Local students prepare to march for Martin Luther King Jr.
Black History Club members from Warren County High School are gearing up for another trip to Nashville this Monday to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day and his fight for civil rights.
King was born Jan. 15, 1929 and became one of the main leaders of the civil rights movement. From 1955 until his death in 1968, King led boycotts, marches and gave inspirational speeches in his fight for equality.
During a march on Washington D.C., King’s famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech was delivered Aug. 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial.
King’s dream:
‘I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
‘I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
‘I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.’
At the age of 35, King was the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The prize money of $54,123 he received was donated to the civil rights movement.
Although he advocated change using peaceful measures, called civil disobedience, his life ended in violence on April 4, 1968.
At 6:01 p.m., King was shot and killed in Memphis while standing on a second-floor balcony of his room in the Lorraine Motel. He was there to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city. His assassination caused a nationwide wave of riots in more than 60 cities.
On Jan. 17, 2000, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time. The observation is held on the third Monday of January.
In the past, thousands of people have gathered in Nashville to march in remembrance of King. Among those will be members of the Black History Club from Warren County High School, joined by family and friends.
‘We are going to leave about 7 a.m. from the school,’ said Jeffery Martin, who co-sponsors the club with Wayne Wolford. ‘We’ll meet in east Nashville at a church and then march over to TSU. There will be 30 to 35 of us.’
While at the church, Crunk Effect will do a step presentation. Also, skits will be done from the 1960s. Thanks to those skits, marchers will see and learn actual events that took place in the ’60s, including what they were marching for back then.
The local Black History Club has participated in the march for 10 or 11 years, long before the school system closed in observation. Before that, students missed the day regardless.
‘It needed to be observed,’ said Martin. ‘We have a mixture of students who go. Different cultures go. Back in the ’60s there was a mixture of people. You didn’t see only African Americans in the march. Civil rights affects everybody.’
The day’s activities, five-mile march included, allow members to experience what those who fought for civil rights in the 1960s endured, while giving them an appreciation of what they have today and why they have it.