To research and study the life of Martin Luther King Jr. is like stepping back in time, to a time when some say "life was simpler, right was right and wrong was wrong, black was black, white was white, and there were no gray areas." Today, at the park, at the school, the mall, I think nothing of getting a drink at the water fountain after the black kid in front of me has finished drinking at the same fountain. In the times that confronted Martin Luther King, "White was white and black was black" was a literal truth in the Deep South of our country. Schools for black kids, schools for whites. Swimming pools for whites only. Even churches for whites, churches for blacks. Segregation: the clear separation of white from black. Into these times was born a Negro child to a Baptist minister. The child was himself to become an ordained minister at the age of 19. He went on to earn his doctorate of divinity, 20 honorary degrees, and numerous awards both in his country and worldwide, including the Nobel Prize in 1964.

Despite all these great awards of world praise, Martin Luther King was arrested over 30 times for civil disobedience. He was a man who was greatly loved by some, greatly despised and feared by others. Like other great men, he was often criticized and misunderstood. It is said that the FBI was investigating Dr. King as being a possible communist. It was no secret that the then Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover did not like Dr. King.

Dr. King's life was one of controversy, including criticism by some of his own race: militant factions of the civil rights movement felt that Dr. King was too passive, too tame. Dr. King himself was to struggle with his feelings and thoughts concerning capitalism vs. what he knew about the struggle of America's poor.

While i have not read any of Dr. King's books, I have read some of his speeches, and I feel that Dr. King was a very great man of love and vision. Even when receiving the world's greatest reward, the Nobel Peace Prize, the man was urgent in his message that man should rise above darkness. In his speech (the famous "I have a Dream") given at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963, I believe his vision and the reason for living can be summed up in his own words: "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed--we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal--And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring...all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing "Free at last free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

How he strove to achieve this freedom was through "passive resistance", a form of civil disobedience he learned from the writings of Mahatma Ghandi. Martin Luther King is quoted as saying "Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force." "Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." I believe this Love was a driving force of Dr. King. His sermon "Loving your Enemies" should be required reading of every student every year.

To read Dr. King's sermons and speeches is to get a glimpse into the thoughts of a great man. Even today many do not know why we have a holiday named after Dr. King except "he was black".Sadly, many areas of our country still have traces of "practiced segregation" although thankfully it is no longer legally practiced. Practiced Segregation? Look around at church for openers. But hopefully one day Dr. King's dream will come true.

From the time of a youth of 19 until his untimely death in 1968 at the hands of the assasin James Earl Ray, Dr. King lived his life striving through love to achieve his vision. He once said that America would one day be greater because God's children suffered and stood against evil law that was not sanctioned by God's higher moral law. His vision? A greater America blessed with love. (xource unnamed-unknown)