MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. (JANUARY 15, 1929 -APRIL 4, 1968)

January 15, 2013 would have been the 84th birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I present the following photo gallery and quotes that pay tribute to his vision of a beloved community in America and the world.

An undated picture of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthplace, 501 Auburn Avenue N.E., Atlanta, Ga.  Dr. King was born here, January 15, 1929.  (AP Photo) Photo: Beaumont

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is shown speaking to an  overflow crowd at a mass meeting at the Holt Street Baptist Church.  King,  leader of the mass bus boycott, was found guilty March 22, 1956 of conspiracy in  the Montgomery bus boycott. He was fined $500.  King said the boycott of city  buses will continue “no matter how many times they convict me.”   (AP Photo/Gene  Herrick) Photo: GENE HERRICK, STF

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., right, accompanied by  Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, center, is booked by city police Lt. D.H. Lackey in  Montgomery, Ala., on Feb. 23, 1956.  The civil rights leaders are arrested on  indictments turned by the Grand Jury in the bus boycott.  (AP Photo/Gene  Herrick) Photo: GENE HERRICK, STF

The Rev. Ralph Abernathy, left, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther  King, Jr., center, and Bayard Rustin, leaders in the racial bus boycott in  Montgomery, Ala., leave the Montgomery County Courthouse on Feb. 24, 1956.  The  civil rights leaders were arraigned along with 87 other black activists.   Thousands of supporters walked in protest against the mass indictments and  arrests.  (AP Photo) Photo: GENE HERRICK, STF

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., center, the first  defendant called to trial in the racial bus boycott, held a press conference on  March 19, 1956 on the steps of the Montgomery County courthouse where he and 92  others are on trial. They are charged with the violation of the anti-boycott  law. King’s wife, Coretta is by his side.  (AP Photo/Gene Herrick) Photo:  GENE HERRICK, STF

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is welcomed with a kiss  by his wife Coretta after leaving court in Montgomery, Ala., March 22, 1956.  King was found guilty of conspiracy to boycott city buses in a campaign to  desegregate the bus system, but a judge suspended his $500 fine pending appeal.  (AP Photo/Gene Herrick) Photo: Gene Herrick, STF

President Eisenhower poses in his office, June 23, 1958,  with black leaders with whom he discussed civil rights issues.  Left to right:   Lester B. Granger, executive secretary, National Urban League; Dr. Martin Luther  King, Jr., Montgomery, Al., president of the Southern Leadership Conference; E.  Frederic Morrow, White House administrative officer; Eisenhower; A. Philip  Randolph, AFL-CIO vice president and head of International Brotherhood of  Sleeping Car Porters; Attorney General William Rogers; and Roy Wilkins,  executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored  People.  The callers told Eisenhower that court ordered suspension of school  integration at Little Rock, AR  “has shocked and outraged black citizens and  millions of their fellow Americans.”  (AP Photo) Photo: Beaumont

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., African American  integration leader, in bed at New Yorkís Harlem Hospital on Sept. 21, 1958  following operation to remove steel letter opener from his chest. Rev. King was  in critical condition immediately after his assailant, an African American woman  undergoing mental observation at Bellevue Hospital, plunged the letter opener  into King. (AP Photo/John Lent) Photo: John Lent, STF

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., of Alabama, waves  to the nearly 500 people waiting outside Harlem hospital in New York City on  Oct. 3, 1958.  Dr. King was stabbed on Sept. 20.  (AP Photo) Photo:  Beaumont

American civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.  removes his shoes before entering Mahatma Gandhi’s shrine in New Delhi, India,  Feb. 11, 1959.  (AP Photo) Photo: Beaumont

Pastor of Montgomery, Al., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,  and his wife, Coretta King, center wearing sari, pose in the home of Acharya  J.B. Kripalani in New Delhi, India on March 10, 1959.  The Kings are touring  India visiting with Gandhi’s followers and leaders.  From left to right are, Ms.  Shanti, personal secretary to Kripalani; Barbara Bristol; Kripalani, considered  the best among the interpreters of Gandhi’s teachings; Mrs. King; Dr. King; and  James E. Bristol, secretary of the local Quaker center, which is sponsoring the  Kings’ trip.  (AP Photo) Photo: Beaumont

Dr. Martin Luther King is given a welcome home kiss by  his wife Coretta, upon his return to Atlanta following his release from  Reidsville State Prison on bond, on October 27, 1960. King’s children, Yolanda,  5, and Martin Luther III, 3, join the welcome celebration. (AP Photo) Photo: Beaumont

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott  King, sit with three of their four children in their Atlanta, Ga, home, on March  17, 1963. From left are: Martin Luther King III, 5, Dexter Scott, 2, and Yolanda  Denise, 7. (AP Photo) Photo: Beaumont

Marchers cross the Alabama river on the Edmund Pettus  Bridge at Selma on March 21, 1965.  The civil rights marchers, eight abreast,  are led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  This is the start of their five day,  50-mile march to the State Capitol of Montgomery, Alabama.  They are fighting  for voter registration rights for blacks, who are discouraged from registering  to vote, particularly in small towns in the south.  (AP Photo) Photo:  Beaumont

The Rev. Ralph Abernathy, right, and Bishop Julian  Smith, left, flank Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., during a civil rights march in  Memphis, Tenn., March 28, 1968.  (AP Photo/Jack Thornell) Photo: JACK THORNELL

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stands with other civil  rights leaders on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., on April  3, 1968, a day before he was assassinated at approximately the same place. From  left are Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson, King, and Ralph Abernathy. The  39-year-old Nobel Laureate was the proponent of non-violence in the 1960’s  American civil rights movement. King is honored with a national U.S. holiday  celebrated in January.    (AP Photo) Photo: Beaumont

This is how the morning newspapers in London headlined  the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, April 5, 1968. (AP Photo) Photo: Beaumont

An unidentified woman weeps at the R.S. Lewis funeral  home in Memphis, Tenn., as hundreds of mourners filed past the body of civil  rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., April 5, 1968, before it was to be  sent to Atlanta for burial.  (AP Photo/Charles Kelly) Photo: CHARLES  KELLY, STF

Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King,  Jr., with tears in her eyes, holds her head high during funeral services for her  husband in Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, April 9, 1968. (AP Photo) Photo: Anonymous, POOL

Family members and friends of the assassinated civil  rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., follow his casket into an Atlanta  funeral home after the body arrived from Memphis, on April 5, 1968. From left  are: King’s brother, the Rev. A.D. Williams King; Dr. Ralph Abernathy, King’s  close associate and new head of the SCLC, Coretta Scott King, the widow, and her  two sons, Martin Luther III, 10,  and Dexter, 7.  (AP Photo/Bill hudson) Photo: BILL HUDSON, STF

One of the many persons who visit the tomb of Dr. Martin  Luther King Jr. daily adds flowers to a vase left by another mourner in Atlanta  on April 4, 1969. (AP Photo/BJ) Photo: BJ, STR

All photos courtesy of BeaumontEnterprise.com

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“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”  ―    Martin Luther King Jr.,    A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”  ―       Martin Luther King Jr.,   

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”  ―    Martin Luther King Jr.,    I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”  ―    Martin Luther King Jr.

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”  ―    Martin Luther King Jr.

“I have decided to stick to love…Hate is too great a burden to bear.”  ―    Martin Luther King Jr.,    A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”  ―    Martin Luther King Jr.,    A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”  ―    Martin Luther King Jr.

“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”
―    Martin Luther King Jr.

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
―    Martin Luther King Jr.

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
―    Martin Luther King Jr.

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