Res. No. 655 Title Resolution honoring the life and accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., born on January 15, 1929. Body By Council Members Perkins, Barron, Boyland, Brewer, Comrie, Felder, Fidler, Foster, Gennaro, Gerson, Jackson, Liu, Lopez, McMahon, Monserrate, Neslon, Recchia, Reed, Reyna, Rivera, Sanders, Vann, Weprin and Lanza; also Council Member Seabrook Whereas, Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, where his father, Martin Luther King, Sr., was a Baptist minister, and his mother Alberta Williams King, was a schoolteacher; and Whereas, A Nobel Prize winner and civil rights leader, Dr. King was educated at Morehouse College, the Croyer Theological Seminary and Boston University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1955; and Whereas, While serving as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, Dr. King was elected President of the Montgomery Improvement Association which organized a year-long boycott against segregated public transportation; and Whereas, The boycott led by Dr. King was successful and as a result Dr. King was catapulted to prominence in the civil rights struggle, becoming one of America's most sought after speakers and known in almost every corner of America as "a modern Moses;" and Whereas, One of our most revered national heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., taught us to fight non-violently, with tolerance, understanding and love; and Whereas, A disciple of Mohandas K. Gandhi, Dr. King inspired hundreds of thousands--young and old, Black and White, rich and poor--to adopt tactics of non-violent, civil disobedience as a means of eliminating the racism and segregation which brought shame to our nation; and Whereas, Scoring victory after victory throughout the segregated South, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a symbol of African American empowerment and political awareness; and Whereas, The 1963 March on Washington by all the organizations involved in the civil rights movement culminated with Dr. King's historic "I have a Dream" speech that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and Whereas, While supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Dr. King was struck down and killed by an assassin's bullet on April 4, 1968; and Whereas, Dr. King said "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly;" and Whereas, The City of New York and the World have experienced increasing incidences of misunderstandings between different groups; and Whereas, The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: "We have a large house, a great 'world house' in which we have to live together--black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Moslem and Hindu--a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace;" and Whereas, What Dr. King said then is still true, "we have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation;" now, therefore, be it Resolved, that the Council of the City of New York honors the accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., born on January 15, 1929, and celebrates the life of this great African- American leader. - 2 -