US Ambassador Speaks at AUCA

January 25, 2013

On January 22, US Ambassador Pamela Spratlen visited AUCA to give a talk dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Ms. Spratlen talked about the early life of Martin Luther King, Jr., his ideas, his “I Have a Dream” speech, and the role he plays for today's students, who never knew him, but encounter him only in history.

 

Martin Luther King Day honors the life and legacy of one of the visionary leaders of the Civil Rights Movement and recipient of the 1964 Nobel Prize for Peace.

 

According to the lecture, at a young age Martin Luther King, Jr. showed strong promise, skipping his last years of schooling and entering Morehouse College at the age of 15. He had strong beliefs in equality, and his father and grandfather, who were ministers, had a great impact on King.

 

In 1955, Martin Luther King, Jr. received his doctorate degree in theology, and moved to Montgomery, Alabama, with his wife, to preach at a Baptist church.

 

“He witnessed the indignities suffered by African Americans as a result of racism, discrimination, and unjust laws. One law required all black passengers to ride in the back of public buses and to give up their seats to white passengers when the front of the bus was full,” Ambassador Spratlen said.

 

When one African American passenger refused to give up her seat to a white man, Dr. King was asked to lead the protest, arranged by black leaders in response to the arrest of this brave passenger, Rosa Parks. Martin Luther King met protests of people, who did not want the system of inequality to change. His home was bombed. But despite the violence, the protest continued, and after 381 days The Supreme Court declared the state of Alabama’s segregation law unconstitutional.

 

But other problems of inequality stayed the same.  Black citizens were denied equal housing, equal pay, equal jobs, equal service in restaurants and hotels, and equal voting rights.

 

Dr. King struggled for justice, it led to the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King became a symbol and voice for the cause of African Americans.  

 

One of the key events of the Civil Rights Movement was the March on Washington on August 23, 1963, led by Martin Luther King. More than 250, 000 people gathered in Washington, D.C. and marched to the Capitol Building to support the passing of laws that guaranteed equal civil rights to every American citizen.

 

On that day, legendary “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered by Dr. King.

 

Soon the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, calling for equal opportunity in employment and education.  Later on, a record number of black citizens went to the polls and voted.

 

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated while supporting a workers’ strike in Memphis. The world grieved the loss of this great man of peace.

 

Throughout the 1980s, controversy surrounded the idea of Martin Luther King Day.  Dr. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, along with congressional leaders and citizens had petitioned the President to make January 15, Martin Luther King birthday, a legal holiday. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan declared the third Monday in January a federal holiday in honor of Martin Luther King. 

 

Now, every year, there are quiet memorial services, as well as elaborate ceremonies and public forums to honor Dr. King and his dream, and to discuss issues of social justice. So, AUCA was not an exception. Ambassador Spratlen told students, faculty, and staff about interesting facts of Dr. King’s life, his great ideas and ambitions.

 

After the lecture students had an opportunity to ask questions about Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as how his method of non-violent change could be applied in Central Asia, and whether his dream of equality can be spread to the whole world.

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