M a r tin L u t h e r K ing J r .
Page B 12
January 9, 2008
2003 s p e c ia l e o iiìo n
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Timeline
continued
from HIO
March for Peace at the Arlington National Cemetery on February 6 ,1 9 6 8 , (from left): Rabbi
Abraham Heschel, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath and
Rabbi Everett Gendler.
1966
• Dr. King rents an apartment in a black ghetto of Chicago; he meets with Elijah Muhammad, leader of the
Black Muslims. Dr. King takes over a Chicago slum building and is sued by its owner.
• The Supreme Court of the United States rules all poll taxes unconstitutional. Dr. King tours Alabama to
help elect black candidates. The Alabama Primary is held and for the first time since Reconstruction, blacks
vote in significant numbers.
• An antiwar statement by Dr. K ingisreadatalarge Washington rally to protest the war in Vietnam. Dr. King
agrees to serve as a co-chairman of Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam.
• Stokely Carmichael and Willie Ricks use the slogan "Black Power" in public forthe first time before reporters
in Greenwood, Miss.
• James Meredith is shot soon after beginning his 220-mile “March against Fear” from Memphis, Tenn. to
Jackson, Miss.
• Dr. King launches a drive to make Chicago an “open city” regarding housing.
• Dr. King is stoned in Chicago as he leads a march through crowds of angry whites in the Gage Park section
of Chicago’s southwest side.
• SCLC launches a project with the aim of integrating schools in Grenada, Miss.
1967
• Dr. King writes his book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? while in Jamaica.
• Alabama is ordered to desegregate all public schools. Dr. King attacks the government’s Vietnam policy
in a speech at the Chicago Coliseum. Dr. King makes a statement about the war in Vietnam, "Beyond Vietnam,"
at the Riverside Church in New York City.
• One student is killed in a riot on the campus of all-black Jackson State College in Jackson, Miss.
• The Justice Department reports that more than 50 percent of all eligible black voters are registered in
Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina.
• Twenty-three people die and 725 are injured in riots in Newark, N.J.
• Forty-three die and 324 are injured in the Detroit riots — the worst o f the century.
• Black leaders, Martin Luther King Jr., A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young appeal for an
end to the riots, “which have proved ineffective and damaging to the civil rights cause and the entire nation.”
• The Supreme Court upholds the contempt-of-court convictions of Dr. King and seven other black leaders
who led the 1963 marches in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King and his aides enterjail to serve four-day sentences.
• Dr. King announces the formation by SCLC of a Poor People’s Campaign, with the aim of representing the
problems of poor blacks and whites.
1968
• Sanitation workers strike in Memphis.
• Dr. King leads 6,(XX) protesters on a march through downtown Memphis in support of striking sanitation
workers. Disorder breaks out during which black youths loot stores. One 16-year-old is killed and 50 people
are injured.
• Dr. King’s last speech titled “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top" is delivered at Mason Temple in Memphis’
The next day, April 4, 1968, Dr. King is assassinated as he stands talking on the balcony of his second-floor
room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He dies in St. Joseph’s Hospital from a gunshot wound in the neck.
• Dr. King is buried in Atlanta. Two months later. Presidential candidate Sen. Robert Kennedy is shot and
killed in Los Angeles.
1986
• Following passage of Public Law 98-144. President Ronald Reagan signs a proclamation declaring the third
Monday in January of each year a public holiday in honor of the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.
We celebrate our local black heroes who live by this
dream today. Regence recognizes their vision, passion
and contributions to the state of Oregon.
May we continue their legacy of compassion and
tolerance in celebration of Black History Month.
O y Régence
Mjnnr
« r> »»•»>»»»*««
During March of
1966, King ap
plauded Robert
Kennedy's state
ments against the
Vietnam War, invok
ing the legacy o f his
president brother.
While campaigning
for the presidency on
April 4, 1968,
Kennedy learned o f
King's assassination
before a rally in
Indianapolis. Kennedy
informed the largely
black audience,
cautioning them not
to be “filled with
hatred and distrust at
the injustice o f such
an act. " Two months
later, Kennedy was
assassinated in
California.
>
Together we can,1
I