Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King, (1929-68). US Baptist minister and leader of the Black civil rights movement. He took a PhD in theology before becoming a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. The civil-rights movement, which campaigned to end segregation, spread rapidly throughout the South and King, recognized as its leader, was twice imprisoned. In 1963 he organized a peaceful march on Washington, where his famous speech beginning ‘I have a dream’ was delivered to 200,000 people. Following the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which helped to end discrimination against Blacks, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. From 1965 King, took up the cause of poor whites and opposed US involvement in Vietnam. He was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee, by James Earl Ray, a white Southerner.
“I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land…So I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Martin Luther King. In a speech 3 April 1968. He was assassinated the following day.”
