Martin Luther King Jr.: A History
No Christian played a more prominent role in the century's most significant social justice movement than Martin Luther King, Jr.
By Russel Moldovan for Christian History magazine | posted 1/01/2000 12:00AM
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Beginning in 1965, King's popularity waned as his "dream" grew to include peace in Vietnam. With this, most of white America, as well as many African Americans, distanced themselves from King. But he refused to soften his language about the war: "On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question—is it politic? Vanity asks the question—is it popular? Conscience asks the question—is it right?"
In spring of 1968, King was in Memphis to help with a sanitation strike. On April 3, he told his audience, "I may not get there with you, but I want you to know that tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land." The following day, James Earl Ray shot and killed King as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. The nation mourned King's death, and the civil rights movement fragmented irreversibly. King's influence may have waned in the last two years of his life, but 20 years after his death, his legacy was deemed so crucial to the nation's history that a national holiday was named after him.
Russel Moldovan>is pastor of
Blanchard (Pennsylvania) Church of Christ, and author of
Martin Luther King, Jr.: A History of His Religious Witness and His Life (American Universities Press).
Related Elsewhere
For more Christian History, visit
ChristianHistory.netSee today's other articles celebrating Martin Luther King Day:Confessions of a Racist | It wasn't until after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s death that I was struck by the truth of what he lived and preached
The March to Montgomery | Christianity Today's coverage of King's historic voting rights march, from our April 9, 1965 issue
Catching Up With a Dream | Evangelicals and Race 30 Years After the Death of Martin Luther King, Jr."
Yahoo!'s Full Coverage of
Martin Luther King Day includes links to news stories, audio and video archives, opinion pieces, and the best Martin Luther King Web sites.For more general information on Martin Luther King, Jr., be sure to visit the
Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University and the
Seattle Times' Martin Luther King Jr. site.
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