Honoring Dr. King’s Birthday: MLK Day Google Doodle Tribute Today with “I Have a Dream” Artwork on Homepage
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on January 16, 2012
The third Monday in January has been set aside as a U.S. holiday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his courageous, passionate efforts during America’s volatile era of civil rights. Google pays tribute to the Baptist minister-leader today with a special MLK Day doodle on its home page created by artist Faith Ringgold. The doodle honors Dr. King’s contributions as the leader of the civil rights movement — a cause for which he lost his life on April 4, 1968 when he was gunned down in Memphis, Tennessee.
Born January 15, 1929, had he lived, Dr. King would have celebrated his 83rd birthday yesterday.
These are a few other Google MLK homepage tribute doodles:
2011 Google doodle for MLK Day/Dr. Martin Luther King
2010 Google doodle for MLK Day/Dr. Martin Luther King
From Washington Post, MARTIN LUTHER KING GOOGLE DOODLE: MLK ‘Dream’ logo celebrates civil-rights leader’s birthday:
IN AUGUST OF 1963, as he stepped up to the lectern of history to deliver his monumental “I Have a Dream” speech on the National Mall, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was introduced as “the moral leader of our nation.”
Today, nearly 50 years later, the moral courage and conviction of Dr. King’s words seem to ring out as resonant as ever from every exalted valley, from hill and mountaintop — and from the modern prominent perch that is Google’s search homepage.
Google celebrates today’s Martin Luther King “Day of Service” holiday with a logo that features the preaching civil-rights leader — and that’s ringed with the inspiring words of that 1963 speech. Speaking with the Lincoln Memorial as resonant backdrop, King sonorously intoned: “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.”
One of those “four little chidren” — Martin Luther King III — is now president of the King Center, which today is making 200,000 of the Nobel Prize winner’s documents available for the first time online, at TheKingCenter.org (the project includes notes from that March of Washington speech).
Today’s “Google Doodle” was created by the Harlem-born artist and author Faith Ringgold , a professor emeritus at UCSD and “story quilter” whose first book, “Tar Beach,” received the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration.
Summary from Wikipedia of Dr. King’s assassination and funeral:
[Dr. Martin Luther] King was booked in room 306 at the Lorraine Motel, owned by Walter Bailey, in Memphis. The Reverend Ralph Abernathy, King’s close friend and colleague who was present at the assassination, testified under oath to the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations that King and his entourage stayed at room 306 at the Lorraine Motel so often it was known as the “King-Abernathy suite.”
According to Jesse Jackson, who was present, King’s last words on the balcony prior to his assassination were spoken to musician Ben Branch, who was scheduled to perform that night at an event King was attending: “Ben, make sure you play ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord’ in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty.”
Then, at 6:01 p.m., April 4, 1968, a shot rang out as King stood on the motel’s second floor balcony. The bullet entered through his right cheek, smashing his jaw, then traveled down his spinal cord before lodging in his shoulder. Abernathy heard the shot from inside the motel room and ran to the balcony to find King on the floor. The events following the shooting have been disputed, as some people have accused Jackson of exaggerating his response.
After emergency chest surgery, King was pronounced dead at St. Joseph’s Hospital at 7:05 p.m. According to biographer Taylor Branch, King’s autopsy revealed that though only thirty-nine years old, he had the heart of a sixty-year-old man, perhaps a result of the stress of thirteen years in the civil rights movement.
The assassination led to a nationwide wave of race riots in Washington D.C., Chicago, Baltimore, Louisville, Kentucky, Kansas City, and dozens of other cities. Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was on his way to Indianapolis for a campaign rally when he was informed of King’s death. He gave a short speech to the gathering of supporters informing them of the tragedy and urging them to continue King’s ideal of non-violence.James Farmer, Jr. and other civil rights leaders also called for non-violent action, while the more militant Stokely Carmichael called for a more forceful response.
President Lyndon B. Johnson declared April 7 a national day of mourning for the civil rights leader. Vice-President Hubert Humphrey attended King’s funeral on behalf of the President, as there were fears that Johnson’s presence might incite protests and perhaps violence.
At his widow’s request, King’s last sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church was played at the funeral, a recording of his “Drum Major” sermon, given on February 4, 1968. In that sermon, King made a request that at his funeral no mention of his awards and honors be made, but that it be said that he tried to “feed the hungry”, “clothe the naked”, “be right on the [Vietnam] war question”, and “love and serve humanity”. His good friend Mahalia Jackson sang his favorite hymn, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord”, at the funeral.
Dr. King and his wife Coretta Scott King, with three of their four children: L. to R. Martin Luther King III, age 5, Dexter Scott, age 2, Yolanda Denise, age 7. Photo was taken in their home in Georgia, March 17, 1963 - Coretta gave birth 11 days later to Bernice Albertine, March 28, 1963
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and R. Sargent Shriver
Martin Luther King – I Have A Dream Speech – August 28, 1963
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