作者：连线美国

马丁•路德•金（Martin Luther King Jr.）把一生献给美国争取种族平等的非暴力斗争。每年1月份的第3个星期一是联邦假日，马丁•路德•金日（Martin Luther King Day），鼓励人们纪念马丁•路德•金的历史业绩并鼓励公民参加社区志愿服务。

历程的开端

(National ParkService)

1929年1月15日马丁•路德•金出生在一个浸礼会（Baptist）牧师世家。他在亚特兰大市（Atlanta）长大。由于当时的“吉姆∙克罗法”（Jim Crow laws），种族隔离和歧视是美国南部黑人每天必须面对的现实。后来，马丁•路德•金进入莫尔豪斯学院（Morehouse College），并在那里意识到宗教是促进社会变革有力的催化剂。他在波士顿大学神学院（Boston University’s School of Theology）获得博士学位之后，回到南部的阿拉巴马州蒙哥马利市（Montgomery，Alabama），并在德克斯特大街浸礼会教堂（Dexter Avenue Baptist Church）担任牧师。 今天，马丁•路德•金在亚特兰大的出生地被国家公园管理局（National Park Service）列为国家历史遗址（NationalHistorical Site） 。

20世纪50年代的民权斗争

在黑人女裁缝罗莎•帕克斯（Rosa Parks）因在公共汽车上拒绝给白人乘客让座而被捕后，马丁•路德•金协助发起了为时一年的蒙哥马利公共汽车抵制运动（Montgomery bus boycott）。1956年最高法院废除阿拉巴马州的公共汽车种族隔离法之后，马丁•路德•金与其他人一起创立了南方基督教领袖联合会（Southern Christian Leadership Conference），在整个南部推进争取民权的非暴力行动。他深受圣雄甘地（Mahatma Gandhi）理念的影响，并曾于1959年前往印度。

20世纪60年代的标志性人物

(photo by National Archives)

马丁•路德•金在加入埃比尼泽浸礼会教堂（Ebenezer Baptist Church）与父亲一起成为那里的牧师后，继续以雄辩的口才呼吁结束种族隔离和法律上的不平等。在整个60年代，他多次在阿拉巴马州、佛罗里达州（Florida）和佐治亚州（Georgia）的非暴力抗议运动中被捕。1963年，马丁•路德•金在被监禁期间写了《从伯明翰市监狱发出的信》（Letter from Birmingham City Jail)，概述了民权运动的道德基础。同年8月，他在华盛顿对聚集在国家大草坪的20多万人发表了著名演说《我有一个梦想》（I Have a Dream）。

1965年3月7日被称为“血腥星期天”（Bloody Sunday），因为争取投票权的示威民众在经过亚拉巴马州塞尔马(Selma) 的埃德蒙•佩特斯桥（Edmund Pettus Bridge）时受到州警和一些平民的殴打，结果被迫返回。但这场惨剧促使马丁•路德•金领导了行程长达87公里的赛尔玛至蒙哥马利（Selma-to-Montgomery）的为争取投票权的大游行（如图）。

民权斗争的胜利

1964年，林登•约翰逊（Lyndon Johnson）总统签署了具有历史意义的《民权法案》（CivilRights Act），禁止在就业、公共场所以及其他生活领域中实行歧视。马丁•路德•金出席了将此法案签署成联邦法律的仪式（如图）。之后，他继续敦促制定一项不得通过识字测验等歧视性做法剥夺黑人投票权的法律。1965年，约翰逊总统签署了《投票权法》（Voting Rights Act）。1964年，马丁•路德•金所作的努力使他获得诺贝尔和平奖（Nobel PeacePrize）。

遭遇暗杀后

1968年4月4日，马丁•路德•金在他下榻的田纳西孟菲斯旅馆的阳台上遇刺身亡。在他的葬礼上，数千名吊唁者跟随载着他灵柩的灵车步行穿过亚特兰大市。

马丁•路德•金逝世之后，他的一篇题为《希望的见证》（A Testament of Hope）的文章发表。他在文中呼吁美国黑人继续坚持非暴力，但同时告诫人们，“不通过社会结构的根本改变就不可能实现对黑人的公正”。

金氏遗产：非暴力抗争

1959年，马丁•路德•金在访问印度期间发表的一次广播讲话中说道：“今天，我们不再有暴力与非暴力的选择，而是非暴力还是非存在”。他的理念受到甘地以非暴力行为结束英国在印度的统治的启发。马丁•路德•金的思想也鼓舞了其他人通过非暴力手段改变自己的社会，例如团结工会（Solidarity movement）发起了结束苏联对波兰统治的运动以及纳尔逊•曼德拉（Nelson Mandela）为结束南非种族隔离进行的斗争。

金氏遗产：与偏见作斗争

在1963年的华盛顿大游行（March on Washington）期间，马丁•路德•金宣告，对所有人的评价“不应基于他们的肤色，而应基于他们的内在品格”。位于亚特兰大的马丁•路德•金中心（King Center）是对马丁•路德•金所憧憬的致力于扩大机会、反对种族主义、结束一切形式的歧视的自由平等世界的活纪念碑。

金氏遗产：追求社会正义

斯坦福大学马丁•路德•金研究和教育学院（Research and Education Institute at Stanford University）设有“马丁•路德•金文献项目”（King Papers Project)，全面收录了马丁•路德•金的演讲、信件和其他著作，维护他毕生致力于为子孙后代建设“可爱社区”的承诺。该学院还参与了“解放课程倡议”（Liberation Curriculum Initiative）和“甘地-金共同体”（Gandhi-King Community）项目。这两个项目均运用马丁•路德•金的生平和思想，团结世界范围内的社会活动家，过非暴力手段促进人权和正义。

金氏遗产：为他人服务

奥巴马总统和第一夫人米歇尔•奥巴马（ Michelle Obama ）参加志愿社区服务，在墙上书写马丁•路德•金的语录。(©AP Images)

在美国，马丁•路德•金纪念日被确定为全国服务日（national day of service ） ，要求美国人民视这一天为“行动日而非休息日”，发扬马丁•路德•金致力于改善他人生活的精神。奥巴马总统提出，服务与志愿精神是帮助我们应对我们这个世界各种挑战的重要途径。

让梦想代代相传

马丁•路德•金纪念碑坐落在华盛顿国家大草坪上，位于他发表《我有一个梦想》演说的林肯纪念堂（Lincoln Memorial）附近，激励参观者反思他的一生和他留给后人的遗产。

Martin Luther KingJr. dedicated his life to the nonviolent struggle for racial equality in theUnited States. The third Monday in January marks Martin Luther King Day, a U.S.holiday that honors King’s legacy and challenges citizens to engage in volunteer service intheir communities.

Beginning the journey

Born on January 15,1929, to a long line of Baptist ministers, King grew up in Atlanta at a timewhen Jim Crow laws made segregation and discrimination a daily reality forblacks in the South.

King attendedMorehouse College in Atlanta, where he came to view religion as a powerfulcatalyst for social change. He received his doctorate from Boston University’sSchool of Theology before returning to the South, where he served as pastor ofthe Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Today, King’sAtlanta birthplace is registered as a National Historical Site with theNational Park Service.

Civil rights struggle in the 1950s

King helped organizethe Montgomery bus boycott, a yearlong campaign touched off when seamstressRosa Parks was arrested after refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a whitepassenger. After the Supreme Court overturned Alabama’sbus segregation laws in 1956, King co-founded the Southern Christian LeadershipConference and promoted nonviolent action for civil rights throughout theSouth. He was influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and traveled toIndia in 1959.

An iconic figure of the 1960s

Joining his father asco-pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, King continued to use hisoratorical gifts to urge an end to segregation and legal inequality. Throughoutthe 1960s, he was arrested during nonviolent protests in Alabama, Florida andGeorgia. While incarcerated after one such arrest, in 1963, King penned theLetter from Birmingham City Jail, outlining the moral basis for the civilrights movement. That August, he delivered his famous “IHave a Dream” speech to more than 200,000 peoplegathered on the National Mall in Washington.

March 7, 1965, becameknown as Bloody Sunday because voting-rights marchers were beaten by statetroopers and civilians as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma,Alabama. The violence turned them back, but the ordeal led King to call foranother, longer march (pictured) — an 87-kilometer-long,Selma-to-Montgomery march for voting rights.

Civil rights victories

In 1964, PresidentLyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which banned discrimination inemployment, public accommodations and other aspects of life. King attended thesigning of the act into law . He continued to press for a law to ensure thatblacks could not be denied the right to vote by discriminatory practices suchas literacy tests, and, in 1965, Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. Kingreceived the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

In the wake of assassination

On April 4, 1968,King was assassinated on the balcony outside his Memphis, Tennessee, hotelroom. At his funeral, thousands of mourners marched through Atlanta behind amule-drawn wagon bearing his coffin.

In a posthumouslypublished essay titled “A Testament of Hope,” King urged blackAmericans to continue their commitment to nonviolence, but also cautioned that “justice for black people cannot be achieved without radical changesin the structure of our society.”

King’s legacy: Nonviolent protest

In a 1959 radioaddress during his visit to India, King said: “Today we no longerhave a choice between violence and nonviolence; it is either nonviolence ornonexistence.” His philosophy was inspired by Gandhi’s nonviolent action to end British rule in India. In his turn, Kinginspired others to change their societies through nonviolent means, from theSolidarity movement’s cracking of Soviet occupation inPoland to Nelson Mandela’s struggle to end apartheid inSouth Africa.

King’s legacy: Fighting prejudice

During the 1963 Marchon Washington, King declared that all people should be judged not “bythe color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” The King Center in Atlanta is a living memorial to King’s vision of a free and equal world dedicated to expandingopportunity, fighting racism and ending all forms of discrimination.

King’s legacy: Pursuing social justice

The Martin LutherKing Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University is home to theKing Papers Project, a comprehensive collection of all of King’sspeeches, correspondence and other writings. The institute is also involvedwith the Liberation Curriculum Initiative and the Gandhi-King Community, bothof which use King’s life and ideas to connect socialactivists around the world working to promote human rights.

King’s legacy: Service to others

In the U.S., MartinLuther King Day is designated a national day of service. Americans are urged tocelebrate “a day on, not a day off” in honor of King’s commitment to improving the lives of others. President Obamapromotes volunteerism as a way to help meet the challenges facing our world.

Keepingthe dream alive.