Martin Luther King Jr.
January 15, 1929 — April 4, 1968
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister, activist, and leader of the civil rights movement who, through courage, oratory, moral clarity, and an unwavering commitment to nonviolent resistance, became the most important figure in the struggle for racial equality in twentieth-century America and one of the transformative moral leaders in all of human history.
Education and Early Ministry
Born Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, he was the son and grandson of Baptist ministers. His father later changed both their names in honor of the German Protestant reformer Martin Luther. A prodigiously gifted student, he entered Morehouse College at 15 and was ordained as a Baptist minister at 18. He earned a B.A. from Morehouse, a divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in systematic theology from Boston University, where he met and married Coretta Scott. At 25 he became pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama — just as the city was about to explode into history.
Montgomery to Memphis
When Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat in December 1955, King was chosen to lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott — a 381-day campaign that ended with the Supreme Court ruling bus segregation unconstitutional and catapulted a 26-year-old minister into national leadership. As president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he led campaigns in Birmingham (met with firehoses and police dogs that shocked the nation) and in Washington, D.C., where his "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington in August 1963 remains one of the greatest orations in American history. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, becoming its youngest recipient to that point. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 followed directly from his Selma campaign.
Did You Know?
The famous "I Have a Dream" section of King's August 28, 1963, speech was largely improvised. King had delivered prepared remarks from his written text, but gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was standing nearby, called out "Tell them about the dream, Martin!" King set aside his notes and launched into the soaring, repeated phrase that would define his legacy. The "dream" passage had appeared in earlier speeches, but its delivery that day — before 250,000 people on the National Mall — became one of the defining moments of American democracy.
Assassination and Eternal Legacy
In the final years of his life, King expanded his focus to poverty and the Vietnam War, alienating some former allies but deepening his moral vision. He was in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, supporting striking sanitation workers when he was shot and killed by James Earl Ray on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. He was 39 years old. His death triggered riots in more than 100 American cities. In 1983 President Reagan signed legislation establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday, observed on the third Monday of January. The King Memorial on the National Mall was dedicated in 2011. His legacy — the insistence that justice and love are not in opposition, that dignity is not negotiable — remains as urgent as ever.