Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was an American Baptist minister and civil rights activist who played a key role in the American civil rights movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs.King was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, to Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King.

He was the middle child of three siblings. King's father was a Baptist minister and his mother was a schoolteacher. King grew up in a time when segregation was still legal in the South and African Americans were treated unfairly and discriminated against in many areas of life, including education, employment, and housing.King attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he studied theology and became deeply interested in the civil rights movement.

After completing his undergraduate degree, he enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he received a degree in divinity. He later earned a Ph.D. in theology from Boston University.In 1955, King became involved in the civil rights movement when he helped lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a protest against segregation on public buses in Montgomery, Alabama. The boycott, which lasted for more than a year, was sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks, an African American woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger. The boycott ended in 1956 when the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, King played a key role in many civil rights campaigns, including the Greensboro sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, and the Birmingham campaign. He also helped organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, in which he called for an end to racism and for civil and economic rights for African Americans.

In 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the civil rights movement. He was the youngest person to receive the award at the time.King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had gone to support a strike by sanitation workers. He was shot by James Earl Ray, a white supremacist, while standing on the balcony of his hotel room. King's death sparked nationwide riots and protests, and he became an international symbol of the civil rights movement.Today, Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered as a hero and a symbol of hope for people around the world. He is celebrated every year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday in the United States.