Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Written by B. Silverberg.

小马丁·路德·金 作者：B.西尔弗伯格

Each January, Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Day. We remember a great African American leader who fought for civil rights, full freedom, and equality for all people. Who was this man?

每年一月，美国人都会庆祝马丁·路德·金日。 我们铭记这位伟大的非裔美国人领袖，他为全民的民权、彻底的自由和平等而奋斗。 这个人是谁呢？

Life in the South Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929. His father was a minister, and his mother was a teacher. Martin and his sister and brother grew up in a busy, loving family. Martin did his homework, took music lessons, and played sports. When he was 19, he decided to become a minister like his father. After he married, he took his first job at a church in the state of Alabama.

南方的生活 小马丁·路德·金出生于1929年1月15日。 他的父亲是一名牧师，母亲是一名教师。 马丁和姐姐、哥哥在热闹又充满爱的家庭里长大。 马丁做完功课，还要上音乐课，参加体育运动。 19岁时，他决定像父亲一样成为一名牧师。 结婚后，他在阿拉巴马州的一座教堂找到了第一份工作。

Alabama is in the South, where African Americans lived under unfair laws for many years. Before the Civil War, most blacks had been slaves to white owners. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln gave the slaves their freedom, but southern States then passed new laws to keep blacks apart or segregated from whites.

阿拉巴马州位于美国南部，多年来非裔美国人在这里一直受不公平法律的约束。 内战爆发前，大多数黑人都是白人奴隶主的奴隶。 内战期间，亚伯拉罕·林肯总统解放了奴隶，但南方各州随后出台了新法律，强制将黑人和白人隔离开。

These unfair laws robbed blacks of many rights. Black children had to attend separate, poorer schools than white children. On buses, blacks had to sit in the back seats and give up those seats if whites wanted them. Blacks and whites used separate drinking fountains and restrooms with signs that read, for colored only or for whites only. In 1954, the United States Supreme Court decided that schools could not be segregated by race. The court ordered schools to allow both black and white students to attend. This decision made some white people angry, including a group called the Ku Klux Klan, or KKK.

这些不公平的法律剥夺了黑人的诸多权利。 黑人孩子只能去条件比白人学校差很多的隔离学校上学。 在公交车上，黑人必须坐在后排，要是白人想要座位，他们就得让座。 黑人和白人必须使用不同的饮水机和洗手间，标识分别写着“有色人种专用”和“白人专用”。 1954年，美国最高法院裁定学校不得按种族实行隔离。 法院下令学校必须同时允许黑人和白人学生入学。 这项裁决激怒了一些白人，其中包括一个叫三K党（KKK）的团体。

Members of the KKK wore white robes and hoods to hide their faces. They tried to keep black people from working for equality by scaring and hurting them. Yet many other whites around the country wanted equality for blacks. Some worked along with blacks to gain civil rights.

三K党成员会穿白袍、戴头套遮住自己的脸。 他们通过恐吓、伤害黑人，妄图阻止黑人争取平等权利。 不过美国还有很多其他白人希望黑人获得平等。 有些人还和黑人一起努力，争取民权。