The push for a federal holiday in honor of King began just four days after his assassination on April 4, 1968. King is the only non-President whose birthday is a national holiday Curry was committed to a mental hospital and died in 2015. The blade stopped just beside his heart, and doctors later told him that if he had so much as sneezed, he would not have survived.Īfter the incident, King said that he bore no animus toward the woman and did not want charges pressed, reiterating his commitment to nonviolence. I’m glad I done it!” she reportedly shouted. Izola Ware Curry, a 42-year-old Black woman, approached him and thrust a seven-inch ivory-handled steel letter opener into his chest with such force that it snapped the handle. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” An assassination attempt affirmed his faith in nonviolenceĪ decade before his death, King narrowly escaped an assassination attempt while signing copies of his memoir about the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott, Stride Toward Freedom, in Harlem. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. He paused, and then decided to leave his prepared notes behind to improvise the entire next section of his speech, which famously begins: “So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. King later said that being named TIME Man of the Year-now Person of the Year-was a tribute to the entire civil rights movement, and commended the magazine for prominently featuring a Black person on its cover. By deed and by preachment, he has stirred in his people a Christian forbearance that nourishes hope and smothers injustice.” “Yet he has an indescribable capacity for empathy that is the touchstone of leadership. “Few can explain the extraordinary King mystique,” TIME wrote in the story. TIME named King as the 1963 “ Man of the Year,' making the civil rights leader the first Black person to receive the honor.

He was the first Black person to be named TIME Man of the Year Day, TIME has compiled a number of lesser-known facts about the man whose unwavering commitment to justice and equality shaped the course of American history. comes together to celebrate his life and legacy on Monday, Jan. Martin Luther King Jr., a pivotal figure in the civil rights movement, dedicated his life to advocating for racial harmony and the realization of the American dream for all.Īs the U.S.

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