Martin Luther King Jr. Day

This is an English vocabulary lesson. Review the vocabulary words and their definitions. Then read the article and complete the vocabulary exercise. 

You can find many more useful lessons in our eBooks for English teachers and learners.

Important Vocabulary

• Boycott (verb) when people stop using something or doing something because they don’t like it.
  
  
• Civil Rights (noun) the rights that all people have to be free and to be treated equally.
  
  
• Desegregation (noun) the ending of segregation (segregation means separating people by their differences).

• Discrimination (noun) the act of treating people differently because of their race, age, color, sex, and so forth.
  
  
• Human Rights (noun) the basic rights that all people have simply because they are human (for example: the right to life and the right to privacy).
  
  
• Martin Luther King, Jr (noun) American Civil Rights Leader.
  
  
• Nonviolent (adjective) acting peacefully.
  
  
• Protest March (noun) when people show that they disagree with something by walking somewhere in a large group.
  
  
• Republic (noun) a government that is led by a president who is elected by the people in a vote.
  
  
• Reverend (noun) a priest.
  
  
• Segregate (verb) to separate people by their differences.
  
  
• Segregation (noun) the act of separating people by their differences.
  
  
• Unconstitutional (adjective) when something does not follow the rules of the constitution.
  
  
• The Constitution (noun) an important document with the basic laws of a country; It describes what the government can and cannot do, and it protects the rights of the people.
  
  

Read

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a federal holiday in the United States of America that celebrates the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. MLK Day is observed on the third Monday of January each year. 

It is the only federal holiday that is a national day of service. Meaning, on this day, many Americans volunteer their time to improve their communities in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This is one way people can honor Dr. King because he believed in making the world a better place for everyone. 

Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in 1929. This was a time when there were laws that said black people were not equal to white people. There were laws that said black people and white people could not go to the same schools or eat at the same restaurants. This is called segregation. Segregation is the act of separating people and is a type of discrimination. 

Dr. King grew up to be a reverend and the most famous civil rights leader in the United States. He believed in human rights. “Human rights” are the rights all people should have, simply because they are human. These include, for example, the right to life, the right to believe what you want, and the right to work and be educated. 

Dr. King also believed that all people are equal. He wanted to end the segregation laws and get rid of racial discrimination. He led protests for blacks’ right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other basic civil rights. 

“Protest” is when you show that you do not like something. In history, some protests have been violent. Dr. King did not believe in violence. He did not believe in hurting other people. He taught that peaceful, nonviolent protests were more powerful than violence.

One peaceful protest led by Dr. King was a bus boycott in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. A “boycott” is when you stop using something or doing something to show that you don’t like it. Dr. King led people to boycott Montgomery buses to protest the city’s segregation laws. After 381 days, the boycott ended and the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional. This means that the segregation laws did not follow the rules in the United States Constitution. 

Dr. King’s most famous protest was the March on Washington in 1963. A “protest march” is when a group of people walk together to the same place to show they disagree with something. Over 250,000 people marched in Washington, D.C. that day to protest racial discrimination of black people in America. 

At the march, Dr. King gave a speech called “I Have a Dream.” Dr. King wanted segregation to end. He wanted all people to be treated equally. He hoped that one day, people would not be treated differently because of the color of their skin. His speech is remembered as one of the best speeches in American history. 

Dr. King’s protests helped create new laws in America like the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. (An act is when the government changes a law or adds a new law.) The Civil Rights Act says that people cannot be treated differently because of their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Voting Rights Act says that all people have the right to vote. The United States is a democratic republic government. That means that the people of the U.S. can vote and elect people to make decisions. Dr. King believed all people should have this right.

In 1964, Dr. King was honored for his leadership when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He got the award because he led people in peaceful, nonviolent protests. 

Also in 1964, the United States’ government ended segregation. They said that all people should be treated equally. There were some people who still did not believe that black people were equal to white people and did not like the new laws. Some of these people were angry at Dr. King. Sadly, one of these people shot and killed Dr. King in 1968. 

People have not forgotten about Dr. Martin Luther King. He is one of the most important people in American history. 

Here are 5 lessons we can learn from Dr. King. 

1. Love others. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in the power of loving others. He believed we should treat each other with respect. He did not believe in hatred or violence.
   
   
2. Don’t judge people by their appearance. Just because someone looks different than you does not mean that they should be treated differently.
   
   
3. Serve others. Dr. King believed in doing things for other people to make the world a better place.
   
   
4. Don’t give up. Dr. King believed in his dream that all people should be treated equally. Nothing stopped him from fighting for his dream for human rights.
   
   
5. Dream big. No matter who you are or how big your dreams are, your dreams are important. Work hard to make your dreams come true. 

Vocabulary Exercise

Complete each sentence with a vocabulary word from the list. Some words will be used more than once.

boycott, civil rights, desegregation, discrimination, human rights, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., nonviolent, protest march, republic, reverend, segregate, segregation, Constitution, unconstitutional 

Answers

1. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the most famous civil rights leader in the United States.

2. Dr. King served as a reverend in a church.

3. Human rights are the rights that all people should have, simply because they are human.

4. Black people were forced to segregate from white people on city buses in Alabama.

5. After 381 days, the Montgomery bus boycott ended and the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional.

6. Dr. King protested for blacks’ right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other basic civil rights.

7. In 1963, Dr. King led his followers in a protest march in Washington, D.C. that was peaceful and nonviolent.

8. Dr. King said that the segregation laws in the United States were unconstitutional because they did not follow the rules in the constitution. 

9. Dr. King wanted to end the segregation laws and stop racial discrimination in the United States. 
   
   
10. A republic is a type of government that is led by a president who is elected by the people. The United States has this type of government.

This was an English vocabulary lesson. You can find many more useful lessons in our eBooks for English teachers and learners.