Home / Full timeline / Bishop Desmond Tutu is awarded the 1986 Martin Luther King, Jr., Non-Violent Peace Prize for his leadership in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.
Bishop Desmond Tutu is awarded the 1986 Martin Luther King, Jr., Non-Violent Peace Prize for his leadership in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.
1986 (Jan 20)
The 1986 Martin Luther King, Jr., Non-Violent Peace Prize was awarded to Bishop Desmond Tutu, a leader in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. The award was presented on behalf of the King Center for Non-Violent Social Change by its president and King's widow, Coretta Scott King. She said that Tutu, like King, possessed “faith that dissipates despair.” Also, like King, Tutu repeatedly encouraged those "who are denied fundamental human, civil, and political rights never to doubt that they will one day be free.” In his acceptance speech, Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, said he trembled as he stood "in the shadow of so great a person” as King. He added, “I receive the award on behalf of those languishing in jail, sentenced to terms of life imprisonment because they have the audacity to say, 'All we want for ourselves is what white people want for themselves.'"
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.