able to see the day when all of God's children, Good kids and Bad kids, Maneli ti and Rockrs, Smokers and Non-Smokers will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Student spirit: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God, we are free at last!"