I’m not a big fan of political holidays to begin with, because they’re almost always on a Monday, like today and therefore a 3-day weekend and excuse for yet another department store sale-a-thon but Martin Luther King, Jr. truly deserves to be remembered, whether your white or black, as an American hero.  He unlike many, unlike most activists and politicians who try so hard to do so did in fact change the course of history, for the better.

I’m attaching a few shortcuts to historical papers and documents.  His “I Have A Dream” speech is the most famous and quoted, for obvious reasons, but if you really want to read something inspirational, click on his Letter From a Birmingham Jail (link #3).  I remember exactly where I was in the UCSB Library, that beautiful summer day when I first read this.  I had to read it again and then a third time at home later that night.  You’ll never think of the man, or his struggle in the same light again. 

http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/mlkpapers/

http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/mlkpapers/

http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/liberation_curriculum/

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=347&invol=483