Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) was an American Baptist minister and a leading figure of the civil rights movement in the United States. Born in Atlanta, the son and grandson of pastors, he earned a doctorate in theology at Boston University. In 1955, as a young pastor in Montgomery, Alabama, he was chosen to lead the bus boycott that followed Rosa Parks's arrest, and its success made him a national voice for equality. Drawing on the Gospel and on Gandhi's example of nonviolence, he wrote the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the 1963 March on Washington. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and his work helped secure the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. He was assassinated in Memphis in 1968; his birthday is now observed as a federal holiday.
Latest UpdatesLIVE
From Abolition to Civil Rights
William Wilberforce led the campaign that abolished the British slave trade in 1807, and in America Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation while Harriet Tubman guided enslaved people to freedom. Booker T. Washington, born into slavery, built the Tuskegee Institute into a leading center of education. Mahatma Gandhi's method of nonviolent resistance later inspired Martin Luther King Jr. in the American civil rights movement.
2.5K followers
797 followers
Nobel Peace Prize Laureates
Theodore Roosevelt received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War. Albert Schweitzer was honored for his philosophy of reverence for life and his medical work in Africa, Martin Luther King Jr. for leading the nonviolent struggle for civil rights, and Mother Teresa for her service to the poorest of the poor in Calcutta.
18 followers
12 followers
View All
All featured content under Martin Luther King Jr.
