On Martin Luther King Day we celebrate the great man’s life and his achievements for racial justice.
In this Free Speech Center Encyclopedia article, Larry Burris traces King’s accomplishments, explaining how he “actualized” First Amendment rights of free speech, free press and assembly.
“But his was not a sterile philosophical argument discussed over a latte or cappuccino,” Burris writes. “His was a pragmatic, action-based philosophy that would be embodied in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.”
Burris examines King’s work as exemplified in three historic speeches:
- “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (1963)
- “I Have A Dream” speech and rally (1963)
- “I Have Been to the Mountaintop” speech (1968)