Monday 29 January 2018

Martin Luther King Day

Martin Luther King Day is a relatively new federal holiday and there are few long standing traditions. It is seen as a day to promote equal rights for all Americans, regardless of their background. Some educational establishments mark the day by teaching their pupils or students about the work of Martin Luther King and the struggle against racial segregation and racism. In recent years, federal legislation has encouraged Americans to give some of their time on this day as volunteers in citizen action groups.
 Martin Luther King Day, also known as Martin Luther King’s birthday and Martin Luther King Jr Day, is combined with other days in different states. For example, it is combined with Civil Rights Day in Arizona and New Hampshire, while it is observed together with Human Rights Day in Idaho. It is also a day that is combined with Robert E. Lee’s birthday in some states. The day is known as Wyoming Equality Day in the state of Wyoming.

 I'm going to talk about one of the emblematic figures of the fight against segregation in the USA
On December 1, 1955, in the city of Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks, who was seated in a seat reserved for whites, refuses to obey a bus driver who asks her to leave her seat and go to the seat. bottom of the vehicle. She is arrested, tried and charged with public disorder and violation of local laws, with a fine of $ 15. She fully assumes her gesture, which however was not premeditated.
"People say I refused to give up my seat because I was tired, but it's not true, I was not physically tired, or no more than usual at the end of a day. I was not old, while some give me the image of an old woman.I was 42. No, the only fatigue I had was to give in. "
Rosa Parks is appealing the judgment. NAACP lawyer Edgar Nixon, seeing the symbolic value of the fight, is asking white lawyer Clifford Durr to agree to challenge the constitutionality of the segregation law. For his part, the 26-year-old pastor Martin Luther King, with the help of African-American community leaders, is launching a non-violent protest campaign and a boycott against the Montgomery bus company, a boycott that will last 381 days. Finally, on November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court broke the segregationist laws on buses by declaring them unconstitutional.


Mathilda, Emma

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