On 4 April 1968 Dr Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated. He was just 39 years old. He was a great civil rights leader who spoke for black people in America. At the age of 35 he received the Nobel Peace Prize and in 1963 was named Man of the Year by Time magazine. He travelled extensively and spoke passionately highlighting the injustices black people in America were suffering. He was a Baptist minister who found inspiration for his powerful speeches in the great themes of the Bible, and especially the teaching of Jesus Christ. Because of this Dr King still speaks to the injustices of our divided world.

His best-known speech, “I Have a Dream”, was delivered on 28 August 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. In his speech Dr King said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that one day ‘every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.’ When this happens we will speed up that day when all of God’s children will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”

Dr King knew there were serious threats to kill him. The same hope in God he inspired in others was also the foundation for his own personal hope. On the night before he died he gave a speech in Memphis, Tennessee, in which he said, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will and he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain and I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! And so I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything! I’m not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!”