Elvis presley brief biography of martin luther

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It became a national crusade that inspired people from across the social spectrum and turned long-neglected economic and racial injustices into major political issues, not just in the United States, but around the world.

As a social activist, King’s greatest moment came in August 1963, when he helped to organize the March on Washington.

Angelou stopped celebrating her birthday for years afterward, and sent flowers to King's widow, Coretta Scott King, for more than 30 years, until Coretta's death in 2006.

Fact #8: Louis Armstrong learned how to play the cornet while living at the Colored Waif's Home for Boys.

Fact #9: Armstrong earned the nickname "Satchmo" which was a shortened version of the moniker "satchel mouth."

Fact #10: After a long career as an actress and singer, Pearl Bailey earned a bachelor's degree in theology from Georgetown University in 1985.

Fact #11: After African American performer Josephine Baker expatriated to France, she famously smuggled military intelligence to French allies during World War II.

She did this by pinning secrets inside her dress, as well as hiding them in her sheet music.

Fact #12: Scientist and mathematician Benjamin Banneker is credited with helping to design the blueprints for Washington, D.C.

Fact #13: Before he was a renowned artist, Romare Bearden was also a talented baseball player.

Binder had been making a name for himself in television production over the previous decade and had directed a concert film with singer Leslie Uggams, one of the first to be shot with light handheld equipment, according to Guralnick.

Binder wasn’t sold on the idea, at first. Robinson dealt with racial slurs and was court-martialed, but was ultimately acquitted.

If the example of King enables us to “dream of a better land,” and if we and millions of other people believe in that same dream, “why, oh why, oh why can’t my dream come true?”

Still, we dream

Brown’s lyrics are an impassioned reaction to the devastating news of King’s death, but it is what Elvis does with those lyrics that transforms “If I Can Dream” into what is, I believe, one of the most moving tributes ever paid to the bravery and vision of King.

He was first honored in 2005 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams from My Father (best spoken word album), and received his second Grammy (in the same category) in 2007 for his political work, The Audacity of Hope.

Fact #74: In 1881, Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles founded what would become the first college for Black women in the United States.

“I sat in the back of the room and saw him having as much fun, if not more, than when he did our special… Then I went to see him a few years later, [and] I knew instantly it was all over.”

Binder and Presley had wanted to collaborate more after the success of the television special, and Presley provided him a phone number, but when Binder called it, he was told it was the wrong number.

The song was a huge success, going multi-platinum and bringing in millions of dollars.

Fact #16: Before becoming a professional musician, Chuck Berry studied to be a hairdresser.

Fact #17: Chuck Berry's famous "duck walk" dance originated in 1956 when he attempted to hide wrinkles in his trousers by shaking them out with his now-signature body movements.

Fact #18: The parents of actress Halle Berry chose their daughter's name from Halle's Department Store, a local landmark in her birthplace of Cleveland, Ohio.

Fact #19: In 1938, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt challenged the segregation rules at the Southern Conference on Human Welfare in Birmingham, Alabama, so she could sit next to African American educator and activist Mary McLeod Bethune.

Smith won a Golden Glove featherweight title in 1939 under the assumed name and continued using it thereafter, with the additional "Sugar" coming from a reporter.

Fact #97: Considered one of the greatest boxers of all time, Sugar Ray Robinson held the world welterweight title from 1946 to 1951, and by 1958, he had become the first boxer to win a divisional world championship five times.

Fact #98: In the 1920s and '30s, multi-instrumentalist Valaida Snow captivated audiences with her effervescent singing and jazz trumpet playing.

In 2000, Henson was posthumously awarded the National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal.

Fact #44: "Strange Fruit," the song about Black lynching in the south made famous by blues singer Billie Holiday, was originally a poem written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx, New York.

Fact #45: The father of renowned scribe Langston Hughes discouraged his son from writing, wanting him to take up a more "practical" vocation.

Fact #46: Jesse Jackson successfully negotiated the release of Lieutenant Robert O.

Goodman Jr., an African American pilot who had been shot down over Syria and taken hostage in 1983.

Fact #47: The "King of Pop," Michael Jackson, co-wrote the single "We Are the World" with Motown legend Lionel Richie.

After his assassination, Elvis hopes that we still “can dream.” The death of King half a century ago reminds us of how far our society still is from the equality that King imagined. is the brother of hip-hop promoter and mogul Russell Simmons.

Fact #92: Upon her death in 2003, singer Nina Simone's ashes were spread across the continent of Africa, per her last request.

Fact #93: African American tap dancer Howard Sims was known as the "Sandman" because he often sprinkled sand onstage at the Apollo Theater to amplify his steps.

Brown is often given credit for preventing further riots with the performance.

Fact #21: Chester Arthur "Howlin' Wolf" Burnettwas one of the world's most important blues singers, songwriters and musicians, influencing popular rock acts like the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. He had gained weight, grown disillusioned with his repetitive movie roles, and felt he was fading into irrelevance as bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones eclipsed his popularity.

Parker had been negotiating with NBC for a holiday television special with Presley crooning out Christmas songs in the style of Andy Williams or Perry Como.

The collection includes works from a wide range of luminaries, including Countee Cullen,Marcus Garvey, Zora Neale Hurston and Lena Horne.

Fact #27: Before lawyer Johnnie Cochran achieved nationwide fame for his role in the O.J. Simpson trial, actor Denzel Washington interviewed Cochran as part of his research for the award-winning film Philadelphia (1993).

Fact #28: Record sales from musician and singer Nat King Cole contributed so greatly to Capitol Records' success during the 1950s that its headquarters became known as "the house that Nat built."

Fact #29: The Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church in San Francisco, California, uses jazz musician John Coltrane's music and philosophy as sources for religious discovery.

Fact #30: Paul Cuffee, a philanthropist, ship captain and devout Quaker who supported a return to Africa for Black citizens, transported 38 free African Americans to Sierra Leone in 1815.

He came in second to Jesse Owens.

Fact #85: Before Branch Rickey offered future Hall-of-Famer Jackie Robinson the contract that integrated professional baseball, he personally tested Robinson's reactions to the racial slurs and insults he knew the player would endure.

Fact #86: After retiring from baseball, Hall-of-Famer Jackie Robinson helped establish the African American-owned and -controlled Freedom Bank.

Fact #87: In 1944 in Fort Hood, Texas, future baseball legend Jackie Robinson, who was serving as a lieutenant for the U.S.

Army at the time, refused to give up his seat and move to the back of a bus when ordered to by the driver.

In the months that followed, younger and more militant members of the civil rights movement grew increasingly frustrated with King’s caution and his commitment to non-violent resistance, but King pushed on.

Filmed in June and airing in December, the show was originally scheduled to close with Elvis singing “I’ll be Home for Christmas,” a plan enthusiastically endorsed by his Machiavellian manager, Colonel Tom Parker. The Comeback Special closes — unforgettably — with “If I Can Dream,” written by the vocal arranger Earl Brown, and performed by Elvis in a white suit standing alone in front of large red letters that spelled out Elvis.

‘Why can’t my dream come true?’

King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is clearly Brown’s inspiration for the lyrics of “If I Can Dream.” Freedom, promise, redemption and darkness are at the crux of both, as the speech is variously echoed, adapted and rewritten in the lyrics.