July 11th: The Day Martin Luther King Jr was Awarded the Medal of Freedom

Martin Luther King Jr.

After King's assassination in April 1968, the American President Jimmy Carter presented Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a White House ceremony in 1977. The Medal is awarded to remarkable individuals for 'an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavours'; which, in a nutshell, seems to describe King's achievements and aspirations pretty much perfectly. Some of the previous recipients of the Medal include Walt Disney, Audrey Hepburn, T.S. Eliot, Tennessee Williams, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Henry Ford II and Rosa Parks.
   King strove to improve quality of life for black people, becoming a prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement, insisting on a non-violent approach through his famous Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and other peaceful forms of protest. He won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, celebrating the momentous impact he had and the voice he provided for racial equality and rights. The Medal of Freedom was awarded posthumously to Martin Luther King Jr., and President Jimmy Carter said he 'was the conscience of his generation. He gazed upon the great wall of segregation and saw that the power of love could bring it down...He made our nation stronger because he made it better. His dream sustains us yet.' King's infamous 'I Have a Dream' speech was seventeen minutes of inspiration that had life-changing effects, undoubtedly a worthy contender for a Medal of Freedom.