Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Born January 15, 1929 - Died April 4, 1968
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I have decided to stick to love...Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"
"Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and that in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.
Here is a sampling of the martyrs who gave their lives for others.
Southern Poverty Law Center
Civil Rights Martyrs
Civil Rights Martyrs
Rev. George Lee, one of the first black people registered to vote in
September 30, 1962 ·
Paul Guihard, a reporter for a French news service, was killed by gunfire from a white mob during protests over the admission of James Meredith to the
April 23, 1963 ·
June 12, 1963 · Jackson , Mississippi
Medgar Evers, who directed NAACP operations in Mississippi , was leading a campaign for integration in Jackson
September 15, 1963 · Birmingham , Alabama
Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley were getting ready for church services when a bomb exploded at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
April 7, 1964 · Cleveland , Ohio
James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Henry Schwerner, young civil rights workers, were arrested by a deputy sheriff and then released into the hands of Klansmen who had plotted their murders. They were shot, and their bodies were buried in an earthen dam.
March 11, 1965 · Selma , Alabama
Rev. James Reeb, a Unitarian minister from 
March 25, 1965 ·
Viola Gregg Liuzzo, a housewife and mother from Detroit , drove alone to Alabama to help with the Selma march after seeing televised reports of the attack at the Edmund Pettus Bridge Selma from Montgomery
June 10, 1966 ·
February 8, 1968 ·
Samuel Ephesians Hammond Jr., Delano Herman Middleton and Henry Ezekial Smith were shot and killed by police who fired on student demonstrators at the South Carolina State College campus.
April 4, 1968 · Memphis , Tennessee
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister, was a major architect of the Civil Rights Movement. He led and inspired major non-violent desegregation campaigns, including those in Montgomery and Birmingham Memphis
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| Viola Liuzzo family |
"I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
