Martin Luther King, Jr.

Only three people in the history of the United States have been honored with a national holiday named after them. This coming Monday, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is honored as one of these people.

Georgia native, King, did not survive to see total fruits from his life-long labors, the Civil Rights Bill signed into law in 1964. But after King was cut down by an assassin, the bill was further expanded. Without this bill, which made it federally illegal to discriminate in jobs, housing and other facets, many of us would not have been able to have the jobs we had or live in the neighborhoods we wanted.

His “I Have A Dream” and “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speeches are two of the most famous speeches in our history. He was a master of speaking with measured cadence, pauses and repetition. Using a phrase from “The Star Spangled Banner,” “Let Freedom Ring,” King was inclusive in his speech before thousands at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. One line from the “I Have A Dream” speech is so meaningful to Georgians when he remembered his native state and said, “From Stone Mountain of Georgia…Let Freedom Ring.”

King would have been 90 years old on January 15th.