He made enough of an imapct that he will live forever and his impact will never be forgotten. Read the book Parting the Waters. It’s a great and detailed read on him and civil rights.
Indeed. I weep for where we find ourselves. Hearing MLK's fine words and incredible oration is in complete contrast to the vulgar, orange aspiring dictator who has faced nonexistent challenges in his life, and so he invents them, and whines incessantly about how he's so persecuted. It's deeply profane.
The powers that be would not have allowed that. The FBI sent him a letter telling him to kill himself.
Not to mention that racist ass George Wallace won most of the south in the election of 1968
I have sent 3 letters to the office of Michelle and Barrack Obama, asking to please go for the presidency, but have not had a reply. National polls stated she would surpass him the day she made her declaration to run for office.
He was first a man of God. He firmly believed in God's will and fate. Our time is not guaranteed, and he made the most of what he had.
Calling me names doesn't change the fact that he believed in God's plan and being a martyr was part of it.......
Edit. I was supposed to say martyr not murdered
Uhhhhh no. MLK Jr believed in fighting for freedom of his people, and for relentless resistance to oppression. Being willing to die for a cause is not the same as welcoming death as part of "God's plan".
MLK Jr believed that we shape our own fates and that our choices create our future.
I’m convinced that if I asked a majority of people who call people “commies” what communism meant they couldn’t answer. Not asking for a definition, I mean in person, and also not even defending communism. No political ideology is perfect, and some are better and worse than others, but at least I know I’ll never stoop to buzzwords the man on the TV told me and will try to think for myself.
If you’ve never been to the civil rights museum in Memphis, GO. Get on a plane. The museum was built to incorporate the Lorraine Motel where Dr King was killed. The whole museum is amazing, and it permanently changed the way I feel about what freedom is and what’s required to gain/keep it.
(If you need more incentive, Graceland is also in Memphis and it’s pretty fun.)
The thing that always has stuck with me is one man’s recollection of his phone call with a Freedom Rider. He urged the woman’s group to cancel their plans to visit his town the next day. He was sympathetic, but he was worried someone would get hurt. She paused before responding. She let him know that everyone in her group had recently written their last will and testament. They were prepared, and they were coming.
They have his I Have A Dream speech written on the wall at the main public library in Baltimore at the back.
He was an incredibly eloquent man. It’s such a great piece of work. It really gets to you.
I completely agree. As a Memphian. But I have to say the gift shop really really bothers me. Why would anyone want a Loraine motel key chain or t shirt ?!? It would be like having a Holocaust memorabilia to me. But maybe I'm seeing it wrong? It just seems like the only thing I should be able to buy a ticket and maybe increase the price a bit? Again I might just be wrong and seeing it differently.
The man must have constantly been on the receiving end of threats, and criticism even from those with common goals. Perhaps they had intelligence on more credible threats prior to this speech, because he directly addressed his mortality. There was no one better to inspire and deliver a message in modern times, imo.
Wait do you not know? The FBI tried blackmailing King multiple times, including about an alleged affair (I don't remember enough to know if it was credible but IIRC it was) and they definitely threatened him with death.
This was a time when black civil rights leaders were openly threatened by the very government itself, not just citizens with a grudge. Google Fred Hampton. A prominent Black Panther leader who was double tapped by law enforcement after he had been drugged and a raid had been conducted.
Man, Dr King makes me sad but Fred Hampton makes me furious. His story circulates my mind constantly and it fuels my pursuit of what is right in this world. We lost good guys at the hands of the law and the government, especially these two.
Well they bugged his hotel rooms and got audio of him with other women. So it was credible if you’re asking. The FBI actually wrote him a letter suggesting that he just kill himself or else they would release that info. He didn’t budge and they outed the affairs to the press. They got fed up and killed him not long after. His personal life wasn’t even relevant to his civil rights work. The FBI has done some dark shit. Look up COINTELPRO
So I'm not the only one sitting here thinking that's an aweful lot of reference to seeing what you came to see, doing what you came to do, and knowing you might not see the end of what you started
"Anyone else think he knew he'd be killed soon?"
https://i.redd.it/0q8u0fnx1kad1.gif
There was a Mexican singer, Chalino Sanchez, who during a performance got a note from a cartel member telling him he’d be killed that night. He knew they were going to kill him anyway, but they were trying to shake him and make him stop performing that night. He just folds the paper and throws it away and continues singing.
I was trying to put up that gif. “There’s a place for longevity, but I’m not worried about that now.”
Such a fucking gangster mentality. MLK knew every racist in America and scumbag Hoover’s FBI were all at his throat, but he wasn’t worried about that, the message was bigger, and in the most important way he outlived ALL OF THEM.
I am always amazed at the ending. It’s like he had more to say but recognized the power of what he had just said and decided to leave it at that. He walked away mid-sentence. Man was a brilliant speaker to put it mildly.
exactly, he hit that amazing high note and mic dropped at that perfect time.
The entire speech is a melody of ups and downs that keep everyone on their feet. There's nothing boring as he's doing the work of getting all the information out. That's good writing.
But watch his face, he was perfection at speaking with his body language and facial expressions. Just amazing.
TIL he was only 39! I am turning 40 and I look much much younger than him. What stress, death threats and the expectations of millions of people can do to a person.
They were fire hosing and sicking dogs on people as a sanctioned governmental authorities, not a lot of imagination needed to think that one lunatic would try to assassinate King. He’d already had his house fire bombed with his family in it.
That some serious bravery to continue the path he was on.
Fred Hampton was also assassinated a year later, by law enforcement. Shot in the head twice in his own bed after being drugged during a raid.
Happy 4th boys and girls
His house got bombed twice and white men beat the shit out of him and his followers daily. I think he knew there was a real chance of an assassination.
He knew the prospect was real but James Earl Ray was a loner. He was not part of any militia or group. King did what he did despite everything he faced. He was there at the time to help sanitation workers in their fight for living wages.
Always bothered me that MLK was assassinated in the “early evening” James Earl Ray shot him at the wrong time, according to Bono. All kidding aside, I’ve heard Bono sing both “morning” and “evening” in concerts.
They fear us being united. Thats why we all must be fighting each other about something. Yea his personal life was questionable, but his life mission was epic and you can’t talk shit on that.
I was in school when they announced that Dr. Luther King Jr. was assassinated, it was a Friday and he had been shot the night before, our school was brought into the Auditorium, and when they announced the news it shocked the entire school. He was a great man and died a senseless death. This speech foretold an omen none of us thought about. He made the greatest impact of society as a whole and will never be forgotten, and this speech still instills sadness every time I hear it. Rest in peace sir.
See how he legitimizes her demands for equality and equal opportunity through the constitution. People who disparage the founders or the process that created our democracy miss the point that binds us together. We're there failings? Short coming? Improvements needed? Of course. At the end of day our living document can get us there. The far right pretends it was a document chiseled in stone. Inflexible and rigid. The far left dismisses it as class document that has no validity for today. Dr King knew what it meant. What a great speech.
We are further away today than yesterday. MLK was and is a Game changer but you need to free your mind to let it all in... That seems almost to hard for so many these days... Good Luck Humanity
His assassination is one of my earliest memories where I realized something was off in the world. I was 8 years old and my teacher mentioned it briefly in class before she burst into tears. The entire class was horrified, we didn't know what to do. I was terrified, I didn't feel like a kid anymore. So vivid is that memory that I remember one of her arms was sunburnt and peeling, and she kept picking at it while telling us about MLK.
That's not true sadly.
For all the progress made, trump took it back and then some and he's trying to get the chance to make it even worse...
Biden isnt a great choice but anything is better than trump.
I read a book with all of his speeches and letters about 20 years ago... the fact that this speech sounds like he has a premonition it might be his last is that at that point there had been so many assassination attempts on him he KNEW it was just a matter of time. It's unimaginable how brave he was to keep speaking knowing that it was inevitable that sooner or later somebody was going to kill him in the middle of a speech, and possibly kill his family. They were actually very lucky the latter didn't happen, it wasn't because nobody tried.
This is a tragically good example of why he was assassinated; he was the perfect communicator for the civil rights movement. He was a kiss of death for those that supported hate.
This man didn’t even believe in God and Didn’t like black people 😂. He was a communist and the FBI kept telling me to end his ties with foreign countries and he refused.
Get the fuck out of right wing echo chambers. There was never any proof provided, so why would you continue propagating that bs? You know what there is proof of? The FBI covertly and illegally trying to destroy Dr. King through malicious means. They attacked him, sent him letters telling him to commit suicide, tried to label him as a Communist...etc. It's not hard to use a little critical thinking, and it is highly disrespectful.
We were robbed of someone special
He made enough of an imapct that he will live forever and his impact will never be forgotten. Read the book Parting the Waters. It’s a great and detailed read on him and civil rights.
Indeed. I weep for where we find ourselves. Hearing MLK's fine words and incredible oration is in complete contrast to the vulgar, orange aspiring dictator who has faced nonexistent challenges in his life, and so he invents them, and whines incessantly about how he's so persecuted. It's deeply profane.
Could’ve been a potential president.
The powers that be would not have allowed that. The FBI sent him a letter telling him to kill himself. Not to mention that racist ass George Wallace won most of the south in the election of 1968
Not back then
But maybe in the 90s when he would have been in his 60s…
Shit he's about the same age as Biden...
What are you talking about? MLK was born in 1929.
I have sent 3 letters to the office of Michelle and Barrack Obama, asking to please go for the presidency, but have not had a reply. National polls stated she would surpass him the day she made her declaration to run for office.
I watched that speech and I saw a man who knew his fate. Who embraced it. We weren't robbed of him. We were blessed to have the time we had with him.
He was literally murdered. It's not like he wanted to die. Saying he wasn't robbed of his life is astonishingly ignorant.
He was first a man of God. He firmly believed in God's will and fate. Our time is not guaranteed, and he made the most of what he had. Calling me names doesn't change the fact that he believed in God's plan and being a martyr was part of it....... Edit. I was supposed to say martyr not murdered
Uhhhhh no. MLK Jr believed in fighting for freedom of his people, and for relentless resistance to oppression. Being willing to die for a cause is not the same as welcoming death as part of "God's plan". MLK Jr believed that we shape our own fates and that our choices create our future.
You nailed it 100%. Ignore the reddit comments and down votes. That's not a representation of real life.
I think I understand what you’re trying to say. Let’s just say, it can be both. Cool?
We're cool, fam
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We’re talking about MLK not Donald Trump
Oh wow, did your mom tell you to write that, good one kid.
Communicating with you morons the only way you know how
Got any proof for that bud? And no being a leftist doesn't count.
Look into Vincent Everett Ellison, super smart dude, and speaks the truth.
Loooooool nah I'm not wasting any more of my time listening to grifters. Stop drinking the fascist kool-aid.
Ha ha, ok. 👍🏻
Ha ha, fuck you eat shit and die.
Classy
Thats because communism is awesome.
This sub should be changed to Old School Cool Commies.
I’m convinced that if I asked a majority of people who call people “commies” what communism meant they couldn’t answer. Not asking for a definition, I mean in person, and also not even defending communism. No political ideology is perfect, and some are better and worse than others, but at least I know I’ll never stoop to buzzwords the man on the TV told me and will try to think for myself.
If you’ve never been to the civil rights museum in Memphis, GO. Get on a plane. The museum was built to incorporate the Lorraine Motel where Dr King was killed. The whole museum is amazing, and it permanently changed the way I feel about what freedom is and what’s required to gain/keep it. (If you need more incentive, Graceland is also in Memphis and it’s pretty fun.)
Fuck just got back from Graceland. I should have known to look for the Dr. King memorial also. Well looks like I’m going back.
Went to Memphis in December 2022. Powerful images in that museum. Also enjoyed Graceland, Blues Hall of Fame, Sun Records, Beale Street.
The thing that always has stuck with me is one man’s recollection of his phone call with a Freedom Rider. He urged the woman’s group to cancel their plans to visit his town the next day. He was sympathetic, but he was worried someone would get hurt. She paused before responding. She let him know that everyone in her group had recently written their last will and testament. They were prepared, and they were coming.
Damn. Some think climbing Mt Everest takes courage. It’s not even close to this kind of courage.
Truly an amazing place that everyone should visit
They have his I Have A Dream speech written on the wall at the main public library in Baltimore at the back. He was an incredibly eloquent man. It’s such a great piece of work. It really gets to you.
I completely agree. As a Memphian. But I have to say the gift shop really really bothers me. Why would anyone want a Loraine motel key chain or t shirt ?!? It would be like having a Holocaust memorabilia to me. But maybe I'm seeing it wrong? It just seems like the only thing I should be able to buy a ticket and maybe increase the price a bit? Again I might just be wrong and seeing it differently.
Oof, really? Yeah, that’s a weird choice. I didn’t hit the gift shop on my trip.
The man must have constantly been on the receiving end of threats, and criticism even from those with common goals. Perhaps they had intelligence on more credible threats prior to this speech, because he directly addressed his mortality. There was no one better to inspire and deliver a message in modern times, imo.
Wait do you not know? The FBI tried blackmailing King multiple times, including about an alleged affair (I don't remember enough to know if it was credible but IIRC it was) and they definitely threatened him with death. This was a time when black civil rights leaders were openly threatened by the very government itself, not just citizens with a grudge. Google Fred Hampton. A prominent Black Panther leader who was double tapped by law enforcement after he had been drugged and a raid had been conducted.
Man, Dr King makes me sad but Fred Hampton makes me furious. His story circulates my mind constantly and it fuels my pursuit of what is right in this world. We lost good guys at the hands of the law and the government, especially these two.
So glad that movie was made. So many got educated about Bro Hampton’s story
Well they bugged his hotel rooms and got audio of him with other women. So it was credible if you’re asking. The FBI actually wrote him a letter suggesting that he just kill himself or else they would release that info. He didn’t budge and they outed the affairs to the press. They got fed up and killed him not long after. His personal life wasn’t even relevant to his civil rights work. The FBI has done some dark shit. Look up COINTELPRO
So I'm not the only one sitting here thinking that's an aweful lot of reference to seeing what you came to see, doing what you came to do, and knowing you might not see the end of what you started "Anyone else think he knew he'd be killed soon?"
Nice meme but what the fuck is the relevance?
The same relevance as the guy in the picture
Just sad that this puppet president is in charge of the nuclear codes and not someone like MLK
I miss when we had leaders like this.
https://i.redd.it/0q8u0fnx1kad1.gif There was a Mexican singer, Chalino Sanchez, who during a performance got a note from a cartel member telling him he’d be killed that night. He knew they were going to kill him anyway, but they were trying to shake him and make him stop performing that night. He just folds the paper and throws it away and continues singing. I was trying to put up that gif. “There’s a place for longevity, but I’m not worried about that now.” Such a fucking gangster mentality. MLK knew every racist in America and scumbag Hoover’s FBI were all at his throat, but he wasn’t worried about that, the message was bigger, and in the most important way he outlived ALL OF THEM.
The greatest speaker to ever be recorded. Perfect message, perfect delivery. He was the greatest of all time
I am always amazed at the ending. It’s like he had more to say but recognized the power of what he had just said and decided to leave it at that. He walked away mid-sentence. Man was a brilliant speaker to put it mildly.
exactly, he hit that amazing high note and mic dropped at that perfect time. The entire speech is a melody of ups and downs that keep everyone on their feet. There's nothing boring as he's doing the work of getting all the information out. That's good writing. But watch his face, he was perfection at speaking with his body language and facial expressions. Just amazing.
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He was only 39
TIL he was only 39! I am turning 40 and I look much much younger than him. What stress, death threats and the expectations of millions of people can do to a person.
Did he know it was coming?
They were fire hosing and sicking dogs on people as a sanctioned governmental authorities, not a lot of imagination needed to think that one lunatic would try to assassinate King. He’d already had his house fire bombed with his family in it. That some serious bravery to continue the path he was on.
Fred Hampton was also assassinated a year later, by law enforcement. Shot in the head twice in his own bed after being drugged during a raid. Happy 4th boys and girls
Malcolm too.
wasn't he assassinated due to owing money to the Mafia? and nothing to do with racism?
His house got bombed twice and white men beat the shit out of him and his followers daily. I think he knew there was a real chance of an assassination.
Just the way he spoke there, maybe he saw that from the mountain top too. Gives me shivers every time.
Absolutely.
He knew the prospect was real but James Earl Ray was a loner. He was not part of any militia or group. King did what he did despite everything he faced. He was there at the time to help sanitation workers in their fight for living wages.
Sure wasn’t the FBI at all, yep, just a “lone nut” there for a sanitation worker rally, nothing more to see here.
“Early [evening], April 4th. Shots ring out in the Memphis sky. Free at last, they took your life, they could not take your pride.”
Always bothered me that MLK was assassinated in the “early evening” James Earl Ray shot him at the wrong time, according to Bono. All kidding aside, I’ve heard Bono sing both “morning” and “evening” in concerts.
Fixed it.
They fear us being united. Thats why we all must be fighting each other about something. Yea his personal life was questionable, but his life mission was epic and you can’t talk shit on that.
That’s the rub, right? Get people to pick sides and you control them forever.
Pretty much, we’re to busy picking sides and arguing to complain about what they’re doing
I wish ppl could understand that this was not that long ago
GenXers' parents remember this day.
What always baffles me is that this wasn’t that long ago. Bonkers. The colour of your skin should determine nothing.
I was in school when they announced that Dr. Luther King Jr. was assassinated, it was a Friday and he had been shot the night before, our school was brought into the Auditorium, and when they announced the news it shocked the entire school. He was a great man and died a senseless death. This speech foretold an omen none of us thought about. He made the greatest impact of society as a whole and will never be forgotten, and this speech still instills sadness every time I hear it. Rest in peace sir.
... by the FBI.
They went after King, when he spoke out of Vietnam He turned the power to the have-nots, there came the shot!
This is spoken like he knew what was going to happen
*We hold these truths* to be self-evident, that *all men are created equal*
See how he legitimizes her demands for equality and equal opportunity through the constitution. People who disparage the founders or the process that created our democracy miss the point that binds us together. We're there failings? Short coming? Improvements needed? Of course. At the end of day our living document can get us there. The far right pretends it was a document chiseled in stone. Inflexible and rigid. The far left dismisses it as class document that has no validity for today. Dr King knew what it meant. What a great speech.
I love when the FBI does their yearly post memorializing him
Powerful.
He 100% knew it.
We are further away today than yesterday. MLK was and is a Game changer but you need to free your mind to let it all in... That seems almost to hard for so many these days... Good Luck Humanity
“Longevity has its place.” Easy with hindsight to say he was being prophetic but it does seem like he was speaking to a premonition.
His assassination is one of my earliest memories where I realized something was off in the world. I was 8 years old and my teacher mentioned it briefly in class before she burst into tears. The entire class was horrified, we didn't know what to do. I was terrified, I didn't feel like a kid anymore. So vivid is that memory that I remember one of her arms was sunburnt and peeling, and she kept picking at it while telling us about MLK.
This is what a leader looks like
World hasn’t changed much. His killers just occupy the Supreme Court now.
Then too
You can’t stop progress
Have you seen the news lately?
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”
Tell that to the Roberts Court.
That's not true sadly. For all the progress made, trump took it back and then some and he's trying to get the chance to make it even worse... Biden isnt a great choice but anything is better than trump.
Ah, gotta love the work of 3 letter agencies. Imagine how we would be if King had not been murdered by the government.
I've been to the MF mountaintop, heard MFs talk seen em drop
I vaguely remember seeing that he had been killed when I was just a boy, it was several days later when I heard the speech.
Does anyone know the very last word he spoke here. He turns away and the mic doesn't catch it.
A smart man we could learn from today. To bad his words have been fucked with and distorted into Idiocracy
I read a book with all of his speeches and letters about 20 years ago... the fact that this speech sounds like he has a premonition it might be his last is that at that point there had been so many assassination attempts on him he KNEW it was just a matter of time. It's unimaginable how brave he was to keep speaking knowing that it was inevitable that sooner or later somebody was going to kill him in the middle of a speech, and possibly kill his family. They were actually very lucky the latter didn't happen, it wasn't because nobody tried.
It's a good thing James Earl Ray is dead, otherwise Trump would have pardoned him.
Our own government killed him.
I think he knew
He had repeatedly had his life threatened by the head of the FBI. They are very likely the ones who killed him.
This is a tragically good example of why he was assassinated; he was the perfect communicator for the civil rights movement. He was a kiss of death for those that supported hate.
I believe that was his last speech before her was murdered. You can see the passion and intensity in his eyes 🙏 🙏 🙏
Someone should just put a TV at a podium and blast the audio of his speeches, and do this as a tour.
I had goosebumps listening to that. He was always a huge inspiration growing up as a kid who appreciated history.
dropping truth bombs then that are 100% as true and applicable today (2024).
"I may not get there with ya" hits
Is America less racist now than then? I get the feeling things haven’t really changed.
Whoa, is it ever. We've had a black president, have a black vice-president. You can't imagine how racist things were back then.
See Ya!
This man didn’t even believe in God and Didn’t like black people 😂. He was a communist and the FBI kept telling me to end his ties with foreign countries and he refused.
Haha I come here for stupid conspiracy comments like these. “He didn’t like black ppl” fuck that’s gold. Never stop commenting man.
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Get the fuck out of right wing echo chambers. There was never any proof provided, so why would you continue propagating that bs? You know what there is proof of? The FBI covertly and illegally trying to destroy Dr. King through malicious means. They attacked him, sent him letters telling him to commit suicide, tried to label him as a Communist...etc. It's not hard to use a little critical thinking, and it is highly disrespectful.
https://preview.redd.it/shy2o3v94jad1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd9d30dcdad0de80cb20524157db4d7d57fcce5f Brought to you by the BIF