CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: INTERNET CELEBRATES MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. AND BLACK HISTORY MONTH (COLUMN 71)

On Monday the nation will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. That means schools, federal offices, post offices and banks across America will be closed.

But more than the day off, Monday gives us a time to reflect on Martin Luther King and the importance of black history in America. There are a lot of sites on the Internet that focus on both.

King was born Jan. 15. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is the nation's newest holiday. The first observance was in 1986.

Peggy: To learn a little about the holiday, check out

www/holidays.net/mlk/

As he was growing up, King was known as M.L. You can learn the story of Martin Luther King. You can also learn about Rosa Parks, who was arrested for not standing to let a white bus-rider take her seat. You can also read the full text of King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, which he gave in 1963.

Joni: If you would like to hear sound sample from this moving speech and other voices from the civil rights era, go to

www.webcorp.com/civilrights/mlk.htm

There are several .wav files you can download from Martin Luther King. You can do other things while the RealAudio files are coming in. You can also hear Malcom X sound files at this site. While this site features the sound, you can see the images of Martin Luther King at Life magazine's tribute.

pathfinder.com/Life/mlk/mlk.html

Peggy: You can choose from classic Life magazine images or covers. The images range from 1958 to 1969. Not all the photos are of him; some are of the civil rights movement. The images are very powerful.

Joni: He apparently was on the cover six times, or at least that's how many covers they show us. You can also jump to the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University from this page, or you can go directly at

www-leland.stanford.edu/group/King/

Peggy: You can learn more about King through biography, articles, chronicles and references. You can also read the papers of Martin Luther King.

Joni: And you can learn more about the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta. You could pretty well find out anything you wanted to know about Martin Luther King. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while seeking to assist in a garbage workers' strike in Memphis.

Peggy: On this site, you see a list of major events in his life, including winning a Nobel Prize in 1964. To see King's personal papers, you must register, but it doesn't take long. Once in, you can read King's letters and speeches including the Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

Joni: Also on here is "I See the Promised Land," his last sermon given April 3, 1968, on the eve of his assassination. It also has been called the "I've been to the mountaintop speech." Make sure you read all the way to the end. It's powerful reading.

Peggy: For more of some of the web's best information about black history, take a look at one put together by World Book.

www.worldbook.com/features/blackhistory/index.html

Joni: According to my new magazine, Yahoo Internet Life, it's one of the best on. World Book editors have put together a historic look at black history. Black history Month is in February and coincides with the birthdays of the black leader Frederick Douglass on Feb. 14 and Abraham Lincoln on Feb. 12.

Peggy: The observance became known as Black History Week in the early 1970s. It was changed to Black History Month in 1976. The celebration grew out of Negro History Week, which was established in 1926.

Joni: Among features at this site are a whole lot of links. The site is mostly text, but very interesting reading. You might also want to take a look at the Black History Museum on the web.

www.afroam.org/history/history.html

Peggy: The online museum asks you to explore their interactive exhibits on slavery, the Tuskegee Airmen, Jackie Robinson, the Black Panthers, the Million Man March and several others.

Joni: Let's look at Jackie Robinson. His name is synonymous with the desegregation of professional sports. There's a Robinson quiz. For what Negro League team did Robinson play? The Kansas City Monarchs. When did Jackie play his first game in the major leagues? April 15, 1947. You get the picture.

Peggy: Also at this site, you can visit Baltimore's African American newspapers, which have been around since 1892. The site's Kids' Zone also has brain teasers, myths and legends and Discover Africa. They have lots of games, but to play you must have Shockwave.

Joni: These are fun games, and new ones are apparently added each month. What's your favorite Martin Luther King site on the Internet? E-mail us at click@semissourian.com

See you in Cyberspace.

Joni Adams and Peggy Scott are members of the Southeast Missourian online staff.