Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)
was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader
in the African-American civil rights movement. His main legacy
was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States,
and he has become a human rights icon: King is recognized
as a martyr by two Christian churches. A Baptist minister,
King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led
the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving
as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on
Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.
There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement.
In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive
the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation
and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other
non-violent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had
refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the
Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective. King was
assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He
was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther
King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986.
