The legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Chicago History Museum hosts celebration of the efforts of the renowned civil rights and peace activist
Alicia Ramirez
Issue date: 1/23/08 Section: News
|
King worked as a civil rights activist until his assassination on April 4, 1968. Like his father and grandfather, he served as a pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
Championing the cause of civil rights, King traveled more than 6 million miles and giving more than 2,500 speeches across the country between 1957 and 1968.
He became involved in the Rosa Parks bus incident by leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and soon after founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The SCLC promoted civil disobedience in the form of nonviolent protests to gain civil rights reform.
The SCLC participated in multiple marches, including the March on Washington in 1963, the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965 and a march in Chicago in 1966.
At the age of 35, King became the youngest person toreceive the Nobel Peace Prize, and donated the prize winnings to further the civil rights movement.
"History tells the world everything," Chicago History Museum visitor Sharon Patterson said. "You never know what happened in the past unless someone can tell you. That's why I love this place."
A room was set up on the first floor for children to make paper tiles that will be used to cover the surface of a magnetic Peace Wall to teach them equality and acceptance, both of which are represented in the tiles.
Cory Bollinger, the father of two, commented while watching his eldest child make a tile that he wants to instill in his children an appreciation for this day "so they can know about their heritage and where they come from and what people have gone through."
"I'm realizing that if we don't continue to remember it and commemorate it and how much it has done for us in society, it's going to be forgotten," Bollinger said.