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The following is the full text of Lt. Col. Dawson Plummers speech from Fort Bennings observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Maj. Gen. McMaster, CSM Carabello, distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen thank you all for coming to celebrate the birthday and memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I know that some of you may be wondering why we are celebrating a man and his dream, and what was it that Dr. King did that was so important for the entire country to recognize him during the month of his birthday?
Well, lets start with eight things we know or do not know about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
He was born on January 15, 1929, to Martin Luther King Sr. and Mrs. Alberta Williams King in Atlanta Georgia. Martin Luther King Sr. was also a pastor, which helped pave the way for his son to follow in his foot steps. Another interesting fact about Dr. King Jr.s parents was that they also fought against racial prejudice, and his father considered racism and segregation to be contrary to Gods will. Dr. King Jr.s father strongly discouraged any sense of class superiority in his children as well.
Dr. King started pre-school at the age of 5, skipped the 9th and 11th grades and entered Morehouse College in Atlanta at age 15 in 1944.
After graduating with a degree in sociology, he attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania.
Dr. King Jr. enrolled and completed his graduate studies at Boston University. By 1955, Dr. King Jr. completed his Ph D. and was only 25 years old. Dr. King met his wife Coretta Scott in Boston and they were married in 1953.
When he became active in the the civil rights movement his home was fire bombed and he was arrested 20 times.
So, what else inspired him to take up the cause of civil rights? Well, I think we first need to see what the United States looked like during this time. Before civil rights, America was living under the separate but equal law established by the 1896 Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson.
Public transportation had separate waiting areas, movie theaters were either all black or all white and there were separate public water fountains and bathrooms.
Although most restaurants only served a particular race, there were some that had separate entrances for those that did not want to lose business and catered to different races and sectioned off areas so that they would not mix.
Take a look at some of these other pictures. When you say help wanted I guess you had to be a little more specific as to what kind of help you were looking for.
Schools and universities were segregated and for this particular university that accepted a black man who paid his tuition, they eventually gave him a seat out in the corridor instead of the main classroom.
Most of the time there were either white schools or black schools until the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in 1954 separate educational facilities are inherently unequal, and therefore racial segregation of public schools violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment (This was the famous Brown vs the board of education argued by Thurgood Marshall).
If you were traveling across the country and were looking for a hotel, apartment or someplace to rent, you had to make sure you were aware of the type of community and the posted signs.
On a different note, one thing that the military and eventually our government could agree on were that bullets and bombs, when fired by Americas enemies, did not discriminate.
President Harry Truman knew this as well as many of our military leaders. Progressing from all black units to integrated units seen in the Korean War, the military started to recognize the importance of working together regardless of race, and coupled with the work of civil rights activists, Dr. King Jr. included, our military is still today one of the best equal opportunity employers in the United States.
So why was this working together concept not acceptable when minority Soldiers came back from war and were treated like second class citizens?
Well, believe it or not, the thing we tend to brag about is the main re