Nation remembers MLK on 50th anniversary of death

Martin Luther King Jr.’s was assassinated April 4, 1968. Fifty years later the nation still honors his memory.

“America must continue to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. because he set the standard when it comes for fighting for your rights,” said Andrew Yeoman, a history teacher at Center Hill High School. “He was able to bring all the attention of the nation and even parts of the world to how African Americans were not being treated fairly in the South. By doing it in a peaceful way he became a role model for millions of Americans and not just African Americans.”

Yeoman said it is important to study King.

“There has been and will be other groups of people who will feel disenfranchised by their government, and what better way to strive for better treatment than by studying the peaceful forms of protests that Martin Luther King and his followers perfected during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s?,” Yeoman said. “As I am teaching World History it is easy to always relate Mohandas Gandhi’s fight for better treatment of India by Great Britain to Luther’s fight for equality for African Americans in America because they both used the strategy of peaceful protests. It also shows how the rights guaranteed to American citizens by the United States Constitution can not be taken away because of race which affects everybody.”

Sophomore Trinise Collins said King was a great influence.

“I feel like Dr. King was a big impact to our country dealing with racism and us coming together as equal,” Collins said. “He was a good leader to society and spread peace in the right way. Not only that, we should study history so we won’t repeat it.”

Laura Iluobe agreed.

“I think we should study Martin Luther King because he worked so hard for our freedom and equality,” the sophomore said. “It is important that we know what Dr. King did for our country. Because of my race and its history and struggle, it does affect me.”