Fiscal Note
No Appropriation Required
Title
Commemorating and honoring the life and valor of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the 50th anniversary of his death.
Body
WHEREAS, Dr. King was born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia to the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King; and
WHEREAS, Dr. King attended Morehouse College from 1944 to 1948 and was ordained in his final semester; and
WHERAS, Dr. King married Coretta Scott on June 18, 1953; and
WHEREAS, Dr. King obtained a doctorate degree in 1955 from Boston University, the same year he led a 381-day nonviolent demonstration that became known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, at the age of 26; and
WHERAS, Dr. King combined Mohandas Gandhi’s precepts of nonviolence with Christian social and gospel ideas to expand the civil rights movement and become a national civil rights leader; and
WHEREAS, Dr. King authored and delivered many well-known publications, books, and speeches, including, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, “Beyond Vietnam”, and “I Have a Dream”; all of which are among the most revered orations and writings in the English language; and
WHEREAS, Dr. King was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization at the forefront of the civil rights movement, rooted in nonviolent direct action; and
WHEREAS, in 1963, Dr. King orchestrated the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom event with over 250,000 attendees in Washington D.C., and delivered one of the most quoted speeches of all time; and
WHEREAS, after police attacks with tear gas and clubs on demonstrators, Dr. King awaited federal court approval and carried out the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the Selma to Montgomery March; and
WHEREAS, in addition to many other achievements, Dr. King was named “Man of the Year” by Time magazine in 1963 and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1964; and
WHEREAS, in one of his last activism campaigns, Dr. King led thousands of sa...
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