Martn Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929. His father named him Martin Luther after the German reformer Martin Luther, and following in his footsteps, Martin Luther King Jr. began his life as a reformer of civil rights. He also became a Baptist minister. He was respected as a minister and a leader and led the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. He also helped begin the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957 and was its first president. However, the SCLC was not successful against the segregation in Albany, Georgia, in 1962, so he put together nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama. These protests drew national attention to the cruelty of the police by television news coverage. King helped organize the March on Washington in 1963, where he gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. On October 14, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for coming against racial inequality through nonviolence. In 1968 King was planning a national campaign for the poor in Washington, D.C. called the Poor People’s Campaign, when he was shot to death on April 4.
Martin Luther King Day
