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Happy B-day, MLK Jr.

Welcome to Flag Steward's
Be a Stud Citizen - Reminders from Our Flag

for Friday, January 15, 2021​​​​

3 Ways to Experience today's Be a Stud Citizen - Reminders from Our Flag:
1) Scroll down this page to read notes and review images at your own pace
2) Listen to the BASC podcast as you scroll down this page 
or, 3) Watch and listen to the screen capture video of this page
[ Note: Flag Steward's 'Be a Stud Citizen' podcasts are available on nearly all podcast platforms for you to listen and enjoy however you prefer. ]
[ Note: If you can't access or play videos from YouTube in your school / location, then GO / CLICK HERE to watch today's stories from Our Flag on Loom. ]
Where is Our Flag, the U.S. Flag, at half-staff today?
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[ CLICK HERE to see Half-Staff alert details, including pics, of Honorees ]
Today's Historical Moment from Our Flag
... celebrates the birth and life of Martin Luther King Jr. ...
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[ Note: MLK Jr's life info & highlights are spaced out so you can quiz yourself while scrolling down ;) ]
Birth Name, Date and Place:

Michael King Jr. born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia (GA)

Parents and Childhood:


Mother, Alberta King (Williams) and Father, Reverend Michael King Sr.
​
At age 5, he could recite many Bible verses and sing hymns from memory

MLK Jr. experienced segregation at an early age when he and his neighbor and playmate, a white boy, were forced to go to separate elementary schools (segregated all white and all black schools) and the white boy's parents stopped the MLK Jr. and their son from continuing to play together after stating "we are white and you are colored."

He was known to have a great singing voice at his dad's Baptist church and he learned to play the piano and violin by middle school.

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[ Booker T. Washington HS = public domain image ]
​MLK Jr's Teen Years:

Joined the Booker T. Washington HS debate team and excelled in history, English, and sociology studies

Gained the nickname, "Tweed," because of his good-looking tweed suits, in which he loved to flirt with girls and dance.  His brother said, "
he was crazy about dances, and just about the best jitterbug in town."

In 1944, as a H.S. Junior, he won his first public speaking contest.  Then, he had to endure a bitter bus ride home during which he was "the angriest I have ever been in my life," because the bus driver told him to give up his seat for white passengers and go stand in the back of the bus.
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[ Morehouse College = public domain image ]
MLK Jr's College Years:

Unbelievably, at age 15, he passed the entrance exam and enrolled at Morehouse College in 1944

While working at a tobacco farm in Connecticut the summer before starting college, King wrote home that, 
"On our way here we saw some things I had never anticipated to see. After we passed Washington there was no discrimination at all. The white people here are very nice. We go to any place we want to and sit any where we want to."

And, he was amazed he and his Morehouse friends working in Connecticut could go to "one of the finest restaurants in Hartford" and that "Negroes and whites go to the same church"


At Morehouse, he was mentored by the school's President, Baptist Minister Benjamin Mays, who he called him his "spiritual mentor."

MLK Jr. graduated, at age 19, with a BA in Sociology
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End of Part 1 of 2 reviewing the life of MLK Jr.
Part 2, on MLK Jr. Day, on Monday, Jan. 18th, will go through MLK Jr's Adult Years

[ pic of MLK Jr. with President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966 = public domain image]

Today's Quote from Our Flag:
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And, now it's time to ...
Recite the Pledge of Allegiance
Students across America, at school or at home, inspired by the barrier-breaking spirit of MLK Jr., please unite and recite the Pledge.
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​​Thanks for participating in today's U.S. Flag tribute.
This is Sean Sweeney, a fellow Flag Steward, signing-off:

Go out and 'be a stud citizen' today
Keep America Beautiful, and remember,
In God We Trust
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​In God We Trust
(Official motto of the United States of America)
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FINALLY! - TEXT (National & State) Half-Staff Alerts:

CLICK HERE to sign-up for National and State-targeted Half-Staff Flag Alert TEXT Notifications
(Many prefer this text alert service because within the Flag Steward app we CANNOT effectively deliver state-targeted notifications)

​This is a FREE service powered by Flag Steward's nonprofit
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​Flag Steward (formerly known as Beacon of Honor and originally incorporated as GivingVu.org, Inc. in 2013) is a nonpartisan, student-inspired, Veteran-led 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit organization based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.  Tax ID# 46-2457373
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