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Martin Luther King
History
11
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the preeminent leader of the movement to end segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other nonviolent means, arrived in Sioux Falls on January 12, 1961, as a guest of nearby St. John's Baptist Church. Earlier that day, because of mob violence, the governor of Georgia had suspended two black students from the University of Georgia and ordered state troopers to remove them from the school. Interviewed at Joe Foss Field about the upheaval in Georgia, Dr. King answered, "When public officials predict violence, it is an invitation to violence. ...Mobs function when they feel they are being aided and abetted by law enforcement authorities." That afternoon an informal reception was held for Dr. King at the First Baptist Church, and that evening he addressed a dinner meeting of the Knife & Fork Club at the Cataract Hotel. Two years later his "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C., electrified the nation, and he was honored as Time Magazine "Man of the Year." In 1964 King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and Martin Luther King Day, a national holiday, began in 1986.
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