King: the US negro....moved towards racial justice alongside his Caribbean brothers

His death was to have an impact on black power movements beyond American shores, including across the Caribbean.

Changes in attitudes towards black rights, education, and an equal share in the economic and political pie resonated throughout post-independent Caribbean territories.

Over the 40 years since his death, Martin Luther King has appeared in continous newspaper, political, and social references to peace and racial harmony in the Caribbean's multi-racial societies.

King and the Caribbean

"We need to remember the work of people like Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, and Archbishop Tutu — models of social action. The poor need more than handouts," wrote columnist Leela Ramdeen in the Trinidad Guardian in 2004.

"The man who locked down the United States on Monday for his birthday, loved Jamaica," wrote the Jamaica Gleaner in 2007.

Martin Luther King visited Jamaica in 1965.

"It was the place, he said, that he felt most like a human being. Martin Luther King Jr. spent quality time here," said Gleaner columnist Martin Henry.

During his short life, Martin Luther King linked the struggle of America's civil rights movement to post-colonial life in the Caribbean, Africa, and India.

"Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed," King wrote from Birmingham jail in 1963.

"The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself and this is what has happened to the American negro."

"Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist and, with his black brothers of Africa, and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States negro is moving with a sense of great urgency towards the promised land of racial justice," King wrote.

King's legacy

	King helped forge a path for civil rights groups lobbying governments

The links between King's message and the aspirations of the Caribbean of the 1960's continue.

Any Caribbean politician seeking to make a point on racial harmony feels obliged to use the words of the Reverend King or of Mahatma Gandhi.

Some commentators today speculate that, had Martin Luther King lived, he would have joined the calls for reparations for slavery and the cries against the impact of globalisation on small states.

Others argue that the sparks lit under the black power movements of the late 1960's and 1970s by King's assassination are the legacy of Martin Luther King to America and beyond.

Share your views on the events of 1968 and how they affected the Caribbean. E-mail us at: caribbean@bbc.co.uk