Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) was an American Baptist minister and civil rights activist who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs.
MLK was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, and was educated at Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University, where he earned his Ph.D. in systematic theology.
In 1955, MLK led the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a protest against the racial segregation of public buses in Montgomery, Alabama, after Rosa Parks, an African American woman, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. The boycott lasted for 385 days and ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional.
In 1957, MLK helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization that worked to end segregation and discrimination through nonviolent protest. He served as the organization's first president.
MLK is perhaps most famous for his "I Have a Dream" speech, which he delivered on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a political rally to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. In this speech, he called for an end to racism and for the realization of a society in which people would be judged by the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin.
In 1968, MLK was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, while supporting a sanitation workers' strike. He was 39 years old. His death led to nationwide mourning and riots in several cities.
MLK was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously. He is widely considered to be one of the most important and influential figures in American history and is remembered for his role in advancing civil rights and promoting racial equality
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