Area IV celebrated the life and teachings of the Great Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Camp Henry Theater on January 12 hosted by 25th Transportation Battalion.
Martin Luther King Jr. had a big impact on civil rights movement and is well-known to the public as Rosa Parks, who sparked the civil rights movement by refusing to change seats. He led the civil rights struggle throughout the 1960s until he was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. Although he no longer walked among the civil rights movement, his legacy continued to influence the people and changed the world.
What was notable about this event was that there were re-enactments of the Great Reverend himself and the famous speech about King by Robert F. Kennedy. Sgt. Antwain Mathes from United States Army Material Support Command -- Korea played as King and 2nd Lt. Marcus Plunkett played as Kennedy. Plunkett quoted a famous speech by Kennedy.
"I have some very sad news for all of you, and, I think, sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee," said Plunkett. "For those of you who are black and are tempted to fill with be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.But we have to make an effort in the United States. We have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond, or go beyond these rather difficult times."
The President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983 and it has been observed since 1986 on third Monday in January every year.
"I was reminded once again that the date of his funeral was exactly and only five years from the date I was born," said Mr. Vernon M. Strickland, guest speaker of the day. "It was a very short time. You think as a young person as seeing various videos in black and white, it was an ancient history. Then I realized that five years before I came to be, King was around and the civil rights movement struggled. The things that I've seen in the TV that looks so foreign were not too long and our short past," said Plunkett.
Famous quotes from the Great Reverend include "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character," The time is always right to do what is right," "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends," and the "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
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