MEMORIES OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is unveiled in Washington, DC. A gallery of family, Civil Rights leaders and a former U.S. President remembers his legacy.

© Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
   
"It started with the example and teachings of our mother," Bernice said. "She constantly taught us about service to humanity, and she would recite over and over again the scripture that my father taught us. 'He who would be the greatest among you must be the servant.' We kind of advocated that and accepted that as our life's journey."© Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
   
“Dr. King was my inspiration, my leader, my hero. If it hadn’t been for Martin Luther King Jr., I don’t know what would have happened to me, and to so many other people.” © Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
     
  
"The march on Washington grew out of the Birmingham experience .... There had been 60 unsolved bombings, there had been lynchings, they had been castrations ..... It was a vicious mean place and nobody was anxious to take that on." © Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
   
"I was thrilled to be able to sign the legislation for a lot of reasons. First of all, Martin Luther King was to me the most inspiring pubic figure in America when I was growing up. He changed our country through his eloquence, through his courage, through his belief in non violence. If the world were as committed now as he was then to social change through active non violence we'd all feel a lot better about our future. He was our generation's Ghandi, our generation's Mandela. And I was thrilled to be able to do it knowing that the monument would be on the Mall because "The I have a Dream" speech that he gave on August 28th 1963 was the most important speech given by an American in my lifetime about America at home. They were lots of people like me who were young when it was given – who memorized it, who were moved to tears, whose hearts soared. know that he would be commemorated at the moment of his greatest impact on all Americans – it was a wonderful feeling."© Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
   
“My greatest memory of the march isn’t Dr. King’s speech – I’d heard him speak many times before – it was giving a Coke to Sammy Davis Jr. and him saying ‘Thanks kid.’” © Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
     
  
"We were testing the economic system in the United States of America that had never been tested before. We were bringing to Washington, poor whites, poor blacks, Native Americans, poor Mexican Americans and never before had all of these communities and racial and ethic groups come together to protest the injustices and the economic system in America. That's why he was assassinated – because We were saying to a capitalistic system you can't ignore us anymore. We are no longer invisible in America. You have got to deal with just and We want equality and justice. It had never been challenged before like that."© Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
   
"He was never far away from realizing the burden he had upon his shoulders. And even those around him, we never really had an appreciation of just how much weight was on his shoulders. He knew that in the struggle that perhaps assassination would be imminent and yet he functioned with a sense of fearlessness."© Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
   
"On the 4th of April Walter Fauntrroy and I were at by the Old People's drugstore at 14th and U we got the word that Dr. King had been assassinated. And Walter called down at Memphis to find out if that was true. We took about 20 minutes of crying and praying, crying and praying, crying and praying We saw the crowds gathering, we saw the molotov cocktails being made and thrown into the stores. We couldn't stop them."© Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
     
  
"Dr. King had courage. In those days it took courage for you to leave the comfort of your house, your wife and kids and go out into the community where you knew you were putting your life in danger. Courage is not something you see in everybody.He knew that he was living in danger everyday. We also knew we had to do this to achieve our objective. The objective was to say to this society we are full citizens who deserve our full citizenship rights."© Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
   
"I was born in Washington, D.C. I didn't have to look at a picture of the Constitution. I could see the actual Constitution down at the Archives."© Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
   
"When I gave the inauguration benediction, it was the first time I enjoyed hearing The Star-Spangled Banner. ... I still don't like the song, but my nation had changed. They told me I could see the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument but I could hardly see it...But I heard Martin's voice. I heard his words from 1963 summoning a nation to come up out of the low land of race and color to the higher ground of content of character. ... Here I was participating in the nation's response to that summons in the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States. So the statue means a lot to me. It is the personification of that voice I heard." © Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
     
  
"I would never not have gone to the March on Washington which was the coming together of people from across the country to say we want freedom."The civil rights movement had been bubbling up and many of us had gone to jail but this was bringing a whole community together across race and class and a show of unity and a message to the Kennedy administration that civil rights legislation was absolutely essential. And then Dr. King electrified us by embodying our dream and laying out what it was about. this big big massive demonstration and so it was just a collective gathering of people seeking justice and jobs and it was one of the great day's of our lives. And of our nation's life."© Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
   
"He was just daddy to us. We did not perhaps realize who he was – as one of the leaders of the modern Civil Rights movement, maybe until much later. And when I say much later, certainly by the time he was killed we understood. Dad was like a playmate to us when he would come home from the various trips that he took around our nation and world he devoted his energy toward satisfying us he did not have a large quantity of time but the quality was really remarkable." © Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED