United StatesWho was Martin Luther King Jr.?
Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929 and became a Baptist minister. He rose to national prominence leading the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-1956 and in 1957 helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, serving as its first president. He led campaigns in Birmingham, Selma and elsewhere and delivered his I Have a Dream speech at the 1963 March on Washington. In 1964 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent struggle for civil rights. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in April 1968 while supporting striking sanitation workers.
Political views
Combined the Christian doctrine of love with the Gandhian method of nonviolence, which he called one of the most potent weapons available to oppressed people.
Source: kinginstitute.stanford.eduDefended civil disobedience against laws used to uphold segregation, comparing it to the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the Boston Tea Party.
Source: kinginstitute.stanford.eduRejected calls to wait for gradual change, writing that for African Americans the word wait had almost always meant never.
Source: kinginstitute.stanford.eduCondemned the Vietnam War in 1967, arguing it harmed both America's poor and Vietnamese peasants and calling for a revolution of values.
Source: kinginstitute.stanford.eduLaunched the Poor People's Campaign to demand jobs, unemployment insurance, a fair minimum wage and education for poor adults and children.
Source: kinginstitute.stanford.eduDescribed nonviolence in his Nobel acceptance speech as the answer to the crucial political and moral question of his time.
Source: nobelprize.org
Legacy
King is one of the most widely honored figures in American history; a federal holiday bears his name, and his campaigns contributed to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Admirers across the political spectrum cite his moral leadership and commitment to nonviolence. During his lifetime many Americans viewed him unfavorably, some civil rights activists considered his approach too cautious, and newspapers and allies criticized his opposition to the Vietnam War. Historians continue to debate how his later economic demands fit his earlier civil rights agenda.
In their words
I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.