Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
World Renown Civil Rights Advocate
1929 - 1968
- Born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Attended Morehouse College in Atlanta at age 15 where he played basketball and football.
- Became an ordained Baptist Minister in 1947 while still attending Morehouse College.
- After graduating from Morehouse College in 1948 with B.A. In Sociology, King attended Crozer Theological Seminary in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Graduaged from Crozer with a Bachelor of Divinity.
- Attended Boston University University where he received a Ph.D. in 1955. While a Ph.D. student, he met and married Coretta Scott, a student at the New England Conservatory of Music.
- Organized the Montgomery Improvement Association in Montgomery, Alabama to do nonviolent protests and actions against racial discrimination.
- Organized a nonviolent boycott against the bus company that had Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to give her seat on the bus to a white man. After 381 days of protest the bus company "gave in."
- In 1956, the US Supreme Court ruled that the bus company's segregation policy was unconstitutional.
- Helped organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to protest and take nonviolent actions against racial discrimination in the south.
- Became an outspoken critic of the injustice of the Vietnam War.
- In 1963, became one of the major organizers of the March on Washington which attracted over 250,000 people. Delivered the world-famous "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.
- In 1963, became the first African-American honored as "Man of the Year" by Time Magazine.
- Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
- First U.S. postage stamp of Martin Luther King, Jr issued January 13, 1964.
- Inspired people all over the world of all races, creeds, nationalities and ethnicites to strive for equality and justice.
- On March 28, 1968 King led ovr 7,000 sanitation workers in a strike in Memphis, Tennessee for fair wages, better benefits and improved working conditions.
- Assassinated on April 4, 1968 by a gunman as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. James Earl Ray was later arrested and convicted of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Considered the world over as the one of the greatest civil and human rights champions in history.