Black people walked alongside and prayed for Martin Luther King. Black people knew the dangers of his mission. During those turbulent times in the Jim Crow South, Black men and women were tired and wanted justice and respect.

Martin Luther King started an entirely new approach with the Montgomery bus boycott: non-violent protest. Three hundred eighty-one days of walking brought down a bus company and a city. This led the way for demonstrating against other civil rights injustices. King was often jailed, but he continued his struggle.

Martin had studied Mohandas Ghandi and used his non-violent approch to the movement he was now leading. Turning the other cheek was tough, but with prayer and determination, King's message of non violence was heard around the world.

This struggle led to a demonstration at our Nation�s Capitol, where King delivered his most famous speech, " I Have A Dream". He told our government that we as Black people were tired and wanted our rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

He also said, "In a sense we have come to our nation's Capitol to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be granted the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".

Television showed this to the world and we all watched. Organizations had started months before to prepare for this mission. The March on Washington took the Black man�s plight to the seats of government to show that the time was urgent.

King as a young minister became active in the civil rights movement. He became known
by Tallulah Dancier