let freedom ring

Anna Rosete
Period 2


Martin Luther King

Could you imagine going to a segregated school with people only the same race as you? Could you imagine walking down the street (the street you always walk) and be discriminated just by the color of your skin? Could you imagine being treated DIFFERENTLY, just by the color of your skin?

Luckily you don’t have too. It’s not the 1950s anymore. You go to a school that has people with all kinds of differences. You don’t constantly hear people calling people “Negros or niggers” and such kind. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. He freed the slaves from captivity. This Proclamation stated that "that all persons held as slaves are, and hence forward shall be free."
But even though their was this Emancipation Proclamation and the Declaration of Independence, it was no use. Segregation and Discrimation still occurred. People who lived in America and who were blacks, Hispanics, Chinese and so on where greatly discriminated.

In January 15, 1993 (which is also my birthday) a Man named Michael Luther King JR was born. (He had his name changed to Martin later on in his life time.) Martin attended a segregated school. Unlike most Blacks he graduated from his High School at only age 15! Martin had a dream, a dream that himself and all blacks strongly desired. The dream of freedom, a dream when people “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

In December 21, 1956 a new law was made that required segregation on buses. He boycotted the new law and he got sent to jail. People bombed his house! But he still continued his dream. Between 1957 and 1968 he traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times. He spoke where ever he knew their was injustice.
“When will you be satisfied?” people asked him. His response, “We can never be satisfied.”

He disobeyed authority. (He was arrested over 20 times), he spoke and spoke until he was heard, he didn’t give up on his race, and he wouldn’t stop until his dream came true. He followed his dream.

On August 28, 1963, he gave a speech. A speech that changed the nation, he titled his speech “I have a dream”. He marched with 250,000 believers of his, and he delivered. He came home an African-American Hero.
The Nation spread wide. He was a world figure. He imported new ideas into the worlds mind. He was invited to dinner by statesmen and Presidents. Was even named Man of the Year by Time magazine. Was also the youngest man to have won a Nobel Peace Prize.

On April 4, 1968, he was in his hotel room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He had just got back from making his speech he titled, “I've been to the Mountaintop". Standing on the balcony, he got shot.
Just like like the other presidents, leaders, and people who took action in their dreams, (for ex: JFK and Abraham Lincoln and so on) he had been assasinated.
He spent his life disobeying rules and following his dream so that we could have our freedom, so that “freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!”
So today ask yourselfs, when will your freedom ring?

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html
http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.