Kendall County Times

Rep. David Welter (R-Morris) marked the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday, sharing a post honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

In a Facebook post that day, Welter shared a statement, encouraging the public to reflect on the work King did for the Civil Rights Movement. 

“Today we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Let us all be inspired by his great leadership, his work for equality, and his vision for a better world for all,” Welter wrote in his Facebook post.

King received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the Civil Rights Movement at the age of 35, according to the Nobel Prize website. That makes him the youngest man to have received the award. King donated the $50,000 in prize money to further advance civil rights. 

After surviving an assassination attempt in the fall of 1958, King continued to preach and practice non-violence, History reports. He continued his efforts in the years after. In 1968, King traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to support sanitation workers that were on strike. He was assassinated while he was on the balcony of his hotel, He was just 39 years old.

King was a talented orator, known for his “I Have a Dream" speech, which was delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August of 1963, NPR reports. The speech included the famous line: “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.”