The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man who had hoped to be an inspiring preacher in a quiet small community. Instead, by the time of his death, he had led tens of millions of people into shattering the system of Southern segregation, splintering it beyond any possibility of restoration. He had fashioned a mass Black electorate that eliminated overt racism from political campaigns and accumulated political power for African Americans beyond any they had ever possessed in their history in the United States. Above all these–and other accomplishments, he brought a new and higher dimension of human dignity to the African American Experience.
He led a movement for the liberation of all races of people. This is important because it was a movement to bring about the survival of humanity in a world of freedom and equality. What was so unique about Dr. King was that he not only spoke his ideals with vivid expressions of emotion, but he also led people in a non-violent struggle for the fulfillment of those ideals.
As Sidney Poitier said in a tribute in 1967, “Some people can Talk the Talk, but Martin Luther King, Jr. could Walk the Walk.”
Once Dr. King made a commitment, he never faltered or wavered from his decision. In his religion, he was both Baptist and Ecumenical and a preacher of the Social Gospel. The Social Gospel teaches that it is a man’s duty not only to have faith but also to serve others: “to preach the Gospel to the poor,” Luke said, “…to heal the brokenhearted, to free the captives, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” (Luke 4:18)
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