I spoke on Martin Luther King this Sunday.
It was a really inspiring and thought provoking topic for me.
Here are some notes, and also the link to th audio if you are interested.
" When America was first formed as a nation they wrote the constitution which guaranteed freedom and the right to pursue a happy life to all of its peoples, regardless of their race creed or religion.
However for 300 years after that, the slave trade was alive and well in America where black people where shipped from Africa to be bought, sold, worked and used as cattle…as machines….as slaves. After the civil war the black people of North America were declared free…but well into the 20th century, people were shunted, segrageted, placed in substandard schools, or no schools, they were denied the right to own property, to marry who they wanted…..while on paper they were declared free…they still where under the bondage of slavery to the point of not even being able to get onto the bus if a white person was there. Coretta scott King who married Martin Luther King, told the story of how as a little girl she watched the local police force and local city council burn down her fathers saw mill….burn down her fathers life work…in front of the family.
Then as she struggled as a young black girl in Alabama to get an education she told how she used to walk to the black only primary school and be covered in dust from the buses of the white children being driven to their school in the early 1940’s.
American citizens of African descent where not allowed to vote, not allowed to eat in restaurants, only allowed to travel on certain buses at certain times…
In 1929, less than one life time after slaves were declared free…Martin Luther King Jnr was born in Atlanta,"
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