Palm Springs Area Remembers Martin Luther King, Jr.
The city of Palm Springs and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration Committee will honor King’s life and work as a civil rights activist today.
The event, hosted by the Church of St. Paul in the Desert, will feature a message from former Olympic track and field athlete John Carlos and music. Palm Springs City Councilman Paul Lewin will present a proclamation honoring King.
There will be a reception in the church’s fellowship hall afterward.
“The Martin Luther King Commemoration Committee is working very hard to honor and celebrate the legacy of Dr. King,” said committee member Jarvis Crawford, who serves as manager of the James O. Jessie Desert Highland Unity Center. “We invite the entire Coachella Valley to come join us on Sunday and pay tribute to the man whose dream continues to inspire us every day.”
King was born in Atlanta Jan. 15, 1929, and educated at Morehouse College. In 1951, he earned a divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania.
In 1963, the Baptist preacher led a march to Washington, D.C., where he delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech in which he predicted “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
A march to Selma, Ala., in 1965, was met with police and mob violence and later became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
King drew his inspiration for nonviolent protest from Mahatma Gandhi and became one of leading anti-war activists as the war in Vietnam dragged on.
On April 4, 1968, just a day after delivering his “I have been to the mountaintop” speech, he was assassinated at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tenn., at 6:01 p.m. by escaped convict James Earl Ray.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan made King’s birthday a national holiday — it was not observed until 1986 — to be celebrated on the third Monday every January.
