Martin Luther King Jr.
1929–1968 2 entries
Biography
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and the best-known leader of the civil rights movement. Born in Atlanta, the son and grandson of pastors, he earned a doctorate in theology at Boston University. He came to national attention in 1955, when he led the Montgomery bus boycott that began after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. Inspired by Gandhi, he held to nonviolent resistance against segregation and racial discrimination, even when he was beaten and jailed.
In 1963 he gave his “I Have a Dream” speech before some 250,000 people at the March on Washington. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and his work helped bring about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He was assassinated in Memphis on 4 April 1968, at the age of thirty-nine.
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