IN THE NEWS - 40th Anniversary of Martin

Luther King Jr's Death

By Brianna Blake / Broadcast date: Saturday, April 05, 2008
Source: http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/
This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
Forty years ago, African American civil rights leader, the
Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior, was shot and
killed. He died on April fourth, nineteen sixty-eight in
Memphis, Tennessee.
On Friday, in that city, presidential candidates, civil rights
leaders, labor activists and thousands of citizens came
together. They honored Doctor King for leading the struggle
for racial equality and economic justice.
During the nineteen fifties and sixties, Doctor King had led a Martin Luther King, Jr.
campaign of non-violent protests. His work was aimed at
ending racial separation and discrimination against African Americans.
His efforts led to passage of the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty-four. That year, he won the
Nobel Peace Prize.
Forty years ago, Doctor King was in Memphis to organize a strike for workers' rights. The
sanitation workers in the city were protesting their low wages and poor working conditions.
Doctor King was thirty-nine years old at the time, and had become the nation's chief civil
rights leader.
His murder incited riots in more than one hundred American cities. The race riots lasted for
days. Many African American neighborhoods burned. The government ordered about fifty
thousand soldiers to help control the violence. An estimated twenty-one thousand people
were arrested. Almost fifty people were killed. And millions of dollars in property was
damaged or destroyed.
His murder also brought about a divisive and difficult period for race relations in the United
States.
In the years since his death, Doctor King has often been called one of the most honored
Americans in history. But for many, his work for racial equality remains unfinished.

In the past forty years, African Americans have become successful in education, business,
entertainment and politics. The rise of Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack
Obama is a powerful sign of racial progress. If elected in November, Mister Obama would
become America's first black president.
Yet experts say the black population as a whole has not reached equality with white people
socially and economically. Black Americans experience greater rates of poverty and crime
than whites.
Civil rights leaders say that forty years after his death, many African Americans still seek
Doctor King's dream of equality and opportunity.
Martin Luther King Junior is best remembered for his nineteen sixty-three "I Have a Dream"
speech. It brought together millions of people in the United States and around the world to
work for racial justice.
(SOUND: "I Have a Dream Speech")
And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve
Ember.