Quick Guide & Transcript: MLK's fight for voters' rights, Antarctic ice may yield climate clues

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(CNN Student News) -- January 18, 2007

Quick Guide

MLK: Words that Changed a Nation - Find out what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did to secure voters' rights for the disenfranchised.

Going Deep - Delve beneath Antarctica's frigid ice sheets for answers about ancient climate history.

Transcript

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MONICA LLOYD, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Glad to have you along for CNN Student News! I'm Monica Lloyd. Here's what's happening nationwide today.

Three Senators are working on a resolution that opposes a troop increase in Iraq. It says any U.S. action in the gulf nation should have the support of voters and Congress. But it's mostly symbolic. Though it gives senators a chance to say how they feel about a troop increase, it doesn't require the president to change his plans. According to the Constitution, Congress controls the funding of the military, but it's the president who decides where and when troops go.

There's been a change in government policy. The bush administration said yesterday it will allow a special federal court to oversee its domestic surveillance program. That program keeps tabs on the phone calls of suspected terrorists or their helpers. But it's controversial because the government didn't get court warrants for the wiretaps. And some lawmakers argued, that's illegal.

You know winter weather can cause accidents or knock out power. But in a region that's not used to freezing temperatures, the losses can be especially bad here. A cold snap could snap the profits of many California citrus growers. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is asking for government help, since the cold weather has already caused one billion dollars in lost crops and has cost some field workers their jobs.

MLK: Words that Changed a Nation

LLOYD: In 1870 black men were given the right to vote. Women got it 50 years later. But for decades afterward, blacks were prevented from voting in some states by obstacles like poll taxes and literacy tests. So Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. began working for real voting rights. Soledad O'Brien shows us how he fought a battle using only his voice and his pen.

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SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN REPORTER: While blacks were being reviled in the South, the world was taking notice of Martin Luther King's peaceful protest movement.

DOROTHY COTTON, SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONF: The day the announcement came down, we were running up and down the sidewalk there on Auburn Xvenue Saying, 'We won.' We, we knew he had been nominated, and we won. We won the Nobel Prize.

O'BRIEN: These are outlines and drafts of Dr. King's Nobel acceptance speech and lectures.

ANDREW YOUNG, CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: He usually went off by himself for three or four days to do his writing. He was a poet. And poets work on speeches until every little syllable is right.

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace....

JOHN LEWIS: I think his heart, his soul, his gut came out in that speech.

WYATT WALKER: He didn't take it as a personal achievement. He accepted it for the people many whose names were never known.

KING QUOTE: I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered.

O'BRIEN: January 1965, just weeks after accepting the Nobel Prize, the fight for the right to vote put Dr. King back on the front lines; this time in racially torn Selma, Alabama.

LEWIS: There was a sheriff by the name of Jim Clark. He wore a gun on one side, and a nightstick on the other side. He wore a button on his left lapel that said 'NEVER.'

O'BRIEN: In just a few days time, more than 3,000 protestors were arrested, including Dr. King. While in jail, he wrote this to-do list on Waldorf Astoria stationery. The purpose: 'to keep national attention focused on Selma.'

KING QUOTE: Number three: Make personal call to President Johnson urging him to intervene in some way.

O'BRIEN: Still, there was no let up in the violence. On February 18th, 1965 Alabama state troopers fatally shot 26 year old Jimmie Lee Jackson in Marion, Alabama. Dr. King delivered a passionate message in Jackson's eulogy to all those who remained on the sidelines.

KING QUOTE: He was murdered by the indifference of every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained glass windows.

O'BRIEN: Jimmie Lee Jackson's funeral was the inspiration for another protest march. On the Edmund Pettus bridge, Alabama police violently pushed the marchers back, on what became known as Bloody Sunday.

O'BRIEN: This telegram is the result of the sacrifices of Selma. An invitation from the White House for Dr. King to attend the signing of the Voter's Rights Act. President Johnson pushed hard for its passage... and his words, in a nationally televised address had a profound affect on Dr. King.

LEWIS: I remember so well sitting with him on the night of March 15, 1965 as he listened and watched Lyndon Johnson. Before he concluded that speech he said:

PRESIDENT JOHNSON: And we shall overcome.

LEWIS: I look back and I saw tears coming down his face. He was crying. He was so moved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD: For more on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, visit the kingcenter.org.

Promo

LLOYD: And we've put up plenty of classroom ready resources at our Web site as well. Including a printable Extra on MLK. Teachers, you can find it at CNN.com/EDUCATION.

Is This Legit?

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Martin Luther King Jr. was not the civil rights leader's birth name. This is Legit! He was originally named Michael Luther King Jr. and later had his first name changed to Martin.

Going Deep

LLOYD: You've probably heard of global warming: An increase in the temperature of the earth's surface, that could affect the world's climate. What's debatable is whether humans are responsible for it. Some say gases from machines and industries are contributing to an overall warming effect. Lawrence McGinty went to one of the coldest places on earth, for answers about warmth.

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LAWRENCE MCGINTY, REPORTER: Most of Antarctica's ice sheets lie on a plateau 4,000 meters high, fringed by mountain ranges. This is the true southern wilderness. A tight squeeze through the ice gave me a glimpse of that world.

MCGINTY: Down in a crevasse, Antarctica is a very different and very beautiful place. A cathedral in ice. But it's a beauty that carries a terrible message because scientists now believe that even deeper than this, one kilometer, two kilometers down, the ice is on the move.

MCGINTY: In some of the remotest parts of Antarctica, the scientists have gone much, much deeper, drilling down to the very bottom of the ice sheets. The cores they bring up are made of ice that fell as snow hundreds of thousand of years ago. A twin otter bring the cores back to the base. A climatic history of the continent locked in ice.

ROB MULVANEY, BRITISH ANTARCTIC SURVEY: Here they are. Fresh, newly drilled ice cores.

MCGINTY: Scientist can then analyze these ice cores for chemicals like carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming.

MULVANEY: Trapped in the ice is tiny bubbles of the atmosphere. Now this is the real actual atmosphere of the past. We can take out the air from those bubbles, measure the air for greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, and measure how it has varied through time.

MCGINTY: The analysis shows there have been eight ice ages in Antarctic history, each followed by a big melt. The levels of carbon dioxide today suggest that we're in for another.

MULVANEY: In the last 100 years, we've put the same amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as we'd expect the difference between an ice age and a warm period. That's a lot of carbon dioxide.

MCGINTY: When it comes to global warming, Antarctica has been a slumbering giant. The message from the latest research is that now, it's a giant awakened. Lawrence McGinty, ITV News, in Antarctica.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Shoutout

AZUZ: Time for the Shoutout! Who was the first explorer to reach the South Pole? If you think you know it, shout it out! Was it: A) Edmund Hillary, B) Ernest Shackleton, C) Roald Amundsen or D) Ferdinand Magellan? You've got three seconds--GO! C -- Roald Amundsen -- is the answer! The Norwegian explorer made it to the South Pole in 1911. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout!

Before We Go

LLOYD: Before we go, it may not be quite as cold as Antarctica, but the water of Lake Superior sure isn't balmy. So why would someone want to catch a wave here? Well, one of these guys said you have to be a surfer to understand. You also need a wetsuit. The temperature is so cold icicle actually form on you. But it proves you don't have to be in the heat to hang ten.

Goodbye

LLOYD: If you ask us,it's probably best to stick to snowboarding until summer. For CNN Student news, I'm Monica Lloyd.