US Embassy celebrates 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr

     Martin Luther King Jr

The American Embassy in Banjul under the leadership of Ambassador Edward M. Alfrod, on Friday organised a reception at the ambassador’s residence in Fajara to honour the ‘dream of Martin Luther King’.

This year’s event marked the 50^th anniversary of the former American civil right defendant’s Day.

Martin Luther King Jr stood and spoke out for justice to African Americans, for an end to racial discrimination, and against the laws that embodied it and the many subtle and unconscious behaviours and assumptions supported by those laws.

Racial discrimination in the USA has resulted in countless unnecessary and unjust deaths and the despair and hopelessness of generations.

 King was also a great person because what he did for Americans made a huge difference in America, the US ambassador noted.

Ambassador Alford said further: “Diversity is a value shared by our two countries [Gambia and the US]. I believe that The Gambia is a model for the world in terms of religious diversity and tolerance. The Gambia is a model for the world where religious differences are tolerated.

“Fifty years ago, this summer, Martin Luther King led a legendary March on Washington and proclaimed ‘I have a dream’.”

Four days ago President Obama was sworn in for his second term of office on Martin Luther King Day. Placing his hand on two bibles one of Abraham Lincoln and one of Martin Luther King, President Obama swore the oath of office.

The US President further declared on Monday in front of millions of people in Washington, a message that resonated with every American citizen and the people of the world.

“On this day, I think of Gambians’ proverb, ‘a giant cotton tree grows out of a very tiny seed’. As Martin Luther King demonstrated, the ideas and tenacity of one man led to a sea of change throughout America and throughout the world.

“Martin Luther King’s close confidante and friend of The Gambia Jesse Jackson said: ‘At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backward by fear and division.’

“Martin Luther King himself said: ‘If you cannot fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.’

“I salute the celebration of diversity of what binds our two nations as we look forward to a future that continues to encompass our shared visions and beliefs that we are and will always be stronger working together, learning together and living together.”

The ceremony also featured the presentation of certificates to Mrs Sunia Sarr and Mariama Kah, the two female winners of the US Embassy’s online essay writing competition for students about the legacy of Martin Luther King.

Both students, who are from Marina International School, in their write-ups, highlighted some of the legacies of Martin Luther King on African-Americans.

Other speakers on the occasion included John Charles-Njie who read the last speech of the late Martin Luther King before his death: “I Have A Dream?”

The event was attended by senior government representatives including the deputy speaker of the National Assembly Honourable Fatou Mbye, politicians, staff of the US embassy, media chiefs from both the print and electronic and a host of youth organisations in the country.

Martin Luther King Jr delivering his last speech "I have a dream"

About Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin.

His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor.

Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B.A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated.

After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955.

In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.

In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation.

He was ready, then, early in December 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days.

On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals.

During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.

In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement.

The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi.

In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles.

In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.

At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.