Today, Monday January 18th 2021, 3rd Monday of the month, we pay tribute. 

Born on January 15th 1929 in Atlanta, Martin Luther King made history with his civil rights movement and struggle for black people. 

After studying theology, he became a pastor in a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. At that time, segregation between white and black people was widespread in the United States. That same year, on December 1st, Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white man on a city bus and was stopped by the police. It’s to fight against this injustice that Montgomery’s black citizens called for a boycott. An organization was then created and Martin Luther King was elected to head it. For a long time, the boycott continued in spite of attempts to intimidate the pastor: attacks on his home, imprisonment. Finally, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against the bus company. 

Driven by this victory, he decided to extend his fight for black civil rights throughout the country. Participating in non-violent actions, he was nevertheless imprisoned several times.

It was on August 28th 1963 that Martin Luther King took the lead of the march for work and freedom in Washington. In front of 250 000 people, he gave his famous speech “I have a dream”. One year later, he was received by President Kennedy and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

And while he was preparing a new march against poverty, he was assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis on April 4th 1968.

He played a major role in the emancipation of African-Americans and in raising awareness of the injustice of segregation in the United States. And more than fifty years after his death, Martin Luther King’s “dream” continues to resonate in many people’s mind.