Dr. Martin Luther King & Canada

 

This is the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States and most years I reflect on some aspect of the legacy of Dr. King, one of the central figures in the civil rights movement in the United States. King was a married Baptist pastor with four young children when he was assassinated at the age of 39. I have a son who is a married United Church pastor with two young children and is a year older than MLK was when he died. King is such an iconic figure in civil rights history we can forget that he was a relatively young man who left behind a grieving family. In the years leading up to his death he sacrificed so much of his personal life for the cause he was drawn into and led with such determination and courage. 

                              Emancipation Day in Windsor, Ontario, 1956, with Dr. King as keynote speaker 

While this is an American holiday I've noted before that there are Canadian connections with Dr. King, including an appearance of the CBC show Front Page Challenge where a panel of four attempted to guess the identity of mystery celebrity guests. According to a CBC piece about that guest spot in 1959: 

On the subject of non-violence, panelist Gordon Sinclair asked King if his ideas came from the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. "Yes, I would say from Mahatma Gandhi and Jesus," said King."My whole Christian background had a great deal to do with my coming to this conclusion: that love and non-violence should be the regulating ideals in any struggle for human dignity."

Mystery Front Page Challenge guest Martin Luther King Jr. was likely to be recognized by the panel and was placed behind them as they tried to guess the headline he was associated with on April 28, 1959. (Roy Martin/CBC Still Photo Collection)