He had a dream: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated his life to ensuring that his own children--and children everywhere--could one day play, work, and live peacefully with people of all races.

This month marks the 75th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His influence on American society has been so profound that it is hard to believe he was only 39 years old when he died.

Recently, a photography exhibit of King, called "Countdown to Eternity," has been traveling to museums around the world. Benedict J. Fernandez took the photos during the last year of King's life. They show King in moments of drama: leading demonstrations or addressing conferences. But they also capture the human side of a great leader, as he plays with his sons, Dexter and Martin III, or fastens his daughter Bernice's shoe.

The images remind us that King's quest was, above all, a personal one: to make a better world for his children and the generations to follow.

A Leader Is Born

King's life as a civil rights leader--and the modern civil rights movement itself--began in Montgomery, Alabama. In December 1955, Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, was arrested for refusing to move to the back of a city bus so that a white person could have her seat. Alabama laws required blacks and whites to sit in separate sections of public buses.

Such segregation (enforced separation of the races) was common in the U.S., particularly in the South. Local activists asked King, the young pastor of Montgomery's Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, to lead a boycott of the buses by the city's African-American residents.

During the boycott, which lasted more than a year, many whites harassed black citizens. King's life was threatened, and his home was bombed. After his family escaped without injury, King told sympathizers, "We must learn to meet hate with love."

The fight over Montgomery's buses went all the way to the Supreme Court. In November 1956, the Court ruled that segregation on the buses was illegal. The victory made King famous. It also led to a growing movement for equality. Across the South, people of all ages participated in nonviolent protests. Led by King and others, they staged marches, sitins, boycotts, and freedom rides (bus rides that tested the enforcement of desegregation in interstate transportation).

In 1964, in response to this movement, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. The law made segregation illegal in all public accommodations and banned racial discrimination in employment. Later that year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At 35, he was the youngest person ever to receive the honor.

The President of the Norwegian Parliament, who presented the award, called King "the first person in the Western world to show that a struggle can be waged without violence."

For His Children

By then, King and his wife, Coretta, had four children. He referred to them in his "I Have a Dream" speech during a march in Washington, D.C., in 1963. For their sake, he said, he was seeking to create a world where "little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers."

In the speech, which King delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before 200,000 supporters, he pleaded for a nation based on fairness and equality, not discrimination. "I have a dream," he said, "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."

Like generations of African-Americans before him, King struggled to explain the realities of racism to his children. His oldest daughter, Yolanda, was desperate to go to a local amusement park that had been advertised on TV. She didn't know that blacks weren't allowed.

"One of the most painful experiences I have ever faced was to see her tears when I told her that [the park] was closed to colored children," King told a magazine reporter in 1965. When the park was finally integrated, King and his daughter rode the Ferris wheel together and ate cotton candy.

The Last Year

The last year of King's life was a difficult one. Malay younger civil rights activists challenged his leadership and his strategy of nonviolence. Other Americans were angry when King spoke out against U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Still, he pressed on.

Tragically, King did not live to see his children grow up or his dreams fully realized. He was shot and killed by an assassin in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. He had gone to Memphis to support the city's garbage collectors, who were on strike.

The night before his murder, King gave a passionate speech to a group of the striking workers. He reflected on his years of struggle and said that, like the Hebrew patriarch Moses, he might not live to see the new world for which he had worked so hard.

"I don't mind," King said. "Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. 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."

This month, as the nation celebrates King's 75th birthday, we remember his dream. His message of peace and freedom lives on.

Family Man

Most photos of Martin Luther King Jr. show him in his role as a civil fights leader. The pictures in this story remind us that he was also a loving husband and father. JS spoke with photographer Benedict J. Fernandez about his time with the King family.

JS: How did King's children handle his being away so much?

BF: Daddy King and Grandma King [King's parents] were really the support mechanism for the family. The grandmother and grandfather took on the position of the matriarch and patriarch. That left Coretta and Martin to do what they had to do.

JS: One of your most touching shots is of King helping his daughter Bernice (who was nicknamed Bunny) put on her shoes. What was Bunny like?

BF: Bunny was totally free. She played with my camera; she took my picture with it, and all of that kind of stuff. She was that kind of very open child, and if you listen to her speak, she has more of her father than the other kids. She was the last child, the youngest, so she was the most [playful].

JS: How did your time with King change your outlook on life?

BF: I realized the value of nonviolence. Violence only begets violence. Nonviolence brings on harmony and peace and understanding.

Words to Know

* civil rights: The rights, or legal guarantees, that come with citizenship in some countries. They include the right to vote, speak freely, and receive equal treatment under the law.

LESSON PLANS

OBJECTIVES

Students should understand

* Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the leaders of the civil rights movement in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s.

TEACHING STRATEGY

Ask students to recall any protest march or demonstration they might have witnessed in their community or on television. Ask: "What events or issues have recently led some people to stage protests and demonstrations?"

BACKGROUND

In the late 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. broadened the civil rights movement to include protests against poverty. He began planning a campaign that would demand a federal law guaranteeing an annual income for poor people and other antipoverty measures.

THINKING SKILLS

CAUSE AND EFFECT: How did Segregation affect African-Americans and other minorities? (African-Americans and other minorities were denied their voting rights as well as opportunities for housing, education, and employment because of racist laws and attitudes. Segregation in many U.S. areas, particularly in the Southern states, led to violence and intimidation against people who tried to end racial discrimination.)

MAKING INFERENCES: What did Martin Luther King Jr. mean.when he referred to the "Promised Land" in April 1968? (King was using the biblical metaphor of the land promised by God to the Hebrew people in the book of Exodus. In King's metaphor, the Promised Land meant a future in which people of all races could live together in peace and equality.)

ACTIVITY

SEGREGATION AND INTEGRATION: Ask students to write a report on their school and community, describing everyday scenes that could not have occurred without the social changes brought about by the civil rights movement and legislation of the 1950s and 1960s.

STANDARDS

SOCIAL STUDIES, GRADES 5-8

* People, places, and environment: How Martin Luther King Jr. fought against discrimination through nonviolent means.

* Time, continuity, and change: How U,S, citizens protested for equal rights for all Americans during the civil rights movement, and helped bring an end to racial segregation.

RESOURCES

PRINT

* Haskins, James, The Life and Death of Martin Luther King Jr. (Harper Trophy, 1992). Grades 5-8.

* Hansen, Drew, The Dream: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech that Inspired a Nation (Ecco, 2003). Grades 7-8.

WEB SITES

* Martin Luther King Jr. Speeches www.stanford.edu/group/King/

* Civil Right Era http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart9.html