many pics: يناير 2011

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in 1929 in Atlanta, at a time when much of the U.S. (especially the South) was racially segregated, meaning people were treated differently based on their skin color. Lighter-skinned people had advantages that darker-skinned people didn’t have, without any good reason. Some places had separate water fountains based on skin color. People with darker skin would even have to give up their bus seat to people with lighter skin, or else they could be arrested.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a leader who helped people take a stand against these unfair ways. He believed fighting was never an answer and always tried to solve problems peacefully. Among many other things, he is famously remembered for organizing people to not ride buses in Alabama after Rosa Parks was wrongly arrested for not giving up her seat to a white man. It was a good way to be heard without violence! When people didn’t ride, it hurt the bus companies, and eventually the Montgomery buses stopped separating people by skin color.

He was also a great speaker and in 1963 delivered a very famous speech where he said, “I have a dream…” His dream was that people of different skin colors and different beliefs could happily share the world together. Today, this dream lives on, and the powerful message of peace is what we celebrate on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.