美国有线新闻 CNN 美国庆祝马丁路德金纪念日 回顾美国民权运动

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For many people in America, yesterday was a day off school or work. The holiday became official on the third Monday of January in 1986, after President Ronald Reagan had signed it into law more than two years earlier.

But in recent years, the U.S. government has pushed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to be recognized not as a "day off" but as "day on", a day of service. The Corporation for National and Community Service quotes Dr. King's statement that life's most persistent¹ and urgent question is, what are you doing for others?

So, that theme joins the memory of Dr. King's impact on the U.S. civil rights movement.

REPORTER: Dr. King's legacy² of nonviolent protesting lives on. To get a better understanding, I took a trip to Atlanta's Center for Civil and Human Rights.

The center's LaTasha Smith provided the history lesson.

LATASHA SMITH, CENTER FOR CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS: So, in the 1950s, you also had the death of Emmett Till and how that really sparked the civil rights movement, because people were outraged³ that this young black boy was killed for allegations that were untrue and false, and his murder being so unjust and so brutal⁴ at the time.

REPORTER: Till's death pushed King and others to develop more unified⁵ strategies of protest. That included the bus boycotts⁶ and the lunch counter sit-ins across the south.

SMITH: So, we have the Greensboro sit-in at the Woolworth lunch counter and that's in the 1960s where student at North Carolina A&T sat down at white-only counters to protest the segregation⁷ that was taking place there.

REPORTER: Sit-ins like these were conducted by college students. They endured racial slurs⁸ and physical violence just for the right to sit at the whites only counters.

The sit-in movement was a precursor⁹ to the March on Washington. The march inspired many with its peaceful show of solidarity¹⁰ and amazing speeches.

But its leaders wanted more.

What was the strategy behind it? What were they fighting for? What specifically did they want?

SMITH: So, March on Washington was all about jobs and freedom and equality. What a lot of people don't know is that there were a set of 10 demands that were created and were drafted —

REPORTER: Here they are.

SMITH: — that were — that the protesters wanted to achieve.

REPORTER: Though much has been accomplished¹¹ since the march, at the time, opposition¹² to change persisted, and so did violence.

The Birmingham church bombing, Bloody¹³ Sunday, and the murder of the movement's leader set the country on fire.