MARTIN LUTHER KING convinced hundreds of thousands of African American strongly discriminated, to adopt a path of non-violence. He propagated in America ways that Gandhi created in South Africa and India. Courageously, he resisted other movements determined to oppose a “Black” violence” to the “White violence”. After many peaceful demonstrations and several imprisonments, he delivered in Washington, in front of more than 300,000 persons, his famous speech “I Have a Dream.” The USA authorities then abandoned the usual reflex of postponing the “Black Issue”. Martin Luther KIng was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and obtained that African Americans could at last exercise their civil rights. But he was assassinated at age 39.
© Alice Labrèque and Jean Routier, 2012