MLK Day march to remember man of peace

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., will be remembered by a march from the University of Arizona to Reid Park on Monday morning.

The annual march, which usually attracts thousands, is expected to draw even more in the wake of the mass shooting of 19 that shook Tucson on Jan. 8. Six were killed and 13 others wounded, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Marchers will leave the UA Mall for Reid Park at 8:30 a.m.

A Festival Celebration will be held in the park beginning at 10:30 a.m.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Day is celebrated the third Monday in January, to be near King's Jan. 15 birthday.

King, one of the key leaders in the civil rights movement throughout the 1950s and '60s, was assassinated by James Earl Ray on the evening of April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn.

King was the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., a Baptist church.

He rose to prominence during the 1955 Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott, which was triggered by Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat.

During the boycott, King was arrested and his home was bombed. The campaign ended with a federal court ruling that ended segregation on Montgomery's public buses.

In 1957, King was stabbed with a letter opener by a deranged black woman during a book signing in Harlem, New York City.

King was instrumental in organizing the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963.

His "I Have A Dream" speech, given from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, echoes to this day as one of American oratory's finest moments.

King spent the last years of his life, before his assassination at the age of 39, working for civil rights, opposing the Vietnam War, and organizing a "Poor People's Campaign" as a call for economic justice.

His work was recognized by the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

The night before his murder, April 3, 1968, King addressed the Bishop Charles Mason Temple and delivered his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" sermon. King, who was in Memphis to support striking black public sanitation workers, had his flight to the city delayed by a bomb threat.

In his final public address, one of the most famous in a lifetime of renowned sermons and speeches, King concluded by saying:

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. 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. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.