The Archdiocese of Milwaukee held a Mass in honor of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan 15. During the mass, homage was payed to the man who worked to further racial equality in the country. 

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 31st Annual Prayer Service (The American Dream) was led by Archbishop Jerome Edward Listecki. The keynote speaker was Makda Fessahaye, director of Employee Relations for the City of Milwaukee.

According to History.com, King survived an assassination attempt in 1958, but continued to preach and practice nonviolence. In April of 1968, King traveled to Memphis to support sanitation workers that were on strike. He was standing on the balcony of his hotel when he was assassinated on the evening of April 4 at age 39.

King received the Nobel Peace Prize for his civil rights work at 35, four years prior to his assassination. He was the youngest man to receive the award at the time and donated all of the prize money (which was more than $50,000) to further the civil rights movement. 

King is perhaps best known for his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, when he famously said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it: ‘Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God’s design’ (CCC 1935).”