Martin Luther King Jr.

Biography

King fused Baptist preaching with Gandhian nonviolence to build a moral vocabulary America still speaks. In thirteen years of public life he led Montgomery, Birmingham and Selma campaigns, won the Nobel Peace Prize at 35, and was expanding into anti-war and anti-poverty work when he was killed.

American Baptist minister who became the most visible leader of the civil rights movement, advocating nonviolent resistance.

Known for

Leading the U.S. civil rights movement and the 'I Have a Dream' speech.

Notable works & defining projects

• I Have a Dream (speech, 1963)
• Letter from Birmingham Jail
• Stride Toward Freedom (book)

Notable achievements

• Delivered 'I Have a Dream' to some 250,000 people at the 1963 March on Washington
• At 35, the youngest person at the time to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (1964)
• Helped drive the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Timeline

1. 1955At 26, chosen to lead the Montgomery bus boycott
2. 1963Delivered 'I Have a Dream' at the March on Washington
3. 1968Assassinated in Memphis on 4 April while supporting striking sanitation workers

Did you know?

• He entered Morehouse College at 15, having skipped two grades
• His father changed both their names from Michael to Martin Luther after a 1934 trip to Germany