Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) was born in Atlanta, Georgia and studied at Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University. In 1954 he became a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. He was later co-pastor with his father of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, a church founded by his grandfather. In Montgomery in 1955, Rosa Parks, a respected member of the local NAACP, was arrested after refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger. This event followed years of mistreatment by bus drivers who had forced black riders to sit in the backs of buses. King was chosen to head the Montgomery Improvement Association, which had organized a boycott to protest the unfair practices of the bus companies. After more than a year of peaceful protests and savage attacks from white segregationists, the Supreme Court upheld a previous Federal ruling and desegregated the bus lines. King’s national stature rose and in 1957 he helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Jailed and threatened many times, King and his followers worked tirelessly to end racial discrimination. Among his many famous speeches was the “I Have a Dream” message he gave at a massive protest in Washington, D.C. in 1963. Here he shared his hopes for the civil rights movement and how it would improve the lives of all Americans. His efforts earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Sadly, as he often predicted, he was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis.
Impact: King’s application of the Christian principles of non-violence changed the social landscape of the United States.