Martin Luther King , Jr. , (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968)

Martin Luther King was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.

In 1954, Martin Luther King accepted the pastorale of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.

In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.

At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.

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HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY

(Composed by Hoang Ngoc Trang - DH02G-AV28)

Vietnam is a developing country which has gain a lot of development in recent time. We are trying to become an industrialized country and the government have planed and conducted many strategies to make the dream come true. There are political strategies, economical strategies, educational strategies, military strategies, and so fourth. To develop the country, we often think of how to build a strong economy, to reach an effective education, and to have a stable political system. All of these are necessary but insufficient; there are also humans and human rights which decide the development and prosperity of the country.

          First, I think of every factory, every skyscraper, every bridge, hydro-electric power works, oil fields, coal mines, agricultural farms, handicraft workshops, and markets, supermarkets, business districts, all of which are intervened by the hands of humans. Then, teachers, professors, researchers, masters, and doctors are just human beings. And then, talented politicians, president, ministers, police, soldiers are also humans. Therefore, whatever economy, politics, education, military, etc. are built up by human beings. Consequently, humans are the vital factor to the country's destiny and it is more crucial in the globalization period today.

          Humans are a significant factor, so paying much attention to humans is a compulsory thing of the country. Beside human education, the importance of human rights should be fully recognized by everyone in the society and especially by the country leaders. People can contribute to the country only when their roles are appreciated and their rights are guaranteed since the obligations are always twined with the rights. People will work effectively and enthusiastically if they are treated equally among the others. How can a woman do her best if she receives lower salary than a man who does the same work? It is not only a sexual discrimination but also a violation to the woman's rights or even human rights. If every company does the same thing like that, all of the women in country are perhaps caused to become lazy, irresponsible women otherwise into rebellious people. Thus, just a carelessness of human rights can lead to a loss of a large workforce, maybe a half of the country's workforce.

          Religion is a sensitive matter that influences the country's development. In fact, the violation or disregard for the rights of religious groups has resulted in severe problems and painful lessons for the country. The United State and some other countries have been making use of these problems to intervene our country by their criticisms about the Vietnamese government' prevention of the religious freedom. Regardless of whether the government or part of them have done this, the government should ensure that both the religious people and non-religious people benefit the same rights. The religious people receive the same opportunity for their promotion in their work. They can also become police officers and members of the Party who make decisions about the country's destiny. If there is discrimination between religions or between religious people and non-religious ones, everybody in the country cannot unite in building the country or unite against domestic as well as international reaction forces.

          Human rights also include the equal rights for all the races in the country. In the past, our government did not pay enough attention to ethic minorities. Kinh peoples who occupy most of the nation's people apparently dominate other races. The Kinh's areas are more prosperous and The Kinh are richer, more educated, and more modern. While the Kinh access the world's science and technology, other ethic groups in remote areas or in high lands still live in poverty and are still uncivilized and undeveloped. They are also Vietnamese people. They did use to contribute the victory of Vietnam revolutions. However, they did not receive the country's benefits as the Kinh did. Making advantages of this situation, reaction forces outside the country did entangle some of them in conflicts and oppositions against the Vietnamese government. Examples were the rebellion in Tay Nguyen several years ago to form their own government and the illegal coming of some Vietnamese ethic people into Cambodia. Hence, the Vietnam's shortcoming in caring ethic minorities led to big conflicts between races and then dangerous rebellions and fighting. If this continues, how can Vietnam have a stable political system which is obviously important to the development of the country? If this continues, who will help us to protect borders which are most occupied by ethic communities. If this continues, how can we assemble the power and the resources of the whole people to construct our country? Realizing the problem, Vietnamese government have recently had a lot of programs to develop ethic communities such as 135 program in Tay Nguyen, Film Festival 2005 in Tay Nguyen, and Cultural Festivals in Sapa, Da Lat, Tay Nguyen. Thus, the problem of ethic minorities again proves the importance of human rights in a country.

          These are just some aspects of human rights but they can show that human rights are really crucial to the development of the country. If Martin Luther King realized the importance of civil rights – human rights and the danger of ignorance of these rights “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.”, we'd better see urgency of the moment” that human factor and humans rights should be put first, that the dream to turn Vietnam into a strong and rich country accompanies with the dream of real human rights for all Vietnamese people.

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“THE DREAM I LIKE MOST IN THE SPEECH “I HAVE A DREAM”

(Composed by Dang Xuan Thai Ngan DH02G-AV28)

          Throughout the history, people have struggled for freedom, equality and civil rights not only by violent fighting but also by non – violent movements. Among those who are in favor of non – violent resistance to racism and segregation. Martin Luther King emerges as a significant figure – a political activist, a spokesman, a civil rights movement leader and the soul of the African American community. The speech “I Have a Dream” makes him live forever not only because of its powerful, eloquent and rhetorical expression but also because of his extreme devotion and great desire to struggle for the blacks' rights.

          The speech's demand for freedom, equality and civil rights is firmly expressed in King's dreams. Among them, I think the dream with the most vivid picture and the most overall meaning is “I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers” . I like this dream very much because if this dream comes true, all the remaining dreams will also come true and King's desire for freedom, equality and civil rights will be satisfied. In the 1950s and 1960s, racial discrimination against African American was common everywhere. They were not treated equally and were often denied public service and facilities or even attendance at church. King dreams of someday, when “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers”, that is the time when there is no racism and segregation and the blacks and whites are brothers and sisters in the same roof without any privilege or discrimination on the grounds of skin color, jobs and social status. The blacks are no longer looked down on because they are not considered as inferior to the whites anymore. When this dream comes true, the blacks and whites have the same social position and there is no unfair prejudice or unjust bias against the blacks. And at that turning point, true equality – not the kind of equality which only exists in the definition of Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

          In theory, when Emancipation Proclamation was signed, slavery no longer existed and all slaves were freed. But in fact, while African Americans are a large part of society, they are pushed to the corners and often feel exiled in their own land. Freedom is still a dream to them. The blacks have very little freedom when most of the whites refuse to let them integrate into the US society, which is an invisible obstacles holding back the development of the blacks' community. More sadly, this beautiful dream is still unfulfilled and until now, it is only an imaginary fantasy. The blacks are still oppressed in the harsh reality of racism.

          When this wonderful dream becomes reality, racism has been broken down, everyone will become "colorblind" and the blacks will be able to fully assimilate into U.S. society with their cultural heritage and ethnic dignity. They are no longer dominated by the whites and of course, they are citizens of the US with the same rights as every other American. Although the dream of unity and brotherhood is overshadowed by racism and King is still discontent to see African American to be treated as second class citizens, the power of his hope that one day the blacks and whites will be treated as equals and walk side by side with each other has created an incentive for the blacks to stand up to struggle for racial harmony in the most difficult of circumstances.

          Today, we have made many advances in gaining racial equality, freedom and civil rights which Martin Luther King spent his lifetime struggling for. However, although we have reached a degree of political and economic nondiscrimination, we still have not opened the door of opportunity to all “God's children” as King says. But I think with many affirmative action policies and law reforms to defend the blacks, they will have a brighter future.