1929 - 1968 In 1968, America was feeling the heat of civil unrest, much of which was a reaction to the civil rights movement. The idea of blacks being brought into racial parity with whites sent shockwaves through the corridors of power and through society at large. At the eye of this hurricane of turmoil was a man named Martin Luther King, Jr., who preached non-violent civil disobedience as a means of opening the way for blacks to obtain the rights and liberties guaranteed to all citizens of the United States. A charismatic and passionate leader, King was an effective communicator and motivator, and by 1968, he was winning the hearts and minds more and more Americans on both sides of the color line. His efforts successfully merged the anti-Vietnam war movement and the civil rights movement, and the awful reality of the black situation in America could no longer be hidden. At 6:01 p.m., on April 4, 1968, King stepped out of his motel room on his way to get dinner. He leaned over the railing to speak to his chauffeur. A moment later, a single shot from a high-powered rifle blasted out, and King fell to the concrete balcony, where he lay dying. "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 slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four 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. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together ..." When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" The King Center was established in 1968 by Mrs. Coretta Scott King as a living memorial dedicated to preserving the legacy of her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and promoting the elimination of poverty, racism and war through research, education and training in Kingian nonviolence. As an official non-governmental organization of the United Nations with observer status, The King Center is dedicated to building a world community of justice, peace, brother and sisterhood. In 1995, Dr. and Mrs. King’s youngest son, Dexter Scott King succeeded his mother as chair, president and chief executive officer of the King Center. The King Center is the hub of a unique, 23-acre National Historic Site and Preservation District in downtown Atlanta. The King Historic Site encompasses the comfortable Victorian dwelling where Dr. King was born (the first birth home of a black American to be placed on the National Historic Register), as well as Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he was co-pastor with his father, the tomb where Dr. King now rests, and the many homes and shops of "Sweet Auburn," one of America’s oldest and most vital black cultural and business districts. It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. Did you ever stop to think that you can't leave for your job in the morning without being dependent on most of the world? You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach over for the sponge, and that's handed to you by a Pacific islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that's given to you at the hands of a Frenchman. And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning, and that's poured into your cup by a South American. And maybe you want tea: that's poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you're desirous of having cocoa for breakfast, and that's poured into your cup by a West African. And then you reach over for your toast, and that's given to you at the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you've depended on more than half the world. This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated quality. We aren't going to have peace on Earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality. As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated: Once to every man and nation, Comes the moment to decide In the strife of truth and falsehood. For the good or evil side; Some great cause God's new Messiah Offering each the gloom or blight And the choice goes by forever Twixt that darkness and that light. Though the cause of evil prosper Yet >tis truth along is strong Though her portion be the scaffold AND upon the throne be wrong Yet that scaffold sways the future And behind the dim unknown Standeth God within the shadow Keeping watch above his own. Mr King is buried in Atlanta, Georgia.