Visiting the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Eric and I visited memorials with our children, Adam and Diane, when we visited Washington, D.C. in 1989.  Today, we are seeing many monuments that were built and dedicated after our visit 26 years ago.






The Martin Luther King 
Memorial was dedicated
on August 28, 2011.







The United States was created with some men free and others enslaved.  The Civil War freed the slaves, but African Americans were constrained by Jim Crow laws from full participation in society, education, often unable to vote and not represented fully before the courts.

Baptist minister and Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King, used nonviolent pacifism in the fight for the Civil Rights of African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s.  He lead massive protests in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 and directed a march on Washington with over 200,000 participants.on August 28, 1963.

On October 14, 1964, Martin Luther King won the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent resistance to racism in America.

In an effort to publicize the lack of Voting Rights for African Americans, John Lewis lead  600 people a march starting in Selma to the capitol in Montgomery Alabama on Sunday, March 7, 1965. Lewis and fellow marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge where they were met by armed police, wearing gas masks, who told them to disperse and go home.  The marchers did not leave.  The police started to beat protesters and used tear gas on the crowd.  Fifty-eight people were injured, including John Lewis, who suffered a fractured skull. Thirteen marchers were shot and killed. The fourteenth gun shot victim died later. The scene at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge was broadcast and became known as "Bloody Sunday."

My family and millions of others, watched in horror as police fired into the crowd, took out their billy clubs and beat people who refused to put up their hands to defend themselves.

Reverend King, facing an impending restraining order against the second march, lead a a group of 2,000 across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 9, 1965.  The marchers met a blockade of armed police.  They knelt, prayed and then retreated.  The day was known as "Turnaround Tuesday."

President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed Congress on March 15, 1965, informing the Senate and House of Representatives that he was sending Voting Rights legislation to the bodies.  He expected bills to be passed, to fulfill the premise of the U.S. Constitution, that all citizens have the right to vote and participate in representative government.

On March 21, 1965, Martin Luther King lead the third march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. During the five day march, thousands joined the march.  The marchers were protected by federalized Alabama National Guardsmen and the FBI.  Reverend King and the marchers arrived in Montgomery on March 25 and he addressed the crowds from the steps of the Capitol.

"We shall overcome because the

moral arc of the universe is

long, but it bends toward

justice."

MLK at the Washington

National Cathedral on

March 31, 1968

The figure of Martin Luther
King has been carved into
"the stone of hope" has
emerged from the 
"mountain of despair."

"Injustice anywhere is a threat 

to justice everywhere.

  We are caught in an inescapable

 network of mutuality, tied in a

 single garment of destiny.

  Whatever affects one directly

 affects all directly."

MLK Letter from the Birmingham

Jail on April 16, 1963.

A lot was accomplished during the 1960s.  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbade discrimination based on sex and race for hiring, firing and promotion in the workplace.The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965.  The Fair Housing Act forbids discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing based on race, sex or religion or national origin.

Martin Luther King traveled to Memphis, Tennessee in April, 1964 to support sanitation workers who were on strike for higher wages.  He was shot while standing on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968 and was pronounced dead after he arrived at the Memphis Hospital.

The first national Martin Luther King Day was observed on January 20, 1986,  The Reverend's life and works are remembered and cerebrated here in Washington, D.C., and across the nation.

On March 8, 2015, thousands came to Selma, Alabama to remember the sacrifices made by Voting Rights Marchers on March 9, 1965.   The nation remembers and continues to work toward equality for all.