Martin Luther King Jr.
Baptist minister and civil rights leader
Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and a leading figure of the American civil rights movement. He won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for opposing racial inequality through nonviolent resistance.
1 summary 24 min of listening
American Born 1929 in Atlanta, United States Died 1968
Influenced by Henry David Thoreau
About Martin Luther King Jr.
King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929. He oversaw the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1963 he was among the leaders of the March on Washington, where he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. He also wrote several books, including Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story and Why We Can't Wait. In his last years he widened his focus to include poverty and the Vietnam War. His life ended in an assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been observed as a federal holiday in the United States since 1986.