WARM UP ACTIVITY

Do you know the meaning of the words segregation and discrimination?

Is Racism a problem in Italy?

After world war II and above all in the early sixties, twenty million black Americans started a series of direct actions to win civil rights: sit-ins, pray-ins, demonstrations etc. In the end they united in a non-violent mass movement for the achievement of equal rights led by the reverend Martin Luther King. On August 28, 1963, the reverend King led a great peaceful march for civil rights to Washington, D.C. : there were about 250,000 people. It was the most famous “march for freedom”. There was no violent action, all were praying and singing and listening to their leader. There he pronounced his famous speech: “I have a dream”. Here is a part of it: “ I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!”

The Portrait of a Charismatic Leader

Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. As a student in Philadelphia, King became enthusiastic about the writings of Mahatma Gandhi. In 1954, he became the minister of a small Negro Church in Montgomery. There he carried out the first non-violent protest against racial discrimination: the mass boycott of the Montgomery Bus Company. The protest originated from a serious episode of intolerance: on December 1, 1955, a black woman known as Rosa Parks was arrested because she had taken a seat reserved for white people on the bus. King advocated a passive resistance: he wanted to assert black right but with peaceful means.

King was arrested many times and his house was destroyed by a bomb. The terrible Ku – Klux – Klan organized numerous punitive expeditions for the members of King’s pacifist movement. After the great march in Washington and above all thanks to the help of the American President J.F Kennedy, finally in 1964 Congress passed the Civil Right Act and in the same year King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1965, Congress passed the “Voting Rights Act” through which the right to vote was extended to the Blacks. In 1968, King started another battle to secure better jobs and living conditions, especially for the blacks who lived in ghettos. He went to Memphis to organize a new peaceful march. But, on April 4^th, while he was standing on the balcony of his hotel room, an assassin’s bullet put an end to his young life.

ACTIVITIES

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of the former slave owners will be able to sit down together At the table of brotherhood I have a dream that 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 I have a dream today! ……every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plan and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together

What’s your opinion?

• Martin Luther King JR. wanted to assert black rights with peaceful means. Do you agree with his methods? Why? Why not?
• Do you think there is racism today? Give reason for your answer