Martin Luther King Day

Today, January 15th, is Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday.

Monday, January 21st, SCHOOL is CLOSED.

It is a Federal Holiday.  Schools and banks and government offices are closed.

Why do we remember and honor and celebrate Dr. King's birthday?

Dr. King fought for civil rights.

He wanted everyone to have an equal chance.

He made big effort for this purpose.  He wrote books.  He planned events and marches.  He gave speeches.

Two of his speeches are very, very famous.

In the first, the "I have a dream" speech, Dr. King talks about the dream of equality for all people.

In the second, the "Mountaintop" speech, Dr. King says he knows we, the people of the world, will achieve our dream.  He has been to the "mountaintop."  He has seen what people can do.  He knows what is possible.  He says maybe he will not make it there.  But he knows we, everyone, the human species, will make it there.

He was assassinated (killed) the day after his Mountaintop speech.

What he wanted - more equality - scared some people.  They were so scared of his ideas, they killed him.

The ideas in his speeches... the ideas he tried to communicate to people... were about change.  Positive change.

First:  Have a vision of something better.

What is your vision of something better for your life?  For your community?  For the world?

Second:  Know it is possible to make that dream real.  Also know that maybe you might not see the final result, but this is not the important thing.  The important thing is making effort for good things.

In a way, when people make effort for good, the dream is already real.  People have changed.  There is more good in the world because there is more good inside people and this is where all change begins.

You can read more about Dr. King here and here.

And here are the two very famous speeches:


Here is the "I have a dream" speech:

Here is a part of the Mountaintop speech.

And here is a song from Flocabulary about Dr. King and his dream:

Thank you, Dr. King, for dreaming and encouraging us to dream. 

Together, our dreaming changes the world.