Object of the Week

15th January is the birth date of Martin Luther King Jr. On the 3rd Monday in January, Martin Luther King Day is celebrated in the USA as a federal holiday. This year it falls on 16th January. Therefore our Object of the Week this week is celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

It is a copy of Peace News from September 6th 1963 showing the civil rights march on Washington D.C. and highlighting Martin Luther King’s speech. King was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929. He followed his father into the church and founded the first black ministry in Montgomery, Alabama. He campaigned for an end to such discrimination against blacks as segregated schools and inferior voting rights. He set up the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 to organise nonviolent protests across the US. These came to a head in August 1963, when 200,000 people marched to Washington D.C.

This copy of Peace News shows the scene at the Lincoln Memorial where King made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Despite the passing of acts to end discrimination, King continued to campaign for social reform. On April 4th 1968 he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. His funeral was attended by 150,000 people.

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