Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is quite easy, as the decades pass, to forget about how influential and important the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. was.

He was an activist and the prominent leader in the civil rights movement for blacks in the 1950s/1960s. His legacy was to greatly advance the progress of civil rights for black people, most notably in leading the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, helping found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, and spearheaded the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, which is one of the greatest, most stirring speeches in history. In 1964, he became the youngest person to ever received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial discrimination and segregation.

He definitely did great work and definitely changed American society for the better. It was difficult and scary work to do in the face of such bigotry and hatred, yet he took the huge risks to do what was morally right, even at the cost of his own life. He died a champion and hero of what is good and beautiful in humanity. Thank God for him.