Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.

An excerpt from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “A Time to Break the Silence”:

“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!” – from Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech, I’ve Been to the Mountaintop, given April 3, 1968, the day before he was assassinated.

It’s been 45 years since that day in Memphis, Tennessee, when civil rights leader and peace activist Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. Almost half a century after his passing, Dr. King’s words are still remarkably poignant: “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”